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New products management (4th edition)
J PROD INNOV MANAG 1994; 11:367-378
367
0000
Book Reviews Book Review Editors: Milton D. Rosenau, Jr., CMC, and Robert R. Rothberg
Our coverage opens with a review of the fourth edition of C. Merle Crawford's book, which continues the comprehensive coverage of previous editions while adding important topics. The next review discusses the second edition of Robert Cooper's book. This new book updates his exposition of success and failure determinants, and reemphasizes the utility of a stage-gate development process. The third review comments on a long-term study of five innovative high technology firms. The review identifies five critical lessons for other similar firms. This is followed by the positive review of a recent book co-authored by one of the book review editors. Appropriately, this review was managed by Thomas Hustad, without any contact with its authors. The fifth review examines a book that combines two modern,popular management tools. The reviewer finds that these can be useful for product developers. Next, another reviewer comments favorably on a recent textbook that emphasizes the value creation process associated with effective product development and management practices. The seventh describes a book that examines and contrasts international practices. Although the material comes from a 1990 conference, our reviewer concludes that it still provides important lessons. The eighth review covers a strategy book. The book has some useful information but will be of limited help to most practitioners. The ninth review discusses a book about change and the need for organizational modification. Our reviewer feels it is of limited value to practitioners but will be of interest to academics. The reviews conclude with brief notes about three other books. © 1994 Elsevier Science Inc. 655 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10010
New Products Management (4th Edition), by C. Merle Crawford. Boston: Irwin, 1994. 495 + xxvii pages.
This fourth edition of one of the most respected and comprehensive textbooks on the development and management of new products is useful to both practitioners and advanced undergraduate and graduate students. Written in a clear and friendly style, it covers every facet of new products management from the integration of new product development into strategic planning, through all stages of product development from concept generation and evaluation, through technical development to full commercialization. It is well-illustrated with figures, tables, and graphs. Key points are illuminated by up-to-date case histories, and the whole text is supported by generous references to both the academic and practitioner literature. Although from its earlier editions this textbook has evolved from a marketing perspective, the fourth edition puts heavy emphasis on the importance of teamwork in the development of new products. Among the basic principles on which the book is based are (paraphrased): Product innovation is one single operation in an organization. It has parts (strategy, teams, plans, etc.) but they are all just parts. Any operation that runs as separate pieces misses the strength of the whole. There are no standard sets of new product development procedures for makers of consumer package goods, consumer durables, industrial goods, services, and so on. 0737-6782/94/$7.00
368
J PROD INNOV MANAG 1994; 11:367-378
•
New product strategy should rest on a base of both technology and market, all of the time.
Innovation is the most complex social process in business, involving people from many different disciplines, from all levels of the organization from top management down to sales representatives and lab technicians, and involving long timeframes and unusually high levels of uncertainty. Adding in the egos of senior managers, entrepreneurial product champions, and creative inventors and designers, it can be seen why managing new products programs is one of the most challenging, sometimes frustrating, and yet most rewarding roles in business. Business is organized and managed to produce and deliver products and services of appropriate quality in an efficient, reliable, timely, and cost-effective manner. Discipline, control, and predictability are important. The goal of innovation, on the other hand, is to produce something new for the first time. Adaptability, flexibility, and the need to cope with surprises are important. The functional organization that may be best for ongoing operations is not well-suited to innovation. Indeed, it has been said that the greatest impediment to new product development is the functional organization. Balancing the advantages of functional strength with the need for genuine teamwork is at the heart of new products management. Crawford weaves this theme throughout the book. To paraphrase Crawford, effective teamwork requires "ownership" of the project by each team member. Ownership implies enthusiasm, commitment, energy, and pride. It is the product of training, empowerment, and motivation, all of which devolve from culture and