Harvard Case Study Crescordia

Key Issues

            Crescordia is a surgical tool and accessories company that is at a crossroads of sorts. For years they have produced high quality goods, which has led to some surgeons only using their products. But now there is a "new" technology that is gaining ground in the market. This new technology is "resorbables" which are dissolving plates and screws and other accessories. These would be made out of biodegradable polymers, which would “disappear" into the body. This would make the healing process less painful and let the surgeons only have to perform one surgery. The only problem with resorbables is that after 20 years of testing the resorbables are not as useful and reliable as they should be! In trials they "tended to fail 8% of the time."  Another problem is one of Crescordias rivals has been selling resorbables and is gaining some of Crescordias market share. Should Crescordia produce a lower quality item so that they will not lose any business to rivals, but risk their name and reputation, which could get tarnished with producing and selling a sub par product?

 Drivers of Tension

            I think the largest driver of tension is the differing opinions on manufacturing resorbables; some employees want resorbables on the market, even if they are not safe. For instance Jane LaMott who is the vice president of sales, had noted that some of "Crescordias top tier accounts had placed substantial orders with Innostat."(Innostat is a competitor that is producing marginally useful resobables products.) Jane also brought up the fact that those companies that were trying out the resorbables were not just buying resorbables with Innostat they were also buying equivalent plates, and screws from them as well. Peter Walsh CEO of the Company was worried about this and thought that even having a limited resorabable option on the market could help prevent market share erosion. But Rob Bond the Chief Operating Officer said that they couldn't do a "small scale" launch for the product, because it would be too expensive. The only way to launch resorbables is to do a full-scale production with screws, plates and educational teachings for the surgeons.

 Chief marketer Diane Robinson thinks otherwise, she believes that Crescordias market share is based on quality, and if they launched a subpar product this could jeopardize surgeons trust in their other product lines. Another dissenting opinion was CFO Calvin Westbrook, who liked the idea of Crescordia being the first to get resobables right, but he also knew that in a way since no one was making headway in the field there was no need to “usher out a golden era”

            While some were thinking about dollars others like Gary Miskman is thinking about the product itself. Gary is the head of Research and Development and he said they had done as much product testing as they could in the lab for resobables. He said "We're not going to know what we need to know to make the product better until we get it out in the field." Some like Sam Maddox who gives legal consul didn't seem too thrilled at the prospect of using below standard products on the elderly or children and use them as guinea pigs. He thought it was a lawsuit waiting to happen.

 Launch or not launch?

            I think they should launch, but with a few conditions. I believe the resobables are best suited for children and older adults. I think that the company should first send out an informative packet and questionnaire to all of their customers and view their onions. The informative packet would highlight the potential pitfalls of the current resobables and highlight the possible advantages. The questionnaire could include questions such as “What age bracket of patients would you use this one?” Or “would the 8% failure rate deter you from using our product?” Etc. etc.