Volume 5, Issue 5- May 7, 2004
GGI RapidNews is published approximately once a month.

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2004 METRICS SURVEY

MANAGEMENT PRODUCTIVITY - 2004 Patent Scorecard, APQC Study

2002 BIENNIAL SURVEY - 2002 RD&E Survey Results available now

NEW WEB CONTENT - Redesigned Home Page

FEATURED iSTORE PRODUCT - PPRD Coursebook

CONFERENCES OF INTEREST - Brandworks University, BDI Forum on DFMA, MRT Metrics

WEBINARS OF INTEREST - Sopheon's Winning Practices for Product Development

TELEVISION EVENTS - Alexander Haig's World Business Review

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2004 BIENNIAL METRICS SURVEY

GGI's 2004 Biennial Product Development Metrics Survey is now under way. The purpose of this survey is "the processes of product definition, product selection, and intellectual property management; and the relationships and interrelationships between the types of processes, tools, and people involved in these activities -- prior to the approval of a project/product for development." The survey will take less than 45 minutes to complete, as verified by all of our beta testers. The deadline to complete the survey is June 1, 2004.

In addition to the Respondent Profile, there are five sections to the research questionnaire. The middle four sections are the theme of this biennial survey. The last section repeats in every biennial survey to continually benchmark the metrics that industry considers to be important at any given time. The questionnaire contains the following sections:

A. Respondent Profile
B. Product Selection Process
C. Product Selection Tools
D. IP Management Process
E. IP Management Tools
F. Top Corporate Metrics Used In Industry RD&E

The survey is now available on our web site. To download a copy of the questionnaire, go to http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/biennial.shtml. All participants will receive a complimentary copy of the detailed 40-50 page Executive Summary of the Survey results which will include a graphical analysis and detailed narrative analysis of each question; and a summarization of the survey results as a whole -- if a completed survey is received in the required time frame.

MANAGEMENT PRODUCTIVITY

Intellectual Property Metrics: 2004 Patent Scorecard

from "The Patent Scorecard: 2004", Technology Review, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Volume 107, Issue 4, May 2004, pages 71-74, and
"The Patent Scorecard: 2003", Technology Review, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Volume 106, Issue 4, May 2003, pages 59-62.

There are many ways to measure innovation. For a number of years Technology Review Magazine and CHI Research have collaborated to create the annual Patent Scorecard, which tracks the patenting activity of the top 150 companies in eight high-tech sectors. The Patent Scorecard uses more than just patent numbers to rank the technological strength of a company, by considering the significance of the patents as well as other factors. The metrics developed by Technology Review and CHI Research are:

- Technological Strength: The number of U.S. patents multiplied by the Current Impact Index (see below). This figure is the basis for the rankings.
- Number of Patents: The number of U.S. patents awarded, excluding design and other special-case inventions.
- Current-Impact Index: The number of times a company's U.S. patents from the previous five years are cited as prior art in the current year's patents. A value of 1.0 represents average citation frequency.
- Science Linkage: The average number of scientific references listed in a company's U.S. patents. A higher number indicates a company closer to the cutting edge than its competitors with lower values.
- Technology Cycle Time: The median age (in years) of the U.S. patents cited as prior art in a company's patents. This indicates a firm's speed in turning leading-edge technology into intellectual property.

Despite the tough economy over the past few years, technological strength and patent awards continue to rise for many companies who aim to protect their intellectual property. But the picture was a mixed one. For the eleventh straight year, IBM continues to lead not only the Computers sector, but the entire scorecard with a total of 3,434 patents awarded in 2003. This figure is up slightly (3%), despite a 5% decrease in their technological strength from the prior year. Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard increased their patent awards by 3% and 26% respectively, compared to 2003. Each of the eight industries presented, aerospace, automotive, biotechnology/pharmaceuticals, chemicals, computers, electronics, semiconductors, and telecommunications, had a mixture of gains and losses in Technological Strength and Number of Patents compared to 2002. Companies typically change in rankings from year to year, reflecting the dynamic nature of innovation. Innovative companies must remain dynamic in the face of global competition by continuing to invest in R&D and then protecting their ideas.

The complete scorecard can be viewed here: http://www.technologyreview.com/scorecards/

APQC Benchmarking Study

The American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC) has just launched its latest consortium research and benchmarking study, "Measuring R&D Productivity." Goldense Group, Inc. [GGI] is serving as a subject matter expert for this study.

In order for organizations to gain and sustain a competitive edge, they must continually invest in new and improved products and services. The purpose of this consortium benchmarking study is to research how leading organizations focus, manage, and measure their R&D and new product development activities to provide maximum benefit to the corporation. APQC with GGI expert support, along with consortium members, will examine how best-practice organizations advance R&D and how they measure it. The study will explore and understand how best-practice organizations select the most appropriate metrics for R&D, including measurements of cost effectiveness, staff productivity, process efficiency and cycle time. We will examine how leading organizations define a strategy for managing process innovation to increase R&D productivity.