leadership. As Crawford aptly states: "The reason all this is necessary is that functional people will rarely try to take ownership. Power, yes, but not ownership." (Note that these are all social dimensions and involve neither marketing nor technology!) The importance of this theme of teamwork will be appreciated by practitioners who, from experience, recognize both how important teamwork is and how difficult it is to achieve. For the inexperienced student it may be more difficult to grasp. Real teamwork is more a product of organizational culture and leadership than of organizational structures, titles, and rules. The emphasis on functional integration and teamwork is perhaps best brought out in Part IV, Technical Development, which includes chapters on the Development Process, the Team and its Mandate, Design and Special Managerial Needs, and Product Use
BOOK REVIEWS
Testing. There is a lot of wisdom in these chapters and plenty of ideas to improve the overall process. It should be recalled, however, that there is no such thing as a universal process. There are some basic principles and many helpful ideas, but each new product project is a new learning process, a continuing struggle to balance creativity and discipline as a team of people work against time and uncertainty to create a new source of value for a business and benefits for its customers. Despite his emphasis on teamwork and an avowed general management orientation, Crawford's perspective is clearly that of marketing. Although there are many references to technology and, to a lesser extent, manufacturing, the most detailed treatments are of the role of marketing in new product development. As a result, this book will be most useful and appealing to students in marketing, to marketing practitioners, and to general managers of businesses with a strong marketing orientation. The large majority of examples and illustrative cases used involve end products, especially consumer package goods, consumer durables, and a wide variety of other consumer products (clothing, sports equipment, personal care products, application software, etc.). There are few, if any, examples of industrial products such as chemicals, polymers, food ingredients, metals and alloys, electronic components, semiconductor devices, building materials, and the myriad of other intermediate products where innovation at the intermediate or materials level leads to new products and services for end users. As a result, the issues involved in developing new industrial and intermediate products, although noted, are not treated in much depth. From the strategic standpoint, Crawford puts strong and appropriate emphasis on the importance of a Product Innovation Charter as a key element in business strategy and as the guiding mandate for the new product development program. Consistent with his general emphasis on marketing and known market demands, he puts more emphasis on follower, adaptive, and imitative strategies rather than pioneering strategies, especially those where new technologies create new technology-demand life cycles within which many new product life cycles can become possible. Interestingly, however, one of the tables (Figure 1-7) included early in the book lists twentyfour of the top new products of all time, and every single example involves the creation of a new technology-demand cycle through the creation of a new technology, from the wheel, the telegraph, the
BOOK REVIEWS
electric light, and the telephone through to the airplane, atomic power, television, and the computer. Consequently, he does not deal very much with the challenges of developing pioneering new products. Bringing this issue to the present time, then, he does not deal very much with the new product challenges created by the three most powerful new technologies at hand: (1) biotechnology, especially molecular engineering, (2) micro-electronics, especially microprocessors, and (3) computer systems architecture and software. Not surprisingly, the book does not deal with the development of new military or aerospace products such as weapons, aircraft, naval vessels, military electronic systems, and their many subsystems and components. These programs represent close to half of all the research and development spending in the US and are often the spawning ground for technologies and products that later find important commercial applications. The revolution in massive parallel processor supercomputers is a good example. Overall, this is an outstanding book. It is, primarily, a textbook. It can be used with great profit by practitioners if they will but take the time to read it. It will provide a great foundation for students who will be future new product developers if they have the maturity to understand its powerful messages about the way real people work together to develop valuable new products. Thomas C. MacAvoy Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia Winning at New Products: Accelerating the Process from Idea to Launch (2nd Edition), by Robert G. Cooper. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1993. 358 pages. $16.95. "America is engaged in a new products war." With those words Cooper, the quintessential scholar of new product development, launches his updated and new work. His 1986 book refers to new product development as a "game." Now the metaphor is "war." While the change might have been an editor's suggestion, I doubt it. The doctrine of the first edition was untested, although based on research beginning in 1972. One company even bought 2000 copies of the 1986 version. So now the value of the second edition stems from the private sector's execution of his ideas. Actual case studies performed in major companies fortify his conclusions. He thanks new product experts
