Are the Marines Inventing the Edsel or the Mustang?
May 27, 2022
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Ford Motor Company’s development of the Edsel 60 years ago still stands as a classic corporate case study of transformative product failure. The Marine Corps, a $50 billion dollar enterprise, has introduced its own futuristic product — an explicitly defensive island-hopping “Stand-In Force” capable of reconnoitering and sinking warships in order to support naval campaigns. To pay for it, the Marine Corps intends to cut its main product line — infantry supported by artillery, armor, and air — by about 25 percent.
More than 70 percent of corporate transformations fail. The Marine Corps is not a corporation, but critical principles of change management still apply.
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