BUS 263 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

BUS 263 - Essay Example According to the CPSC (Murray), there is a total cost of up to $3,100 over 15 years for a table saw whose original costs may be only $100 to $300. This cost takes into account (1) direct medical costs, but more importantly (2) legal costs for the inevitable lawsuits which surface over bodily injury. What is not counted in the cost is the legal expense incurred by the manufacturers, even if they win the case. In the past, Quik-Cut could argue in personal-injury cases that its customers were using state-of-the-art technology at their own risk. In the future, the company has fewer legal arguments. Even if it chooses to offer the stop technology at an additional price, there is a risk that the jury would find Quik-Cut liable for not installing the innovation on all of its products. The president of Quik-Cut has a choice at present: embrace the technology and seek a competitive advantage for a period of time, or work with the rest of the industry to stonewall the invention, at least for a period of time. A third alternative—design around it—may or may not work. Design around It: The company would develop its own technology, but that would take time and perhaps expertise that the company doesn’t have. In addition, if a competitor introduced the technology prior to Quik-Cut bringing it to market, the company may face the same legal dilemma it faces today. Stonewall the invention. This would require that all the manufacturers—large and small—hew to the industry line. If Quik-Cut and its competitors chose not to introduce the invention, they could construct a case on technical merits illustrating why the technology was not yet ready to be implemented. The two dangers to this strategy are (1) there could be a later discovery procedure as a part of a product-liability lawsuit that could reveal the industry’s