J PROD INNOV MANAG 1994; l 1:367-378
369
from Polaroid, Procter & Gamble, and other large companies for reviewing his manuscript, adopting some of the elements of his plan, and providing feedback. My guess is that while going through this trial by fire, Cooper realized the anemia of the word "game" to describe new product development and opted instead to put on his war paint. The late football coach Bud Wilkinson was famous for saying that the will to prepare was more important than the will to win. Cooper shows us how to properly prepare. Winning becomes almost axiomatic. He begins by first demonstrating why new products fail and discussing what separates winners from losers. He then lists and comments upon fifteen key lessons for new product success. While there are many similarities to the first edition, several improvements have been added to also make the revised edition worth reading. I particularly enjoyed the quotations at the beginning of each chapter, but the real reason to get the book is Cooper's detailed explanation of his stage-gate system. This system helps new product professionals quickly discard ideas that are not a good fit. Then, it helps guide their thinking on the ideas that have passed the first cut to get to the Go/Kill decision--ultimately launching only those products that enjoy a good chance for success. Establishing and following the stage-gate system generates the speed a company needs to stay ahead of the competition. This system has been successfully implemented by likes of DuPont, Exxon, Procter & Gamble, and Coming. So although Cooper is a professor of marketing at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, he has not hidden himself away in the proverbial ivory tower. Cooper encourages the gathering of intelligence from trade publications and the like to help find new product ideas. Anachronistically he then recommends that clipping services be employed. Today, on-line databases are by far the best way to gather trade journal and similar published information. To be sure, most can be set up to provide the user with his or her own customized "electronic clipping service." I was also surprised to see Cooper pointing out the fact that private inventors are an ignored source of new product ideas. Far too often have major companies missed out on the creativity of the independent inventor. He writes, "This is unfortunate, because the outcome is lost opportunities." They are ignored because of the potential legal problems in evaluating the unsolicited ideas and possible contamination of a company's own internal R&D. As a solution he points
367
0000
Book Reviews Book Review Editors: Milton D. Rosenau, Jr., CMC, and Robert R. Rothberg
Our coverage opens with a review of the fourth edition of C. Merle Crawford's book, which continues the comprehensive coverage of previous editions while adding important topics. The next review discusses the second edition of Robert Cooper's book. This new book updates his exposition of success and failure determinants, and reemphasizes the utility of a stage-gate development process. The third review comments on a long-term study of five innovative high technology firms. The review identifies five critical lessons for other similar firms. This is followed by the positive review of a recent book co-authored by one of the book review editors. Appropriately, this review was managed by Thomas Hustad, without any contact with its authors. The fifth review examines a book that combines two modern,popular management tools. The reviewer finds that these can be useful for product developers. Next, another reviewer comments favorably on a recent textbook that emphasizes the value creation process associated with effective product development and management practices. The seventh describes a book that examines and contrasts international practices. Although the material comes from a 1990 conference, our reviewer concludes that it still provides important lessons. The eighth review covers a strategy book. The book has some useful information but will be of limited help to most practitioners. The ninth review discusses a book about change and the need for organizational modification. Our reviewer feels it is of limited value to practitioners but will be of interest to academics. The reviews conclude with brief notes about three other books. © 1994 Elsevier Science Inc. 655 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10010
New Products Management (4th Edition), by C. Merle Crawford. Boston: Irwin, 1994. 495 + xxvii pages.
