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Case Study

Cisco India (B): Bootstrapping for innovation

By Charles Dhanaraj, Ivy Buche, Rishikesha T. Krishnan and Srivardhini Jha

7 pages

June 2015

Reference: IMD-7-1658

Case A describes the challenges a multinational corporation, Cisco Systems Inc., faces in an emerging market in developing new products specific to local needs. Case B describes the journey undertaken by Dr Ishwardutt Parulkar and his team in developing the Advanced Services Router (ASR) 901 – from idea to launch in 2011. The case helps to identify key success factors for new product development through a decentralized R&D model in emerging markets and to recognize the importance of the ecosystem for successful innovation.

Learning Objective

1) Identify key challenges in developing a mainstream product from concept to completion in an emerging market. 2) Understand essential factors for building subsidiary R&D capabilities for mainstream product development. 3) Introduce the Technology Champion framework, which serves to bring out innovation aspirations in a subsidiary R&D team.

Keywords

Research and Development, Network, Innovation, Emerging Country, Strategy, Subsidiary Company, Research, Capability, Headquarter, Relationship, Prototype, Bootstrapping, Resource Allocation, Product Development

Settings

Asia, India
Cisco Systems, Services, Business Management Services, Communication, Manufacturing, Technology, Information Technology, Information Services
2011–2014

Available Languages

English

Related material

Teaching note, Video

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This case study is part of a series

Cisco India (A): Innovation in emerging markets
Cisco India (B): Bootstrapping for innovation

This case study is part of a series

Cisco India (A): Innovation in emerging markets
Cisco India (B): Bootstrapping for innovation

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