Developing and Using the Product Innovation Charter – Turning Corporate Strategy into An Easily Understood Action Document
By robbeachy | February 27, 2008
There’s a great Dilbert cartoon that starts with the statement, “all companies need a strategy so the employees will know what they don’t do.”
Did you know that 59% of new products launched in the market from market leaders are successful, meaning they meet their sales, market share and profitability goals?
Did you know that over 60% of all product failures in the market every year are because they failed to meet customer requirements?
What is your company’s strategy? More importantly, what is the substance, the vision, the objectives, the customers and markets your company serves and does your strategy define your tactical approach to the marketplace?
Do finance, IT, production, engineering, sales, marketing, R&D and all departments have the same vision and definition of strategy?
How much of your focus is “new to the world,” “new to the company,” “line extensions,” “response to competition” or “cost improvements?”
How much of your time should be focused on new?
What are the parameters of your market?
What are your core competencies and your core incompetencies?
Does your strategy drive product development or do ideas? Does your strategy clearly define what you do and don’t do?
According to the PDMA (Product Development and Management Association), the premier global advocate for product development and management professionals, the most successful companies lead New Product Development with Strategy.
It makes sense that we need a road map to get where we need to be. Read the rest of this entry »
Topics: New Product Development Process | No Comments »
The Importance of a Teaming Vision for Successful New Product Development
By harveyrobbins | February 27, 2008
I’ve got some good news and some bad. The bad news is that we’re lost. The good news is that we’re making great time.
The point of this old saw is that team talent, efficiency, intelligence, and clout are pretty useless unless the new product development team has some clue where it is going and how it is to contribute to the organization’s overall New Product Development strategy and process for success.
We’re talking about vision here, one of the most misunderstood and misapplied ideas making the rounds now. Vision is not a “vision statement”. It is not something created in hindsight, with an eye toward external consumption. It is not something you pay consultants $450 an hour to create for you at a weekend retreat by a warm fireplace and cash bar. It is not printed in bronze ink on a report to shareholders or in a guarantee to customers. It is not really words at all. It is a burning thought, and it exists solely in the heads (and hearts) of the team whose sole purpose is to innovate. Innovate in terms of collaborative new product development processes.
Fulfilling the vision is the thing the new product development team exists to do; defined in ambitious form. It is the thing that team leadership makes happen. Without team vision, there is no point to a new product development team. You don’t just create in a vacuum. The new product development team innovates in the direction of the organization’s vision.
Vision begins at the highest level, setting the course for the enterprise as a whole. With the help of leadership it trickles down to the new product development teams, uniting the subunits of the enterprise, creating collaboration throughout the enterprise, helping the new product development teams them figure out their role in the bigger picture. Read the rest of this entry »
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