Improving your Idea-to-Launch Process: Is the Effort Really Worth It?
By Michelle Jones, Executive Vice-President of Stage-Gate Inc.

Fortunately, building a high performance idea-to-launch process is only a little more difficult than building a bad one. Mediocre or poor processes exist simply because the builder(s) was unaware how little separates a good process from a bad one. What is truly inspiring however is the significant difference in the performance results that can be achieved – it pays to build a high quality process and there is much evidence to support this.

Consider these well researched and widely documented facts on just some of the performance levels achieved by companies using a high performance Stage-Gate^® Idea-to-Launch Process:
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A must-have resource in Portfolio Management

In today’s business climate, where speed to market is paramount and there is no margin for error, companies who fail to excel at new products have very little chance of survival. Companies who live and die by their products need better tools for aligning product development to strategy to ensure that resources are deployed efficiently from idea-to-launch across the full range of products.

In the comprehensive and authoritative book, “Portfolio Management for New Products” dives into the rigorous and practical approach to managing a company’s product portfolio as you would a financial portfolio- investing for maximum long-term growth. With its field-tested, step-by-step framework, the book provides managers and executives with new strategies to assess and realign their current R&D operations; determine which products are most worthy of resource allocation; design and implement a portfolio management process; maximize the value of their portfolios; and recognize and solve challenges as they arise. Current research, new insights on gathering and analyzing data; and showcases the practices of product market leaders, including Pfizer, 3M, Caterpillar, Mobil Chemical, and Reckitt- Benckiser.

Individual Copy $44.00 US (Order today)

SEMINARS AND EVENTS

How do you measure your productivity?

Management measures the performance of NPD projects against profits and sales objectives. But just how do businesses rate on these metrics? The fact that, in the average business, just better than 50% of projects meet their objectives means that a sizable proportion of projects are falling short. This result should be unacceptable for most senior executives. Consider the distribution of results: the top 20% of businesses on these metrics obtain much better results, with three-quarters of their projects meeting objectives.

LEAN, RAPID AND PROFITABLE NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Improving your Productivity -  LAST CHANCE!
Date: Wednesday July 18 - Thursday July 19, 2007 in  Atlanta, GA

To learn more and streamline your idea to launch process attend the 2-day seminar LEAN, RAPID AND PROFITABLE NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT led by Dr. Robert Cooper in Atlanta, GA (10 miles from Atlanta airport) on July 18-19, 2007.  This seminar will show you how to determine the performance level of your current process, spot the most common time wasters and implement the seven key principles of Lean, Rapid and Profitable NPD. If you want to right-size your idea-to-launch framework, and allow for a flexible and scalable process then this seminar is one you don’t want to miss.

DEVELOPING A PRODUCT INNOVATION STRATEGY AND DECIDING YOUR NEW PRODUCT PORTFOLIO Making Strategic Choices and Picking the Winners
Date:  Tuesday September 25 - Wednesday September 26, 2007 in Chicago, IL

Picking the right development projects and platforms to invest in is at the heart of successful product innovation

   

GENERATING BREAKTHROUGH NEW PRODUCT IDEAS Feeding the Innovation Funnel
Date:  Wednesday October 10 - October 11, 2007 in New York City, NY