Action Learning
Innovation
Crafting a marketing plan for new health-monitoring device
By
When the Mitsubishi Electric Innovation Center (MELIC) needed a go-to market strategy for a new hardware-software AI camera, they relied on MIT Sloan Action Learning IDEA Lab students Adil Bahadoor and Amre Nouh.
The pair of Executive MBA students devised a marketing plan for fledgling device HealthCam, which monitors the body’s vital signs from a distance using photoplethysmography (PPG), an optical measurement method often used to capture heart rate. A working prototype of HealthCam enables people to stand in front of the camera scanner and see their current body temperature, respiration rate, blood oxygenation, and heart rate within 10 seconds. Ideally, this technology could be used in nursing homes and other settings where health surveillance is necessary.
The project required Bahadoor and Nouh to harness skills sharpened at MIT Sloan, making their education all the more gratifying. They identified ideal market segments, proposed pricing architecture, and forecasted a 10-year growth strategy.
“This was an exciting challenge in that it was a serious innovation that required the whole gamut of frameworks and tactics that we were learning in the Executive MBA program: everything from data modeling, operations, system dynamics, marketing, finance, and Bill Aulet’s famous 24 steps,” says Bahadoor, referring to Martin Trust Center Director Aulet’s signature entrepreneurship framework.
Their project was successful, drawing attention within the upper echelons of management.
“Our recommendations were well-received by our host, and word about the quality of our work made its way up to the CEO of Mitsubishi Electric US, Inc.,” he says.
Equally important, Bahadoor says he felt their work made a true impact on the organization.
“Our work opened the doors toward an array of highly probable markets that had previously not been envisioned, but it also critically identified a beachhead market along with the reasons why. Our work also informed R&D on key product revisions that would be required given the market research and feedback we received,” he says.
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Overall, Bahadoor and Nouh say their project with MELIC encapsulated the richest parts of their MIT Sloan education.
This was one of the best experiences of the entire program. This work felt like a culmination of all the new learnings we had gathered throughout the program, and it was fulfilling to see ourselves put all of it into practice on a real, serious project.
