had a history of providing innovative solutions to complex problems. One of the more recent of IBM’s innovations is its server technology. IBM is widely known for producing high quality and powerful servers for a variety of businesses, including retail, manufacturing, finance, distribution, health, legal, transportation, insurance and education (www.ibm.com/servers/). IBM produces dozens of different types of servers comprising five separate categories: AS/400, Netfinity, NUMA-Q, RS/6000, and S/390. These servers are sold in more than 120 countries and can run on over 49 different languages (www.ibm.com/servers). They are adaptable to multiple platforms, and are compatible with thousands of software programs. During the past several years, IBM has spent billions of dollars incorporating the most advanced technological capabilities into its servers. IBM prides itself on its reputation for providing powerful and versatile servers that are reliable and easy to use (www.as400.ibm.com/overview/tourebiz.htm). Stage in Selling ProcessWe will begin the selling process at Stage 2: Determining Customer Needs. In this scenario, Nidec has been selling cooling fans to IBM’s server division for several months. In the process of servicing the cooling fan sale, we will discuss the current industry environment with the decision makers at IBM and determine if our spindle motors can help IBM solve its development and cost problems.Challenges and NeedsIBM’s main challenge is to accelerate the development process of servers and lower the cost of this process. For the past three years, IBM has struggled to maintain market share in the server industry (see Figure 1). During this time, Seagate has consistently brought new servers to market two quarters before IBM introduces comparable products. Seagate is also able to introduce its servers at a lower price, usually 20 percent lower than IBM. Engineers at IBM blame this problem on a disorga...
