#4What are the best ways to manage the new-product development process?

A firm must simultaneously meet 2 critical objectives: • maximizing the fit with customer needs & • minimizing time to market.

Successful firms are those that articulate their strategic intent and map their R&D portfolio to find a fit between their new product development goals and their current resources and competencies.

A firm’s success also rests on how well the technology areas it enters contributes to the long term direction of the firm by helping it build new core capabilities critical to the firm's long term goals.

Strategic alliances to obtain enabling technologies may shorten the development process, but partners must be chosen and monitored carefully.

When firms are choosing technologies to acquire externally, they must assess the importance of the learning that would be accrued through internal development of the project, and its impact on the firm's future success.

• Other imperatives include using a parallel development process (rather than sequential) to both reduce cycle time and to better incorporate customer and supplier requirements in the product and process design.

• We may use executive champions to ensure that projects gain the resources and organizational commitment necessary to their completion.

Development teams should include people from a diverse range of functions and should include suppliers and customers to improve the project's chances of maximizing the fit with customer requirements while reducing cycle time and potentially reducing costs.

4 Stages of Team Development

Various tools may be useful on different projects:• Stage-Gate processes• Quality Function Deployment• Design for Manufacturing and • Computer Aided Design/Computer Aided Manufacturing

Other imperatives are:• Finding finance and tax efficient ways to support innovation• Managing new opportunities/challenges demands planning & control• Protecting and valuing your ideas• Commercializing your ideas and getting into new markets