Product planing and development new products management CONCEPT GENERATION “Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.” Popular Mechanics, 1949. “I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won’t last out the year.” Business books editor, Prentice-Hall, 1957. Barriers to Firm Creativity • Cross-functional diversity: Diversity leads to more creative stimulation but also to problem solving difficulties. • Allegiance to functional areas: Team members need to have a stake in the team’s success, or won’t be loyal to the team. • Social cohesion: If interpersonal ties among team members are too strong, candid debate may not occur, resulting in less innovative ideas. • Role of top management: Management should encourage the teams to be adventurous, otherwise only incremental changes will occur. The Role of Management in Stimulating Creativity •Recognize individuality •Be tolerant of mistakes •Be supportive under stress 4-5 The Role of Management in Stimulating Creativity • Today’s managers recognize that innovators are opt to be different and need special treatment, “Accommodative” is the word. • Innovators cannot be allowed to violate rules at will, but it’s good to recognize individuality, be tolerant of some aberrations, and be supportive under stress. • Top management should allow innovators freedom to associate with others in similar positions. This freedom extends to all functional areas and to outside the firm as well—no locked cells. The Role of Management in Stimulating Creativity • Management should also permit innovators to help select projects for development, though this is often difficult. Job assignments should be challenging. • Creative people don not lack confidence and, in fact, often consider their present assignments a waste of time. This means they will determine whether an assignment is worthy — no one can tell them. The Role of Management in Stimulating Creativity Techniques Stimulating Creativity : • Competitive teams: some firms intentionally create competitive teams and have them race to a deadline. • Free time: It runs as high as 20% in some firms, sometimes beneficiary. Or Flextime is a similar tool, but for creative types it means letting employees take work home or stay in their workplaces and work all night if they want “hybrid work”. The Role of Management in Stimulating Creativity Techniques include Stimulating Creativity : • Idea bank of unused ideas for possible reuse: Creative firms often use a computerized database, or “idea bank,” to store and document ideas from earlier, unused new product projects for reuse later. • These ideas can come from market research or test market results, design plans, engineers, etc.... • To help transfer information, managers that worked on the earlier project can be assigned to the project where the idea might be reused. • Encourage interaction – even in how offices are laid out Required Inputs to the Creation Process • Form: this is the physical

1. Product Planning & Development
410305
New Products Management (Int'l Ed). 11th Edition.
Faculty of Business
Dr Ibrahim L. Mukattash

2. PART TWO
CONCEPT GENERATION
“Computers in the future may weigh no more than
1.5 tons.” Popular Mechanics, 1949.
“I can assure you that data processing is a fad that
won’t last out the year.” Business books editor,
Prentice-Hall, 1957.

3. Chapter 4
Preparation and Alternatives

4. Barriers to Firm Creativity
• Cross-functional diversity: Diversity leads to more creative stimulation but also to problem
solving difficulties.
• Allegiance to functional areas: Team members need to have a stake in the team’s success,
or won’t be loyal to the team.
• Social cohesion: If interpersonal ties among team members are too strong, candid debate may
not occur, resulting in less innovative ideas.
• Role of top management: Management should encourage the teams to be adventurous,
otherwise only incremental changes will occur.
4-4
Loyalty
Unity

5. The Role of Management in Stimulating Creativity
•Recognize individuality
•Be tolerant of mistakes
•Be supportive under stress
4-5
R BT BS

6. The Role of Management in Stimulating Creativity
• Today’s managers recognize that innovators are opt to be different and
need special treatment, “Accommodative” is the word.
• Innovators cannot be allowed to violate rules at will, but it’s good to
recognize individuality, be tolerant of some aberrations, and be supportive
under stress.
• Top management should allow innovators freedom to associate with others
in similar positions. This freedom extends to all functional areas and to
outside the firm as well—no locked cells.

7. The Role of Management in Stimulating Creativity
• Management should also permit innovators to help select projects for
development, though this is often difficult. Job assignments should be
challenging.
• Creative people don not lack confidence and, in fact, often consider
their present assignments a waste of time. This means they will
determine whether an assignment is worthy — no one can tell them.

