Abstract
A new discovery from Prof. Yet-Ming Chiang’s lab at MIT has the potential to
revolutionize the lithium-ion battery industry, an industry key to portable
electronics, power tools, hybrid-electric automobiles, etc. Rather than license
the technology, Chiang founded a new company to commercialize the technology.
They discovered problems as they transitioned the science from the lab to
production. The executive team must decide whether to shoot for the
revolutionary goals which would require further development or choose more
modest approaches that would bring them to production earlier. Their battles are
against very large competitors located in Asia, and now particularly in China.
A copy of the case can be obtained from Lisa Noonan.
Kent Bowen will lead a 30-minute discussion of the A123Systems case, followed by a discussion by Prof. Yet-Ming Chiang on how the team solved the case dilemma and the general problems with commercializing bench science.
Prof. Chiang is the Kyocera Professor of Ceramics, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to founding A123Systems, he was a co-founder of American Superconductor.