This fourth edition of one of the most respected and comprehensive textbooks on the development and management of new products is useful to both practitioners and advanced undergraduate and graduate students. Written in a clear and friendly style, it covers every facet of new products management from the integration of new product development into strategic planning, through all stages of product development from concept generation and evaluation, through technical development to full commercialization. It is well-illustrated with figures, tables, and graphs. Key points are illuminated by up-to-date case histories, and the whole text is supported by generous references to both the academic and practitioner literature. Although from its earlier editions this textbook has evolved from a marketing perspective, the fourth edition puts heavy emphasis on the importance of teamwork in the development of new products. Among the basic principles on which the book is based are (paraphrased): Product innovation is one single operation in an organization. It has parts (strategy, teams, plans, etc.) but they are all just parts. Any operation that runs as separate pieces misses the strength of the whole. There are no standard sets of new product development procedures for makers of consumer package goods, consumer durables, industrial goods, services, and so on. 0737-6782/94/$7.00
368
J PROD INNOV MANAG 1994; 11:367-378
•
New product strategy should rest on a base of both technology and market, all of the time.
Innovation is the most complex social process in business, involving people from many different disciplines, from all levels of the organization from top management down to sales representatives and lab technicians, and involving long timeframes and unusually high levels of uncertainty. Adding in the egos of senior managers, entrepreneurial product champions, and creative inventors and designers, it can be seen why managing new products programs is one of the most challenging, sometimes frustrating, and yet most rewarding roles in business. Business is organized and managed to produce and deliver products and services of appropriate quality in an efficient, reliable, timely, and cost-effective manner. Discipline, control, and predictability are important. The goal of innovation, on the other hand, is to produce something new for the first time. Adaptability, flexibility, and the need to cope with surprises are important. The functional organization that may be best for ongoing operations is not well-suited to innovation. Indeed, it has been said that the greatest impediment to new product development is the functional organization. Balancing the advantages of functional strength with the need for genuine teamwork is at the heart of new products management. Crawford weaves this theme throughout the book. To paraphrase Crawford, effective teamwork requires "ownership" of the project by each team member. Ownership implies enthusiasm, commitment, energy, and pride. It is the product of training, empowerment, and motivation, all of which devolve from culture and leadership. As Crawford aptly states: "The reason all this is necessary is that functional people will rarely try to take ownership. Power, yes, but not ownership." (Note that these are all social dimensions and involve neither marketing nor technology!) The importance of this theme of teamwork will be appreciated by practitioners who, from experience, recognize both how important teamwork is and how difficult it is to achieve. For the inexperienced student it may be more difficult to grasp. Real teamwork is more a product of organizational culture and leadership than of organizational structures, titles, and rules. The emphasis on functional integration and teamwork is perhaps best brought out in Part IV, Technical Development, which includes chapters on the Development Process, the Team and its Mandate, Design and Special Managerial Needs, and Product Use
BOOK REVIEWS
Testing. There is a lot of wisdom in these chapters and plenty of ideas to improve the overall process. It should be recalled, however, that there is no such thing as a universal process. There are some basic principles and many helpful ideas, but each new product project is a new learning process, a continuing struggle to balance creativity and discipline as a team of people work against time and uncertainty to create a new source of value for a business and benefits for its customers. Despite his emphasis on teamwork and an avowed general management orientation, Crawford's perspective is clearly that of marketing. Although there are many references to technology and, to a lesser extent, manufacturing, the most detailed treatments are of the role of marketing in new product development. As a result, this book will be most useful and appealing to students in marketing, to marketing practitioners, and to general managers of businesses with a strong marketing orientation. The large majority of examples and illustrative cases used involve end products, especially consumer package goods, consumer durables, and a wide variety of other consumer products (clothing, sports equipment, personal care products, application software, etc.). There are few, if any, examples of industrial products such as chemicals, polymers, food ingredients, metals and alloys, electronic components, semiconductor devices, building materials, and the myriad of other intermediate products where innovation at the intermediate or materials level leads to new products and services for end users. As a result, the issues involved in developing new industrial and intermediate products, although noted, are not treated in much depth. From the strategic standpoint, Crawford puts strong and appropriate emphasis on the importance of a Product Innovation Charter as a key element in business strategy and as the guiding mandate for the new product development program. Consistent with his general emphasis on marketing and known market demands, he puts more emphasis on follower, adaptive, and imitative strategies rather than pioneering strategies, especially those where new technologies create new technology-demand life cycles within which many new product life cycles can become possible. Interestingly, however, one of the tables (Figure 1-7) included early in the book lists twentyfour of the top new products of all time, and every single example involves the creation of a new technology-demand cycle through the creation of a new technology, from the wheel, the telegraph, the
