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Hp – Flight of the Kittyhawk

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In 1992, Hewlett Packard (HP) launched a technical innovation, the Kittyhawk, the smallest hard drive in the world at the time. The Kittyhawk development project had leadership support, decentralized project structure, and the financial/technical backing on HP. Despite these strengths the Kittyhawk had marginal success in the market with sales below estimated targets. The challenges the Kittyhawk development team had to overcome included difficulty identifying the correct market and an ambitious project deadline. The accumulation of missed opportunities within the Kittyhawk development project led to a revolutionary product with a much higher price point than many customers were willing to pay.
The key strengths in structure of the Kittyhawk development team can be traced to two major elements: senior leadership team support and financial/technical backing of HP in addition to a decentralized project structure. Two very senior and well-respected leaders within HP, Bruce Spenner and Dick Hackborn as well as the CEO, Lew Platt, supported the Kittyhawk project. Their support made Kittyhawk a priority and the project was therefore able to obtain valuable needed resources, including the most exceptional employees from the Disk Memory Division (DMD) as well as other divisions within HP. Throughout the entire development phase of the Kittyhawk project, its importance was reinforced with regular visits from Lew Platt.
To complement senior leadership’s support the Kittyhawk project also financial/technical backing of HP, a successful high-tech company. HP’s leadership committed unparalled financial and technical resources to the Kittyhawk project to enable its success. Kittyhawk benefited from innovations brought about by other parts of the DMD business, including the integration of Kittyhawk’s electronics that allowed it to “use less power, be lighter, and be

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