Abstract
During the past twenty-five years, the Priorat region in northern Spain has developed its capabilities and reputation as a wine-producing region. A group of winery owners in the region played a crucial role in transforming the Priorat region which has earned them the nickname of the ‘Magnificent Five.’ Although the ‘Magnificent Five’ have traditionally been competitors, a new product development project between the ‘Magnificent Five’ has been proposed. The case focuses on the process through which competing winery owners try to come together to make decisions about the collaboration project to develop the new product. Decisions to be made include the headquarters of the project, the marketing approach and expenditures, the type and quality of the oak barrels to be used, and whether newcomers should be allowed to join the ‘Magnificent Five’. All partners of the coopetitive new venture started their first meeting with great enthusiasm, but as the meeting progressed it became clearer that reaching consensus on seemingly trivial issues would be more difficult than initially expected. Thirty minutes into the meeting, the partners begun to question whether developing this new product was a good idea.
Highlights
OF EL PRIORAT AND THE MAGNIFICENT FIVEIn the mid-1980s, a group of adventurers passionate about viticulture staked out a corner of Spain’s Western Catalonia region in remote El Priorat to produce wines
The Magnificent Five, as they were affectionately called amongst Spaniards, celebrated the 25th anniversary i of their first successes ii
The Magnificent Five did not do it entirely alone; they used some availed themselves of the traditional winegrowers in the region who remained farming the old vines despite economic hardships
Summary
In the illuminated ruins of the 12th century Scala Dei Monastery, the men and women of Priorat’s original wine commune gathered in the autumn of 2014 to pay homage and celebrate their achievements. Ten bottles of Priorat wine were symbolically opened as they toasted the past and talked about the future. Even in the geographically limited region of Priorat, nearly 200 wineries competed in 2014 compared to the original four wineries in 1986. A few days after the party, Francesc Capafons-Osso, a veteran winemaker who had taken the role of the group’s father figure, summoned the Magnificent Five winemakers and proposed a project that would gather their experience and professionalism to produce a new, competitive product. Could the “Magnificent Five” band together to launch a unified brand? Could these high-end winemakers from remote Priorat leverage their individual brands and historical bond to create a synergy? To create a wine that was the best of each of them?
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