Psion Limited
Subject
Organisational Behaviour
Publication Year
1995
Abstract
In December 1983, Dr David Potter, founder, principal shareholder and Chief Executive of Psion Ltd was considering whether to commit £1 million to the full scale production of a hand-held computer which his company had recently developed. The product, named Organiser, had taken a year and £200,000 to develop to the point where it was ready for commercial scale manufacture and distribution. Potter believed the product would address a substantial unfilled niche as a portable database in the rapidly developing microcomputer market. However, Potter had little feel for the number of units Psion could expect to sell. If the product proved unsuccessful, most or all of the £1.2 million spent on it could be lost. Psion, founded in 1980, had just had another year of record sales and profits. However, in 1982 the company had embarked on a significant change in direction. Partly as a consequence, the immediate trading outlook for 1984 was less certain. Against this background, was it sensible to commit Psion to launching the Organiser?
Topic List
Entreprenuership, Opportunity Assessment, Growth
Industry
Electronics
Publication Event Date
1981-1983
LBS Case Number
CS-94-010-02
Location
UK
Project Funder
ESRC
Publication Research Centre
Institute of Finance and Accounting
Supervisor
JOHNSON, R M
Available on ECCH
No
