INSTRUCTOR MANUAL
** All Chapters included
** Solutions to Applications
** Teaching Notes
,Table of Contents are given below
1. The Strategic Elements of Product Development
2. The New Products Process
3. Opportunity Identification and Selection: Strategic Planning for New
Products
4. The Product Concept and Ready-Made New Product Ideas
5. New Product Ideas: The Problem Find-Solve Approach
6. New Product Ideas: Analytical Attribute Approaches
7. Concept Evaluation and Testing
8. The Full Screen
9. Sales Forecasting and Financial Analysis
10. Product Protocol
11. Design
12. Development Team Management
13. Product Use Testing
14. Strategic Launch Planning
15. Implementation of the Strategic Plan
16. Market Testing
17. Launch Management
18. Public Policy Issues
, Solutions to Applications -- Part I
Chapter 1
1. "When you were talking a while ago about taking risks, I wondered just
whose money you were talking about. A fellow I know out in California insists
that all new product team members invest their own money (with his) in their
projects. Fifty thousands dollars is not unusual. In that system, I'll bet you
would be seeking to avoid risks, not trying to find them."
Students tend to take this idea with skepticism – they often say, "That's a lot of baloney." But the
fact is, it happens, especially in the Silicon Valley and other parts of innovative California. And
it is a sobering thought. $50,000 isn't all that much to Californians buying a house, but it is to
one who has to come up with the cash. And woe to the manager who says the project is too risky.
Students will soon run out of answers on this one. Of course, they would not be working
for such a firm in the first place if they thought the idea unfair. And if they had no choice, they
would avoid new product assignments with great adroitness. Luckily for all of us who have
worked on new products, most managements won't consider the approach. Too scary? Too
discouraging? No. They object because they know they would have to treat the managers like
venture capitalists, and they would have to take on far more risk themselves.
2. "Funny thing, though, it sure does frustrate me when I hear a division
general manager's strategy is to imitate other firms. Now I know that some
firms might reasonably use imitation, but none of my divisions should. Should
they?"
It's dangerous to argue against this thinking. Everybody supports innovation. To imitate is
inferior, something one should do only under the most adverse conditions, and when innovation
is impossible. But, whether to imitate or innovate is not a moral issue (usually), so the answer to
the president can be found in dollars and cents. Look at the firm's market and its strengths. To
our knowledge, there is little R&D being done on brooms, railroad ties, table salt, and yo-yo's.
What the president says, however, is the strategy of many firms. One example is 3M. The
answer to the question lies in getting out of markets lacking opportunity for innovation. And this
may be expensive, or almost impossible, for some divisions or firms. Lots of businesses make a
nice profit on product lines where this is little innovation possibility. The president should be
encouraged to avoid generalization, and support innovation where it has good payoff
possibilities.
3. "I would like to be sure as many of our people as possible support innova-
tion, but I know some people in the firm just can't react positively to proposed
innovation, no matter how much we need it. Tell me, how do you think I should
go about spotting the worst offenders, and what should I do with them when I
find out who they are?"
, This inquiry indicates an important aspect of these application situations. Presidents don't
respect chapter outlines, and we should encourage students not to wear blinders too tightly either.
Anyway, in this case the president is treading on dangerous ground. Organizations cannot hope
to staff only with risk-accepting innovative types. We can only imagine what life in such firms
would be like. But people come in all types, and organizations need all types. Not all jobs, even
on new product projects, call for risk-takers. We will see later there is a role in this work called
rationalist, a person who says Show Me, at times when others are running with their anchors too
high off the ground.
But the president is right in asking about spotting anti-innovators. They show up rather
readily, and are in fact known to most supervisors and personnel departments. They are quite
risk-averse, and try to avoid the risk in their personal lives as well as in their business lives.
And they should not be given a leadership role in new product work, nor should they be
where they can unnecessarily retard a project--in charge of operations, for example, or venture
funding. Nor as general manager or president, either. It is also fairly clear that these people
cannot be "retrained" to be more risk-accepting, though there is some opposition to this
statement among some human resource people.
----------------------------------------
Chapter 2
1. "I've got to make a speech down in Dallas next month. It's part of a confer-
ence SMU is having on the general topic of opportunity identification (OI). They
want me to explain why OI is sometimes more important than brainstorming
and other techniques of concept generation. Seems to me it isn't. What do you
think?"
Here the president is setting brainstorming off against opportunity identification, as though they
were substitutes. In fact, they go together beautifully. Like saying that a good trout rod and fly
collection go well with a good trout stream. One wants the best equipment, of course, but if the
fish aren't there, not many will be caught. And in the best streams, having good equipment pays
off. So, yes, OI is very critical, and lots of firms miss the benefits when they skip the strategic
planning stage.
In fact, we can argue that OI may be the most important single step in the process, as will
be explained later in Chapter 3. You might ask the class which is more important in advertising:
a good target market or good persuasion in the copy?
2. "I work for a financial services firm. We do new product development all the
time, and a lot of it is of the incremental variety. You know, bundle credit card access
to a savings account, bundle the savings account to a money market account, add an
IRA investment option, things of that sort. Explain how the new products process is
relevant in my industry, and to my company. Seems like it’s more tailored to
physical goods. Isn’t it a little misleading?"