BOOK REVIEWS
electric light, and the telephone through to the airplane, atomic power, television, and the computer. Consequently, he does not deal very much with the challenges of developing pioneering new products. Bringing this issue to the present time, then, he does not deal very much with the new product challenges created by the three most powerful new technologies at hand: (1) biotechnology, especially molecular engineering, (2) micro-electronics, especially microprocessors, and (3) computer systems architecture and software. Not surprisingly, the book does not deal with the development of new military or aerospace products such as weapons, aircraft, naval vessels, military electronic systems, and their many subsystems and components. These programs represent close to half of all the research and development spending in the US and are often the spawning ground for technologies and products that later find important commercial applications. The revolution in massive parallel processor supercomputers is a good example. Overall, this is an outstanding book. It is, primarily, a textbook. It can be used with great profit by practitioners if they will but take the time to read it. It will provide a great foundation for students who will be future new product developers if they have the maturity to understand its powerful messages about the way real people work together to develop valuable new products. Thomas C. MacAvoy Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia Winning at New Products: Accelerating the Process from Idea to Launch (2nd Edition), by Robert G. Cooper. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1993. 358 pages. $16.95. "America is engaged in a new products war." With those words Cooper, the quintessential scholar of new product development, launches his updated and new work. His 1986 book refers to new product development as a "game." Now the metaphor is "war." While the change might have been an editor's suggestion, I doubt it. The doctrine of the first edition was untested, although based on research beginning in 1972. One company even bought 2000 copies of the 1986 version. So now the value of the second edition stems from the private sector's execution of his ideas. Actual case studies performed in major companies fortify his conclusions. He thanks new product experts
J PROD INNOV MANAG 1994; l 1:367-378
369
from Polaroid, Procter & Gamble, and other large companies for reviewing his manuscript, adopting some of the elements of his plan, and providing feedback. My guess is that while going through this trial by fire, Cooper realized the anemia of the word "game" to describe new product development and opted instead to put on his war paint. The late football coach Bud Wilkinson was famous for saying that the will to prepare was more important than the will to win. Cooper shows us how to properly prepare. Winning becomes almost axiomatic. He begins by first demonstrating why new products fail and discussing what separates winners from losers. He then lists and comments upon fifteen key lessons for new product success. While there are many similarities to the first edition, several improvements have been added to also make the revised edition worth reading. I particularly enjoyed the quotations at the beginning of each chapter, but the real reason to get the book is Cooper's detailed explanation of his stage-gate system. This system helps new product professionals quickly discard ideas that are not a good fit. Then, it helps guide their thinking on the ideas that have passed the first cut to get to the Go/Kill decision--ultimately launching only those products that enjoy a good chance for success. Establishing and following the stage-gate system generates the speed a company needs to stay ahead of the competition. This system has been successfully implemented by likes of DuPont, Exxon, Procter & Gamble, and Coming. So although Cooper is a professor of marketing at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, he has not hidden himself away in the proverbial ivory tower. Cooper encourages the gathering of intelligence from trade publications and the like to help find new product ideas. Anachronistically he then recommends that clipping services be employed. Today, on-line databases are by far the best way to gather trade journal and similar published information. To be sure, most can be set up to provide the user with his or her own customized "electronic clipping service." I was also surprised to see Cooper pointing out the fact that private inventors are an ignored source of new product ideas. Far too often have major companies missed out on the creativity of the independent inventor. He writes, "This is unfortunate, because the outcome is lost opportunities." They are ignored because of the potential legal problems in evaluating the unsolicited ideas and possible contamination of a company's own internal R&D. As a solution he points