Hiring for brand versus for skill in outsourcing prototype development for patents / Mark Juszczak.
This case is presented from the point of view of Laura-Anne, a bridging consultant who works to bring together angel investors and start-up inventors. Laura-Anne has been hired by John Larson, an angel investor in New York, who has been working with an inventor, Earl Fitch, in Texas for the past thr...
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| Format: | Ebook |
| Language: | English |
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London :
SAGE Publications: SAGE Business Cases Originals,
2023.
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| Series: | SAGE business cases
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | SAGE |
| Summary: | This case is presented from the point of view of Laura-Anne, a bridging consultant who works to bring together angel investors and start-up inventors. Laura-Anne has been hired by John Larson, an angel investor in New York, who has been working with an inventor, Earl Fitch, in Texas for the past three years. Earl Fitch has developed a laboratory-scale prototype of a highly modified extruder that can be used to refine pyrolytic oil (an artificial type of crude oil usually made from organic waste) into jet fuel. John Larson has hired Laura-Anne because he has had difficulty in fund management with Earl. Earl is a stand-alone inventor, who has gotten the technology to a point where it works in the lab but does not have the ability to estimate or manage developing a commercial-scale version that is ready for the market.Laura-Anne feels strongly that the development of a commercial-scale prototype needs to be outsourced to a professional company that specializes in prototyping. Earl, on the other hand, is convinced that this approach is wrong. He firmly believes that it will be faster and cheaper to hire a stand-alone graduate student or expert who has deep knowledge in computer simulation and who can develop the commercial prototype using computer simulation software instead of going through a process of iterative prototyping. Laura-Anne feels that this approach is too risky and that a strong brand name in prototyping is necessary if the company is going to be able to convince more investors to fund development of this technology. Both options present challenges, and both reflect a fundamental problem often faced in technology development: hiring outside experts because of brand (big company, big name) versus hiring individual experts who have demonstrated specific skills needed for the job. |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource. |
| ISBN: | 9781529621716 1529621712 |