From Engineering.com
While this is a fun time waster. What does it tell us about the future of interactive technology? Will 3D TV etc. be big? What does this mean for business? How can you use the emerging 3D technology to create competitive advantage?
What do you think?
From Harvard Business Review Blog
Do your Knowledge Workers have a Bitsmith?
This post presents a wonderful concept that points out the need for specialized tools for the knowledge era. That of a “Bitsmith”. Bitsmiths, according to the post ” are people who have deep knowledge of both the work content and the tools used to support the work. In other words, they are almost as expert in derivatives or computer design as they are in computer-programming languages. Because they understand both the domain and the tools, bitsmiths can take an idea from concept to implementation quickly .”
The article makes the case that high performance teams need to have a “bitsmith” just as many towns in the “old west” had blacksmiths to create the tolls they needed.
What do you think of this concept?
From Managing Automation Blog — Chris Chiappinelli
This blog post plus video sums up the business challenges and requirements of the design-build (Continuous Product Development) business for industrial automation well. http://www.enhancedautomation.com
A focus on the customer requires a focus on quality, cost, specification and reality; often many of these concepts clash.
Are there other challenges?
From PDMA Visions
This study, once again points out how poorly we manage our NPD Projects. We do not seem to think of the collection of projects as a portfolio and do not manage them as such. If we are to achieve our strategic goals for NPD as well as our objectives for each of the projects we have in process, we need to manage them as a portfolio.
Too many projects and poor decision making is at the root cause of poor success rates for both strategic and tactics objectives.
This research connects to a previous post regarding an article by Robert Cooper Cooper Article
What do you think? Am I overly concerned?
This article is from Marketing Management — You may need to be a Member of AMA to Access all content
Effective Gating by Robert G. Cooper
This article is a great reminder that we have TOO many projects in our product development pipeline.
We have ineffective gates (and NPD Processes) that do not KILL bad projects.
We do not have effective (NPD) portfolio management systems and governance processes.
We have TOO many small, incremental projects to be an effective (NPD) profit growth engine.
What do you think?
From KM Edge
Referred by Evelyn of MSOE Rader School of Business MG-750
KM Edge (blog) from APQC presents a wonderful PPT which looks at three Ba Based Knowledge Management approaches in Japanese Companies. As we study Knowledge Management, we learn more of the concept of Ba. This presentation gives us some insight into the power of Ba.
Ba Based Knowledge Management Approaches
Comments?
An article on “strategy+ business” entitled “Profits Down, Spending Steady: The Global Innovation 1000″
Within the article we read quotations from business leaders “Innovation is what drives our competitive position in all three of our markets — automotive, professional, and consumer — and therefore we can’t back off,” says Robert Lardon, corporate vice president for strategy and investor relations at Harman International Industries Inc. Adalio Sanchez, general manager of IBM’s System X server business, echoes that point of view: “I would argue that the recession is a catalyst for increased innovation.”
This is encouraging for new product developers and a welcome sign that innovation is live and well, and in fact, an imperative for survival — long term.
What do you think?
Ok, here is some more information and a look at the Plastic Logic eReader. Looks pretty cool to me.
We read that the Que may be actually targeted at something other than the Kindle. ” But Archuleta also repositions the Que as something a little different to merely being a Kindle killer e-reader device. He notes “Que enhances business performance and gives you a competitive edge.” The business angle’s also played up with mention of support for PDF, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel…and there’s even the intriguing phrase “powerful tools for interacting with and managing the content.” That implies you may be able to do more than just annotate documents on the Que–will you be able to actually edit them, or run a Powerpoint presentation? We can’t tell yet, but it certainly seems that Plastic Logic’s Que will enter the e-reader game right at the top end, perhaps tending toward limited Tablet PC capabilities.”
What do you think? Pretty cool? Will the market handle a “premium product”? Does this seem to square off with the new tablets that we read are coming? DO you want one?
A blog post at Harvard Business School states that the USA cannot make the Kindle. The article gives lots of insight into the design and manufacturing of the Kindle. More importantly, it raises the questions associated with the importance of our (USA) ability to manufacture a product such as the Kindle.
The US Can’t Manufacture the Kindle and that’s a Problem
What do you think? Does the USA NEED to be a manufacturer? Why? Is this “killing innovation”?
Seems to be a bit of a theme this Fall, but yet another article about the Kindle. (I bet you can guess what might be on my Christmas List this year) However, as we think about NPM (New Products Management) we need to understand how important “Launch” is, and pricing. This article points out a bit about how we need to think about launches in multiple countries may in fact, cause problems for us.