This question is designed to get the students thinking about the broad applicability of the new
products process. The familiar multi-step process that serves as the core of this text, and most
** All Chapters included
** Solutions to Applications
** Teaching Notes
,Table of Contents are given below
1. The Strategic Elements of Product Development
2. The New Products Process
3. Opportunity Identification and Selection: Strategic Planning for New
Products
4. The Product Concept and Ready-Made New Product Ideas
5. New Product Ideas: The Problem Find-Solve Approach
6. New Product Ideas: Analytical Attribute Approaches
7. Concept Evaluation and Testing
8. The Full Screen
9. Sales Forecasting and Financial Analysis
10. Product Protocol
11. Design
12. Development Team Management
13. Product Use Testing
14. Strategic Launch Planning
15. Implementation of the Strategic Plan
16. Market Testing
17. Launch Management
18. Public Policy Issues
, Solutions to Applications -- Part I
Chapter 1
1. "When you were talking a while ago about taking risks, I wondered just
whose money you were talking about. A fellow I know out in California insists
that all new product team members invest their own money (with his) in their
projects. Fifty thousands dollars is not unusual. In that system, I'll bet you
would be seeking to avoid risks, not trying to find them."
Students tend to take this idea with skepticism – they often say, "That's a lot of baloney." But the
fact is, it happens, especially in the Silicon Valley and other parts of innovative California. And
it is a sobering thought. $50,000 isn't all that much to Californians buying a house, but it is to
one who has to come up with the cash. And woe to the manager who says the project is too risky.
Students will soon run out of answers on this one. Of course, they would not be working
for such a firm in the first place if they thought the idea unfair. And if they had no choice, they
would avoid new product assignments with great adroitness. Luckily for all of us who have
worked on new products, most managements won't consider the approach. Too scary? Too
discouraging? No. They object because they know they would have to treat the managers like
venture capitalists, and they would have to take on far more risk themselves.
2. "Funny thing, though, it sure does frustrate me when I hear a division
general manager's strategy is to imitate other firms. Now I know that some
firms might reasonably use imitation, but none of my divisions should. Should
they?"
It's dangerous to argue against this thinking. Everybody supports innovation. To imitate is
inferior, something one should do only under the most adverse conditions, and when innovation
is impossible. But, whether to imitate or innovate is not a moral issue (usually), so the answer to
the president can be found in dollars and cents. Look at the firm's market and its strengths. To
our knowledge, there is little R&D being done on brooms, railroad ties, table salt, and yo-yo's.
What the president says, however, is the strategy of many firms. One example is 3M. The
answer to the question lies in getting out of markets lacking opportunity for innovation. And this
may be expensive, or almost impossible, for some divisions or firms. Lots of businesses make a
nice profit on product lines where this is little innovation possibility. The president should be
encouraged to avoid generalization, and support innovation where it has good payoff
possibilities.
3. "I would like to be sure as many of our people as possible support innova-
tion, but I know some people in the firm just can't react positively to proposed
innovation, no matter how much we need it. Tell me, how do you think I should
go about spotting the worst offenders, and what should I do with them when I
find out who they are?"
, This inquiry indicates an important aspect of these application situations. Presidents don't
respect chapter outlines, and we should encourage students not to wear blinders too tightly either.
Anyway, in this case the president is treading on dangerous ground. Organizations cannot hope
to staff only with risk-accepting innovative types. We can only imagine what life in such firms
would be like. But people come in all types, and organizations need all types. Not all jobs, even
on new product projects, call for risk-takers. We will see later there is a role in this work called
rationalist, a person who says Show Me, at times when others are running with their anchors too
high off the ground.
But the president is right in asking about spotting anti-innovators. They show up rather
readily, and are in fact known to most supervisors and personnel departments. They are quite
risk-averse, and try to avoid the risk in their personal lives as well as in their business lives.
And they should not be given a leadership role in new product work, nor should they be
where they can unnecessarily retard a project--in charge of operations, for example, or venture
funding. Nor as general manager or president, either. It is also fairly clear that these people
cannot be "retrained" to be more risk-accepting, though there is some opposition to this
statement among some human resource people.
----------------------------------------
Chapter 2
1. "I've got to make a speech down in Dallas next month. It's part of a confer-
ence SMU is having on the general topic of opportunity identification (OI). They
want me to explain why OI is sometimes more important than brainstorming
and other techniques of concept generation. Seems to me it isn't. What do you
think?"
Here the president is setting brainstorming off against opportunity identification, as though they
were substitutes. In fact, they go together beautifully. Like saying that a good trout rod and fly
collection go well with a good trout stream. One wants the best equipment, of course, but if the
fish aren't there, not many will be caught. And in the best streams, having good equipment pays
off. So, yes, OI is very critical, and lots of firms miss the benefits when they skip the strategic
planning stage.
In fact, we can argue that OI may be the most important single step in the process, as will
be explained later in Chapter 3. You might ask the class which is more important in advertising:
a good target market or good persuasion in the copy?
2. "I work for a financial services firm. We do new product development all the
time, and a lot of it is of the incremental variety. You know, bundle credit card access
to a savings account, bundle the savings account to a money market account, add an
IRA investment option, things of that sort. Explain how the new products process is
relevant in my industry, and to my company. Seems like it’s more tailored to
physical goods. Isn’t it a little misleading?"
This question is designed to get the students thinking about the broad applicability of the new
products process. The familiar multi-step process that serves as the core of this text, and most
