Question

Find an example of an actual product failure.

(a) Explain why did it occur? EV [10 Marks]                                                                                          

(b) What was the root cause of the failure? AN [5Marks]                                                                                          

(c) What were the consequences? AP [5 Marks]

Answer 1

The withdrawal of a product from the market for any reason or the inability of a product to achieve the anticipated life cycle as defined by the organization due to any reason is called Product failure. About 30 to 45% of new products fail to deliver any meaningful financial return.

a) HP TouchPad was an example of an actual product failure.

The HP TouchPad was one of the shortest-lived mobile products ever produced. HP had barely gotten its feet wet in the smartphone and tablet business before it decided to pull the plug in 2011.

1) It's misjudged Apple:  Like too many other companies in the mobile market, HP failed to realize that Apple's popularity in the mobile space was not going to slow down anytime soon. The company seemed to believe that after the iPad 2 stayed on store shelves for a while and the iPhone 5 continued to be delayed, it could capitalize on impatient would-be Apple buyers. But that never happened. Instead, those folks just bought Apple products and HP lost.

2) It didn't play the Android games -  One of the biggest mistakes HP made was not accepting Android. Like it or not, in today's mobile market, Android is the operating system that every vendor (except for Apple and Microsoft) should be using. It's a mobile OS that people know and trust, and it has been proven to sell quiet well in the mobile space. To double down on WebOS was a mistake.

3) WebOS wasn't appealing-- ​​​​WebOS itself simply wasn't all that appealing. The operating system lacked enough third_party applications to attract consumers, and it's functionality was simply too different from iOS and Android for customers to give it a second look. What's more, the operating system wasn't really known outside of tech circles, putting it at a disadvantage from the beginning.

4) The TouchPad was a mistake -

HP's TouchPad tablet was a mistake from the very beginning. As mentioned, it was running WebOS, which already put it at a disadvantage. Combine that with the fact that HP made the device look awfully iPad-like, complete with a similar design, identical price tag and the same screen size, and it quickly becomes clear that it didn't have much of a shot to start with. Devices like the Samsung galaxy Tab 10.1 are doing well because they're different enough from the iPad 2 to justify a purchase.

5) The smartphones were boring.

HP's lineup of smartphones simply wasn't all that interesting. The Pre and the Pixi lines were also-ranks that neither consumers nor enterprise users even cared about. What's more, they featured small displays, sub-par functionality and designs that seemed rather derivative from other vendor's older earlier models. They contributed heavily to the decline of HP's mobile business.

b) The root cause of HP TouchPad failure was the flawed software. The software is called WebOS, an operating system built on the same technology used by many Web browsers. It promised to be more flexible and open than Apple's tightly controlled iOS software, and more beautiful than Google's sometimes wonky Android system. HP acquired Palm, the maker of WebOS, for $1.2 billion in 2010 so it could use the software in products like the TouchPad.

WebOS turned to be something of a toxic asset as there was little hope for the software from the beginning, because the way it was built was so deeply flawed.

c) ​​​​The consequences of HP TouchPad failure  ​​​​​​

The TouchPad tablet from HP was one of the most closely watched new gadgets of 2011 and quickly turned out to be the year's biggest flop. The TouchPad, which was supposed to be a rival to Apple's iPad, lasted just seven weeks on the market before HP killed it, citing weak sales. The consequences of a product failure are as follows:

1) Poor Morale: If failures are not appropriately addressed, they may linger in the workplace and never fully disappear; everyone knows something negative happened, but nobody wants to address it. But successful leaders recognize the value of facing failure head on and having an open discussion that can yield insights on how to deal with similar problems in the future.

2) Office Tension: When failures aren't analyzed or reviewed, people have a tendency to either openly or subtly blame others. Failures and fault are virtually inseparable in most households organizations, cultures. Every person learns at some point that admitting failure means taking the blame. That is why few organizations have shifted to a culture of psychological safety in which the rewards of learning from failure can be fully realized..

3) Lack of Learning : We learn more from our failures than we do from our successes. Ignoring our failures is almost certain to result in our perpetuating them, but analyzing our failures can provide us with knowledge that will help us prevent such failures in the future. In other words, failure teaches us what didn’t work.

4) Risk Aversion: If failures are not addressed properly, it can cause organizations and their employees to become risk-averse and to miss out on potentially lucrative opportunities. Some amount of failures is virtual certainty in business, but what’s important is that we handle this failure properly and use the experience to improve.