According to Spenner, in future DMD could have designed and manufactured small hard disks for every product that operated under a microprocessor. The Spenner's idea to develop a 1.3-inch hard disk was supported and proper managerial and financial investments to fulfill the idea into practice were made. Therefore, according to Boston Group matrix DMD operating in highly growth market and obtaining low market share was to be likely transformed from a QESTION MARK company to a STAR in case of success or DOG if the whole Spenner's idea would fail. .
In that situation, developing a brand new architecture was considered to be a highly risky venture in terms of serious threat from competitors like Maxtor, Western Digital, and Seagate in area of 5.25 and 3.5-inch hard disk industry. Nevertheless, DMD was entirely supported by HP top management in terms of financing and providing appropriate personnel from other divisions. Final DMD structure consisted of three main divisions: Research and Development, Marketing, and Manufacturing, - Rick Seymour, Jeff White, and David Woito at the head correspondingly. .
From the very beginning of the project Spenner set five important objectives for the DMD 1.3-inch business line:.
1. Twelve month introduction period (time constraint);.
2. 36-month break even period;.
3. $100 million revenue obtained in 2 years after launch;.
4. Be the first 1.3-inch hard disk drive in the market;.
5. To have annual revenue growth rate at 35%.
Therefore, for Kittyhawk management the primary task was to discover the ways to accomplish into practice Spenner's 5 objectives. The major interesting feature of the Kittyhawk development was that manufacturer initially was not creating a product in accordance with market demand but in potential market needs (important characteristic of technology: to forecast potential demand and act accordingly).
Marketing manager of DMD started to search for 1.
