Blockbusters

A product development expert and a former research psychologist, now both professors at the Stevens Institute, combine their knowledge into a slim but useful volume illustrating their innovative approach to New Product Development (NPD). Two-thirds of new products fail in the market, the authors say, but those that go on to become ""blockbusters"" have five factors working in their favor: active leadership from the highest level of management; ""Project Pillars,"" or clear, established parameters for the product; ""Lickety Stick,"" or the flexibility and tenaciousness to market test until the product ""sticks""; goal-oriented teamwork (no psychological tricks); and continuous exchange of information about everything among everybody. The authors demonstrate each of these principles with a case study, including Colgate's Total toothpaste (effective senior management practices) and the Powershot Staple Gun (early and frequent consumer testing). They go on to consider two more complex cases, Corning Glass's decades-long struggle to create the fiber-optic industry and the victory of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory over NASA's entrenched bureaucracy to create the Sojourner Mars lander. The authors recognize the complexity of most of the issues and the serendipity of the regulatory environment (such as the 1986 breakup of AT&T), and they manage to avoid jargon. This volume respects the intelligence of its readers and offers them insights into proven NPD methods. B&w charts and graphs.