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Skyline’s WindScape®: Radical Innovation in a Mature Industry

Lisa M. Lindgren
November 1, 2015
SKU:
BUS-004790
Region: 
North America
Topic: 
Marketing & Sales, Strategy & General Management
Length: 
8 pages
Keywords: 
Innovation, launch, marketing communications strategy, restructure, new product development, radical innovation
Student Price: 
$4.00 (€3.7)
Average rating: 
0

This descriptive case describes the journey of Skyline Exhibits, a worldwide market leader in the trade show display industry, as it created and launched a dramatic innovation in its industry. The industry was shifting due to competitive pressures from Asian suppliers and the internet. An idea of an inflatable display system was suggested at an off-site meeting to discuss potential radical innovations. The team worked over a period of eight years to eventually design a new system that would meet the fit-and-finish expectations of the company’s customers and dealer network. The case describes some common problems faced by market leaders and incumbents in an industry when they are attempting to create a radical innovation that could fundamentally change an industry.

Learning Outcomes: 
  1. Assess the risks to a market leader of introducing a radical innovation to the market
  2. Analyze the internal tensions and frictions between departments (internal) and between the company and other stakeholders (external) during the development and introduction of a radical innovation
  3. Compare and contrast the challenges of product development projects and technology development projects
  4. Examine the unique challenges of gaining customer information and filtering that information for a radical innovation
  5. Evaluate the effectiveness of the global launch of a radical innovation