The Innovation Imperative

Citation

Rich, M.K. (1998), "The Innovation Imperative", Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 13 No. 3, pp. 294-297. https://doi.org/10.1108/jbim.1998.13.3.294.1

The last several book reviews have focused on the issue of marketers developing stronger quantitative skills to meet the challenges of today’s marketplace. These challenges take the form of the emergence of multinational corporations, accelerating technological innovation, the emergence of politically developed trading blocs, and aggressive trade competition. We recognize that historical “gut feel” is no longer sufficient either to properly launch marketing attacks on a global scale or to mount a defensive posture against an onslaught of competing products. Previous offerings in this column have addressed the need for greater quantitative skills and approaches to accomplish this need with minimum pain.

Involving the use of a personal computer with corresponding statistical software has made embracing quantitative approaches within the grasp of all but the most primitive practitioner or student. Unfortunately gaining access to greater quantitative methodology only furnishes tools; we also need a greater understanding as to why change and technological innovation is advancing at its current blistering pace. Is there a pattern or logical developmental methodology that can be studied, learned, and applied for greater marketing control by those in the position of directing and tracking a company’s advancements in today’s global environment? Could research develop a framework that could assist in explaining current phenomena in product development?

Such a framework has now been suggested by Susan Sanderson and Mustafa Uzumeri with their recent contribution entitled, The Innovation Imperative. This book is the direct result of a research project undertaken by the authors and effectively reports the results of their efforts in a concise, easy‐to‐follow format. This 210‐page work is subdivided into three component parts, forming 11 relatively short chapters (averaging 19 pages each).

The first three chapters introduce and describe the framework of product variety and design change that the authors state characterizes product competition. The underlying premise developed in these first chapters is that dynamic competition is forcing manufacturers to evolve new strategies and management styles, most of which (according to the authors’ research) are traceable to the pattern of product variety and change. Current market dynamics are requiring the compression of product development times and the expansion of model variety. They remind us that during the 1980s, the best Japanese automobile manufacturers reduced cycle time for new model development from 5‐7 years to 3.5‐4 years while nearly doubling product variety from 47 to 84 models. In other industries, the product scope of US firms has narrowed as major international competitors have saturated markets with extensive lines of attractive products in many price categories. This has resulted in US manufacturers virtually abandoning such products as tape recorders, calculators, and cameras with few domestic producers of VCRs, camcorders, facsimile machines, compact disks, and digital audio recorders. Conservation of resources is now a focus of most firms, resulting in reusability ranking high in design efforts. This is achieved through the mechanisms of modular and virtual design; both directed at facilitating the reuse of common modules or elements. Incorporation of modular design is shown by the authors to yield appreciable savings in the development of new product offerings.

This book further illustrates that successful new product design relies on the ability to share among project team members and across project teams the enormous amounts of information generated by design projects. Further complicating this effort is the volume of designs and the short shelf life of much of the information used in the process. To attack these problems, the authors develop the concept of process families (a manufacturing equivalent of modular design), structures for project term organization, and the distinction between the notions of flexibility and agility, which tend to be used interchangeably in manufacturing.

The authors expand the historical concept of singular product life cycles to an innovative approach of product‐family life cycles that clarifies many concepts developed through this first section. To better understand this approach, a review of Chapter 3 will better illustrate the conceptual properties of this work and illustrate the practical application of the concepts espoused by the authors.

The import of significant quantities of foreign‐made goods starting in the 1960s resulted in the need to view product life‐cycle concepts differently. These foreign‐made products possessed radically different designs from their US counterparts, resulting in these offerings establishing domestic beachheads and gaining market share. The growing diversity of design ideas embodied in imported products reflected their foreign producers’ accommodation of dramatic technological changes. These changes included new approaches to materials handling, manufacturing processes, and information technologies. By the 1970s, many domestic manufacturers either abandoned previously profitable markets to superior imports or adapted the approaches of their foreign counterparts. Such issues as “just‐in‐time,” inventory, “agile” manufacturing, total quality management and process reengineering were all imported approaches.

All of these tools enabled foreign producers to offer greater product variety, more frequent product changes, and a more rapid embracing of technological advancements into new product offerings. Manufacturers that wanted to preserve market share had to expand their product lines and introduce new designs more frequently. The authors examine both the technological and market forces that are driving the dramatic expansion of product variety and cutting short and making less predictable the lives of individual product models. Based on this foundation, the authors then explore the forces that drive product variety and rate of change while also indicating the constraints on these two variables. They then overlay market preferences into this mix to discuss how each firm must select, for a given level of investment, a commitment to a level of product variety and innovation that matches the demands of their selected market segment. The authors develop a framework that illustrates the transition from a product‐family concept to the model competition status of today. The entry of a previously unknown product family from another country can trigger a shift from one type of competition to another. A radically different new product might precipitate a discontinuity that leads to another round of product‐family competition, or the stabilizing influence of an existing dominant product family could be sufficient to trigger the shift to product‐model competition. The chapter is rich with various charts and tables to illustrate the points made in the explicitly written text further.

The second part of this work consists of four chapters, each dedicated to a specific case study. The first study details the management of model variety and change with portable computers. This is followed with the management of the product‐family evolution as experienced by The Sony Walkman®. The next case study involves managing product‐family transitions as illustrated by computer workstations. The final case maps Sony’s management of product‐model and ‐family evolution into the developed framework created by the authors.

Each case study is logically organized and subdivided into logical components. Illustrations are furnished where appropriate to simplify the reader’s understanding of complex issues. The conclusions drawn by the authors do not require a giant leap of faith to link concepts to the reality of each case. The cases are well chosen and support the conceptual development undertaken.

The final section of the book summarizes the various lessons drawn from applying the variety‐change framework developed by the authors to the case studies and to other less formal studies. These final four chapters examine the relationship between variety and change and the key areas of marketing, design, and manufacturing management. The final chapter offers sound suggestions for firms based on their own diagnosis formed during previously presented materials. The chapter offers many examples to support the suggestions offered, resulting in an excellent read that can be accomplished in a relatively short time. The content causes the reader to expand their conceptual boundaries to embrace properties needed in today’s competitive climate.

The bottom line is that the book is written for those who are looking for a simpler way to understand the complexities of global product competition. As a result of reading and understanding this book, according to the authors, marketing managers will have a clearer understanding of the complexities of dynamic competition. Product planners will gain a conceptual framework that can be used in the current global competitive process. Since product variety and change will have a direct impact on the manufacturing process design and operations management, manufacturing managers should receive value from incorporating principles found in this work.

For academics, the framework in this book is relatively simple and easy to adopt into most courses. This would not be a foundational text by any means, but would serve as a support work where greater understanding of this specific discipline was deemed essential by the instructor. It becomes a key contributor for understanding global product competition and could be considered essential for preparing students to meet current demands in the marketplace.