Leading Product Innovation: Accelerating Growth in a Product‐based Business

Citation

Avlonitis, G.J. (2002), "Leading Product Innovation: Accelerating Growth in a Product‐based Business", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 36 No. 7/8, pp. 950-951. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejm.2002.36.7_8.950.1

Leading Product Innovation emphasises the important role of the product innovation function for improving long‐term financial performance. The book is largely based on the collective experience of authors as managers in the Hewlett‐Packard company and as independent consultants.

The issues of product innovation raised in this book are well worked out and are expressed both in plain language and insightful graphics that allow the reader to appreciate the enlightening material included in the book.

The book consists of 13 chapters, which are organised in five interrelated parts, each one dealing with a specific aspect of product innovation as an essential business operation for achieving future survival and further growth. Together, they provide a holistic picture of the total system necessary to develop and maintain competitive new product operations.

Part I (“Product innovation – the business process that drives growth”) includes three chapters which discuss the role of product innovation as a critical driver of business growth, both in terms of revenues and profits. The relationship of product innovation and the company’s revenue stream is analysed, while a link between investments in product innovation activities and rates of revenue growth is established. A number of implications for managers are also discussed, offering actionable insights into the important concept of developing new products.

Part II comprises another three chapters under the title “The process of product innovation”. Throughout this part, the authors touch upon the issue of how effective new product operations should look. Basically, what the authors argue is that competitive new product operations are characterised by three specific business assets, namely excellent product innovation process, effective leadership from high‐level management, and a supportive work environment. Product innovation is treated as an enterprise‐wide information assembly line. This approach includes specific steps, which are extensively discussed, and is supplemented by a number of strategies on how to improve such an information process. This part of the book concludes with specific aspects of managing the product innovation process. Issues discussed include the preferred project structure, the roles and responsibilities of the project manager, risk management, and building project management capacity in terms of necessary skills and working methods.

In turn, part III (“Leading product innovation – upper management roles”) includes two chapters which deal with another crucial parameter of product innovation, that of top‐level executives’ involvement and commitment in order to achieve the full potential for competitive performance. The authors analyse the roles of different managerial positions in the so‐called “innovation engine” and also discuss relevant issues like the importance of executive leadership in innovation activities, strategic planning and product portfolio planning, product tracking and selection.

Part IV (“Creating the environment”), consisting of another two chapters, complements the previous part of the book by emphasising the fundamental impact of the working environment on enhancing the competitive performance in a new product program.

The fifth and final part of Patterson and Fenoglia’s book (“Measures of success”) consists of two chapters, one describing methods for measuring product innovation performance and the other providing the conclusions of the book. During these closing pages of their book, the authors provide an extensive discussion of numerical and qualitative measures that a company can design in order to assess product innovation performance effectively.

In brief, I consider this book to be an interesting amalgam of fundamental NPD principles and practical tips on the critical issue of product innovation, which is applicable across a broad range of technologies and industries. This important book should be read by everyone who is involved in the exciting process of innovation, namely development researchers, managers, both in top‐level and middle‐level positions, as well as students. Without any doubt, this book can serve as a common basis for discussing product innovation performance issues and working out viable solutions. It surely deserves a place in your library!