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Case #19
“Fastlane Technologies Incorporated”
Ivy School of Business Case #9A98A006
Academic instructors who are registered with the Harvard
Business School Publishing’s website (http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu)
may download the Teaching Note # 8A98A06 (August 12, 1998) for
this case free of charge.
ABSTRACT
Two entrepreneurs quit government jobs to strike out on their
own. The young company they formed was on a high growth curve,
it was relatively unknown, and they were quite inexperienced.
TEACHING OBJCTIVES
The objective of teaching this case is to outline the
business issues faced by leaders of technology companies.
Examples of these issues include: (1) business models – making
SUGGESTED QUESTIONS FOR CLASSROOM DISCUSSION
1. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the company?
Explain.
2. What are the key marketing issues Fastlane faced? Elaborate
the factors affecting these issues.
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ANALYSIS
1. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the company?
Explain.
The company strengths include: (a) very advanced
technologies (FINAL, Flyte), (b) business opportunities
associated with the conversion of BAYAN VINES to Windows NT,
2. What are the key marketing issues Fastlane faced? Elaborate
the factors affecting these issues.
The company faced the following key marketing issues: (a)
Product – positioning the company’s products – the language or
application tools; (b) Distribution – selecting a direct or
direct competition.
3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of focusing on
language versus application tools when selecting a product
strategy?
One very important decision to make is whether to focus the
company’s product offering on language products or on
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A. Language (FINAL)
The advantages for language tools are: (a) the user can
create application tools to solve specific problems, (b)
independent software developers can write application tools for
sales, (c) programmers tend to stay with a language they are
B. Application Tool (FLYTE)
Marketing applications tools also has its advantages and
disadvantages. The advantages are: (a) it can solve an immediate
problem the customer has, (b) it is easy to sell because of its
C. Class Consensus
The class I taught at the University of Buffalo in Spring
Semester 2003 took a vote. 12 students were for applications
4. What is the best channel strategy for Fastlane? Substantiate
your choice.
The choice is either direct or indirect distribution. An
indirect distribution would involved global system integrators
(such as IBM, Digital, EDS, Compaq, and Microsoft) and/or the
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A. Direct
The major advantage of going direct is that the company would
remain in direct contact with customers to gain useful feedback
B. Indirect
Going indirect has a few advantages: (a) it taps into the
existing customer base of integrators/VARs, (b) it makes use of
highly skilled people the integrators/VARs have, (c) it has
C. Why would IBM/EDS want to work with Fastlane?
Fastlane needs to understand and motivate the global system
integrators properly; some motivating reasons are: (a) its money
distribution, pricing, etc.) of Fastlane.
D. Additional Opportunities
The company should consider the following additional avenues
to promote its products and to decrease costs:
(a) Use contract programmers (e.g., in India, the Philippines) to
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5. What are the lessons to be learned from this case?
This case provides a good overview of what it takes to lead a
start-up company. As the leading sentence in Chapter 9,
“Marketing Management for Engineering Managers,” reads:
“Companies have essentially two major activities: marketing and