The FAST Company article “Has Amazon Bungled Kindle’s International Launch” gives us a bit of a case study. What could/should they have done differently? What have we learned about the importance of a “service” strategy that becomes part of a product launch? What have we learned about partners?
Zipcar — Best New Idea in Business says FORTUNE Magazine
People saving money ($600 per month says the article), GREEN, convenient, and easy to use. Could it get any better?
We discussed in class how this company has built a business model that could not really exist without the web and m-commerce (well it could, but it would not be as cool). From the article “the company’s mission statement still pledges to “change the world through urban and environmental transformation” sounds all good.
What do you think? Could this exist without the web? Will this catch on? Will rental car agencies take over?
Another article today on FAST COMPANY — Kindle Killer reports a partnership with AT&T and its 3G network. Do you recall how we spoke about how these kind of “technology partnerships” are the current wave and the way of the future? No new product is just a product, it is always a service, and coupling/connecting it with strong partners that lead to make it a service offering — with ease of use and ubiquitous availability makes this a formidable competitor to the apparent leader. Sometimes “first” or even fast follower is not the best position.
What do you think?
Thanks Dave from MG-745 for this suggestion.
Check out this You Tube Video – MILO An HMI that recognizes and responds to movement, etc.
Now, how can we use THIS technology in inductrial controls? What do you think? Games first? Education?
Thanks Dave (MG-745) for the suggestion.
So, how important is education and training to technology diffusion?
When creating our technology strategy, we need a full understanding of our business strategy and the market (economy), we must consider purchasing other firms or platforms as part of that strategy. The following linked article on FORBES.com describes some of the thought process.
Is this a good idea for ORACLE? For anyone else? GOOGLE Perhaps? What are the Lessons Learned from this article on creating technology strategy?
Design, and by that I do not mean “engineering design” is central to successful new products. An article entitled “Creating Cults and Culture with Design“ from FAST COMPANY. The article talks about APPLE (of course) but also gives examples of other companies that are successful. Southwest Airlines and METHOD. However, one of the issues is that everyone wants to be APPLE and tries to create “APPLE-like” products, which are really not innovative. To create your own “iPod” one must have design as one of your business objectives. The article mentions the role of the CEO. From the article “First, is design on the CEO’s list of legacy objectives? If not, the design activity is often about creating better window dressing or optimizing a product for usability–but not about creating a remarkable offering. There just won’t be the organizational will that standout products require to survive the corporate development processes. Companies that deliver these kinds of products and services have a creative and empowered culture that wants to understand the customer and that goes the extra mile when perfecting the design. This kind of culture has to come from the top”.
What do you think about “Design”? Is it part of your organization’s strategy? What do you think of Southwest as an example?
Fast Company, one of my favorite magazines has just published on one of its numerous cool blogs an article entitled “Six Ways to Avoid Landing in the Product Failure Bin“. There are some very good ideas about things to avoid when developing and researching new product opportunities.
Some of which are: “Don’t have a casual relationship with the truth”, another “Side effects can kill repurchase”. I think I have experienced most of these somewhere along the way.
What do you think of his advice?
I am endorsing a program that I think will be great, so here goes the shameless re-posting……
For only $25!!
What does it take to become part of the new generation of emerging leaders?
MSOE’s Rader School of Business is conducting a half-day Emerging Leaders Summit on June 19 that will provide insight into leadership in today’s increasingly complex and demanding global business environment. It is an opportunity for current and emerging leaders to learn how to sustain and build their careers.
The featured speaker is Beebe Nelson, co-author of New Product Development for Dummies, who will cover the latest trends and tools in product innovation. This will be followed by a panel discussion, moderated by Tanette Johnson-Elie, Journal Sentinel business columnist, featuring four emerging leaders from JohnsonDiversey, Manpower, Harley Davidson, and Mercury Marine.
Emerging Leaders Summit
Friday, June 19
8:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Milwaukee School of Engineering*
If you attended, let us know how it was. If you cannot attend, but would like to attend future events like this, let us know what you want here by adding a comment.
As a member of PDMA I am emailed notifications of the articles in the latest issue of VISIONS. One article that caught my eye was the article on online communities and New Product Development (NPD). The article called “How Online Communities are Changing the NPD Landscape ……” We of course have been talking about this for years in our classes, however this article points out some very good points as well as including a number of links and examples of companies using the tools. There is a promise of a second article talking about the issues with online communities.
Of particular interest to me are the points made about the “goals” which are summarized in Exhibity one. The goals discussed are: listening, observing, speaking, energizing, supporting, and embracing. Each goal has an example and application. The article does describe what an online community is and some of the defining characteristics.
What did you find interesting? What did you learn from the article? Do you think that you will undertake any of these actions or employ these tools at your company?