8. The Role of Management in Stimulating Creativity
Techniques Stimulating Creativity :
• Competitive teams: some firms intentionally create competitive
teams and have them race to a deadline.
• Free time: It runs as high as 20% in some firms, sometimes
beneficiary. Or Flextime is a similar tool, but for creative types it
means letting employees take work home or stay in their
workplaces and work all night if they want “hybrid work”.

9. The Role of Management in Stimulating Creativity
Techniques include Stimulating Creativity :
• Idea bank of unused ideas for possible reuse: Creative firms often use a
computerized database, or “idea bank,” to store and document ideas from
earlier, unused new product projects for reuse later.
• These ideas can come from market research or test market results, design
plans, engineers, etc....
• To help transfer information, managers that worked on the earlier project can be
assigned to the project where the idea might be reused.
• Encourage interaction – even in how offices are laid out

10. Required Inputs to the Creation Process
• Form: this is the physical thing created, or in the case of a service, it is the sequence
of steps by which the service will be created.
• Technology: this is the source by which the form was attained. Technology is defined
in product innovation as the power to do work.
• Benefit/Need: the product has value only as it provides some benefit to the customer
that the customer sees a need, want or desire for.
Technology permits us to develop a form that provides the benefit.
4-10

11. Some Patterns in Concept Generation
1. 1. Customer need à 2. firm develops technology à 3. produces
form
2. 1. Firm develops technology à 2. finds match to need in a customer
segment à 3. produces form
3. 1. Firm envisions form à 2. develops technology to product form à 3.
tests with customer to see what benefits are delivered
Note: the innovation process can start with any of the three inputs.
4-11

12. What is a Product Concept?
• A product concept is “a verbal or prototype statement of what is
going to be changed and how the customer stands to gain or lose”.
• Rule: You need at least two of the three inputs to have a feasible new
product concept, and all three to have a new product.
4-12

13. Why Do You Need a Product Concept and Not Just an Idea?
• Needed to judge whether it is worthy of development.
• Potential customers do not have enough information to judge the
worthiness of an idea: the product concept gives them the required
information.
4-13

14. New Product Concepts and the New Product
Need Form
Technology Feasible New
Product Concept
“C”=
Concepts
C
C
C
Figure 4.4
4-14

15. Methods for Generating Product Concepts
Two Broad Categories of Methods:
• Gathering Ready-Made Product Concepts, Experience in the field of
product innovation has it that 40 to 50 percent of new product ideas
are ready-made, coming at least partially from employees, suppliers,
end users and other stakeholders, and published information.
• Using a Managed Process Run by the New Products Team
4-17

16. Best Sources of Ready-Made New Product Concepts
• New Products Employees
• Technical: R&D, engineering, design
• Marketing and manufacturing
• End Users
• Lead Users
• Resellers, Suppliers, Vendors
• Competitors
• The Invention Industry (investors, etc.)
• Idea exploration firms and consulting engineers
• Miscellaneous (continued)
4-18

17. Best Sources of Ready-Made New Product Concepts (continued)
• Miscellaneous Categories
• Consultants
• Advertising agencies
• Marketing research firms
• Retired product specialists
• Industrial designers
• Other manufacturers
• Universities
• Research laboratories
• Governments
• Printed sources
• International
• Internet
4-19

18. Lead Users
• An important source of new product ideas.
• Customers associated with a significant current trend.
• They have the best understanding of the problems faced, and can gain
from solutions to these problems.
• In many cases, have already begun to solve their own problems, or can
work with product developers to anticipate the next problem in the future.
4-20

19. Toolkits for User Innovation
• A set of design tools that customers can use to customize a product
best suited to them.
• Can incorporate computer-aided design (CAD & computer-aided
manufacturing (CAM)or rapid prototyping.
• Example: International Flavors and Fragrances: Internet-based toolkit
that provides a database of flavor profiles and rules on how to
combine them. Customer can specify flavor mixes that are
immediately made into samples; customer can then make
adjustments until the desired flavor is obtained.
4-21

20. Open Innovation
• The process by which a firm searches for research, innovation, technologies, and
products.
• Increases speed of research and innovation, cuts risks, and generates new
innovative ideas.
• Viewed by some as the dominant innovation model of the 21st century.
• Inputs can come from internal sources (marketing, strategic planning) and
external ones (customers, market information, etc.).
• Sources such as inventors, startup companies, or university laboratories are
actively sought out.
4-22