Smal Big: Smal Camera Technologies

¶ … SMaL Big: SMaL Camera Technologies Startup companies have to make very important choices throughout their first few years in the business. Developing and selling the right product are only the first steps in the challenging business world that companies face today. SMaL Camera Technologies was a startup company that produced highly innovative technology capabilities for cameras. Though they had a very good product and did very well in their first year of sales, they eventually ran into challenging choices that could affect the entire future of the company.

Faced with challenging decisions early in its beginning stages the company made several poor decisions that steered them away from possible opportunities. "SMaL Camera Technologies produced a technology that allowed a camera to use minimal battery life during usage, and improved the image capabilities of the camera through a technology called Autobright" (Christensen, 351). Autobright would allow a camera to adjust an image to changing light conditions so that a picture will not come out too light or too dark.

With this technology they developed a very small camera called the Ultra-Pocket which showed huge opportunities for growth, because no one in the market could provide both capabilities. The only problem the company faced is that the quality of the picture could not meet the current expectations in the market due to the size of the camera. SMaL's camera can be categorized as a disruptive technology because it is cheaper, lower quality, and provides a different function in comparison to the market.

Therefore, when faced with disruptive technologies companies feel like they need to improve in order to survive, and that's the situation in which SMaL Camera Technologies appears to have been in 2003. Early in its development, the company was forced to make a decision that it was not ready for and reacted without enough information. Advisors of the company wanted fast growth and large amounts of capital to be produced by a very small company.

If the advisors and the CEO of the company knew that they had a disruptive technology in their hands, they would have known that this would not be possible. The company had ideas of venturing into the consumer camera market, the security and surveillance market, and the automobile market. Due to constant pressure from advisors the company did not pursue any of these ideas. Instead, the company decided to sell their technology as kits to manufacturers who then provided the camera to the end user.

This was done in order to gain revenue and minimize costs in order to provide the capital that advisors wanted. The company should have searched for a different market to place their slim Ultra Pocket camera, instead of dismissing it. Since this camera was considered a disruptive technology it would not be able to compete in the mainstream market, but there would have been other consumers that could have benefited from the product.

Ultimately the problem was that the company made a very difficult decision in its developmental stage without fully understanding the type of technology they had, and how that would affect the market's response to the product. The company should have found a different set of consumers to sell their camera too rather than forcing a product to the mainstream market that didn't want change. Another problem that the company faced was the lack of resources and money to take on multiple projects in a short period of time.

The company wanted to move too fast for its size and was trying to venture into more than one market at a time. The company had a good plan which was to "enter the consumer space to become more efficient and later the security and surveillance market to develop their engineering and technology capabilities, to finally enter the large automobile market" (Christensen, 352). The plan is thought out but the time required to pass each step was not.

The company wanted to get through each step too fast and failed to realize that it was not possible giving the size of the company. Once they saw that their product was successful in Japan and that their kits were selling, they should have dedicated their small amount of resources and money towards improving their product.

The company failed to realize that even though their camera and kits were not meeting the demands of the mainstream market, as do all disruptive technologies, the company would eventually develop the capabilities of the current market's product and imbed them into their innovative product and take over the mainstream market by surprise. The company's eagerness to move up caused them to cut down resources that could have been used to develop more capabilities; which were instead used to development of security and surveillance cameras.

Due to the many needs that the company's technology can fulfill, and because of competitors, SMaL Camera Technologies needs to make a decision regarding their future. The options are to "develop their current technology, pursue the camera and surveillance market, try and tackle the automobile market, enter the phone market, or do something completely different" (Christensen, 360). If the company had to make a quick decision the best choice would be the phone industry.

The quality standards of camera phones are much lower than the consumer camera market, and the cell phone industry is growing and technologically advancing. Phones are smaller and would be a great match for their product. Although that is a suggestion, the company needs to make the best decision which needs more deliberation. In order to make the best decision the company needs to perform an assessment on its capabilities and analyze what is required to succeed in each market.

Clearly the company cannot chose to take on more than one of these options because they only have a small amount of employees, resources, and capital. This company has not developed a clear strategy and therefore they find it difficult to make a strategic decision, let along any decision. With no clear path to follow the company cannot move forward. SMaL Camera Technologies needs to assess its employees, resources, technological capabilities, and market opportunities.

The company has an idea of its current state but they do not know where to go from there. The main problem with moving forward is the same problem the company has faced since day one; lack of resources. The company wants to find a market with "high volumes and return with low engineering development" (Christensen, 363). This type of plan requires time because the product will be at a lower cost than competitors which requires higher sales. In order to make this clear to the entire company SMaL Camera.