Case Name :      Fisk Alloy Wire and Percon

Authors :           Susan F. Sieloff, Raymond M. Kinnunen

Source :             North American Case Research Association (NACRA)

Case ID :            NA0013

Discipline :        Entrepreneurship

Case Length :    17 pages

Solution sample availability : YES

Plagiarism : NO (100% Original work)

Fisk Alloy Wire was a privately-owned specialty wire mill with facilities in Hawthorne, NJ and Oriskany, NY. The business focused on the development and manufacture of copper alloy wire for electronic components and conductors. Fisk Alloy had developed a copper alloy wire that was cadmium free (cadmium was a known carcinogen affecting both processing and disposal), but also met the characteristics of strength, conductivity, and elongation that defined a high performance wire. The product family, called Percon, was introduced into the market about the time the European Union passed the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (‘RoHS’) and the related Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (‘WEEE’) directives. The total market potential for Percon was not really known, since it could potentially be used in a broad variety of applications. Fisk Alloy was determined to be the best in its niche of the industry, but not necessarily the biggest. Management recognized that determining how to grow, slowly and opportunistically or more aggressively, would require balancing the market opportunities with the realities of capacity and related production issues.