Timing is everything in a product rollout

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J PROD INNOV MANAG 1!994;11:464475

Ingersoll Rand, and others focus on increasing quality if it simultaneously decreases manufacturing costs. Quality will continue to be very important, and managements will increasingly integrate it into their overall strategic operations. Focusing on customerdefined quality means a global view, not looking to Japan. And right now, the author feels global buyers want responsiveness and adaptability, capabilities that many firms have lots of. In a way, this is still quality, but it means the quality of the seller’s overall operation and customer dedication, not just quality of a measurable product. Timing Is Everything in a Product Rollout, Kristin Zhivago, Business Marketing (March 1994), p. 36 This brief article is written for the telecommunications/computer fields, and spells out a specific set of steps to follow in announcing a product. Phase I: Nondisclosure. Early period, no disclosure except to vendors and a few other outsiders who are working on the project and who sign nondisclosure agreements. Phase 2: Product testing. Alpha testing in company facilities and Beta testing at customer sites goes on now. No public announcements (usually) and Beta site people sign nondisclosure agreements. Phase 3: Anticipation. This is the first of two controversial stages. The product is not ready, but the firm will release “position” pieces that talk about the problem that the firm’s new product will solve. They offer technical solutions based on architecture, but the product itself is not preannounced. Phase 4: Injluentials. Now the product’s availability is known-not hoped for, but almost certain, but because it will still be some weeks or months in the future there is still uncertainty about how much to say. Last minute changes have been stopped, and the firm will introduce a “sufficient” product if necessary, as Windows was. It is time to tell analysts, editors, industry researchers, and some customers, about the specific product and when it will be available. This is the time for press kits, actual product, and savvy spokespersons. Phase 5: Broadcast PR. This is the time for product shipment, final press releases, and

ABSTRACTS

providing of final product for reviews. Manage the review process carefully to get the best articles. Phase 6: Promo pieces. This is the start of advertising and distribution brochures, videos, CD, and the like. Start preparing post-release announcements, testimonials, technical guides, and upgrades. Innovating Through Alliances: Expectations and Limitations, Francis Bidault and Thomas Cummings, R&D Management (January 1994), pp. 33-45 Given the importance of innovation and the generally agreed value of alliances, the authors have studied a total of seventeen alliances in the information technology industry. They reasoned that if partnerships were to fail, it would perhaps be because they did not achieve the necessary requirements of successful innovation (the success factors), of which they feel there are seven-understanding the user’s needs, knowledge of marketing and distribution, having a champion, having a sponsor, having a process that was controllable yet flexible, having fast and easy communication between the players, and an opportunity for the innovator to retain control over the innovation (for example, with patents). They then selected five partnerships for intensive study against those seven success factors. They quickly found that the alliances did offer the first two requirements-user and marketing understanding. In each partnership, such knowledge was brought by at least one of the partners and no problems arose. However, the other five offered difficulties. The champion, to be effective, must reach a certain level of acceptance in both parents’ organizations. This requires an intimate knowledge of cultures and political situations, perhaps unattainable. In one of their five cases, the top managers of both firms were supportive, and the one that supplied the basic technology appointed a senior engineer as the champion. He and his group of people were excited and confident. However, in the partner firm, software development was a huge task (around 8000 person-years) and was scattered over four regional sites. Some of the software developers were simply unable to accept this outsider as their champion; they began developing their own technologies, and drifted away from the partnership. For good reasons or bad, the champion failed, and the partnership failed. The sponsor arrangement also does not fit partnerships very well. Sponsors are senior-level managers