R&D metrics need to be supported by the entire organization, leading to increased effectiveness from investments in R&D, and in the long run, increased R&D efficiency and greater marketplace success. This study can help organizations learn how to measure R&D productivity successfully.

The APQC consortium benchmarking study addresses the following three areas:

1. Identify the areas where improved attention, knowledge, and education would lead to higher R&D productivity.
- Understand how leading-edge companies manage portfolios and the focus and number of innovative new product or service ideas.
- Identify common elements, processes, or strategies that increase the productivity of both research and development as opposed to those that are effective for just one or the other.
- Learn how leading-edge organizations take steps to operationalize a strategy for innovation.

2. Use measurement to increase visibility and awareness, which in turn will facilitate enhanced performance in R&D.
- Determine what to measure (overall R&D performance, product/service development project performance, functional performance, improvement project performance).
- Examine how leading-edge companies use performance management practices to drive the efficiency and effectiveness of R&D to the bottom line.
- Identify qualitative and quantitative metrics.

3. Determine effective change management activities to support the realization of improved R&D productivity.
- Understand the effect of the measurement system on R&D performance.
- Understand the behavior-based challenges related to implementing and maintaining the performance measurement system.
- Learn how leading-edge organizations evaluate the productivity of knowledge workers.

Sign up by May 17, 2004 to receive a $1,500 discount on the price of $16,000 for APQC members and $22,000 for non-members. The kickoff meeting will take place on July 20, 2004, and the study will be conducted with site visits during August and September, 2004. Knowledge transfer session occurs in mid-November.

For information about this study, go to http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/apqc.shtml.

For specific details about this R&D Productivity Study (including goals and pricing), download this document: http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/R&DProductivityProposal.pdf.
For background information on APQC's methods for the conduct of sponsored consortium benchmarking studies, download this document: http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/APQC ConsortBmkgMethod.pdf.
If you wish to see the tool that will be used to identify the companies that have truly adopted best practices and are therefore best suited to be the focus of benchmarking activities in this study, download this document: http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/BPScreeningSurvey.doc.
Sponsors considering participation in this R&D Productivity Study should download and complete this questionnaire which contains a series of short questions relating to their needs, interests, and expectations. The response is discussed as part of the decision process of becoming a sponsor with APQC to insure that there is a good match between the study intent and the sponsor company's needs: http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/SponsorInterestsQuest.doc

For more detailed information about the APQC/GGI Consortium Research Study, please contact Don Stewart, our Director of Special Projects, at 781-788-9813 or dms@goldensegroupinc.com.

For general information about APQC, go to http://www.apqc.org.

For general information about Goldense Group, Inc., go to http://www.goldensegroupinc.com.

2002 BIENNIAL SURVEY

2002 RD&E Survey - Resource & Capacity Management: Complete results from our 2002 Product Development Metrics Survey are now available, including our most detailed "RESULTS" report.

The survey focused this year on the following 5 areas of resource and capacity management:
- Loading the RD&E capacity pipeline,
- Providing capacity for RD&E activities,
- Balancing cross-functional resources (staffing ratios),
- Using systems, tools, & metrics to manage capacity, and
- RD&E metrics used in industry.

The 3 versions of the survey results reports that we offer for sale to the public are

1. 2002 SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS: A text-only report (65 pages),including the full text of all the results and analysis of the survey population analyzed as a whole,
2. 2002 SURVEY SUMMARY: A report of composite results, where the survey respondents are analyzed as a whole (116 pages, including a full set of graphics), and
3. 2002 SURVEY RESULTS: The most detailed report, complete with the composite results and "special cuts," where the survey population is segmented and analyzed in the following groups: Public vs. Private, Smaller vs. Larger, Process vs. Repetitive/Discrete vs. Job Shop, Higher Technology vs. Lower Technology, and More vs. Fewer Employees (223 pages).

These reports are available in the Market Research section of GGI's iStore (http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/iStore/store.html). The original survey questionnaire as well as a description of the survey (including survey focus and demographics, tables of contents for the 3 reports, and examples of key findings) can be found at the Survey Information page at http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/biennial.shtml or in the Market Research Reading Room at http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/readmarket.shtml.

NEW WEB CONTENT

Redesigned Home Page: Check out our redesigned home page. We have added graphics and have placed key items front and center for easy access. It has been a few years since GGI relaunched our home page.

GTK-Gateways To Knowledge: Your resource for industry and product development related information and contacts offers thousands of links to providers of technologies and services for line management functions. The main entrance to GTK can be found at:

http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/gateway/index.shtml

FEATURED GGI iSTORE PRODUCTS

Featured Item: GGI's iStore features one deeply discounted offering, which changes periodically. The current Featured Item is the "Proactive and Predictive R&D Metrics - PPRD Coursebook" (S3).

The Proactive and Predictive R&D Metrics (PPRD) Coursebook is your detailed guide to understanding and creating meaningful, forward-looking metrics for R&D. The coursebook accompanies the intensive seminar of the same name, and is useful on its own. The coursebook (and seminar) covers the following four metrics topic areas:

- Planning metrics
- Proactive metrics
- Predictive metrics
- Reactive metrics

The coursebook will help you move from reactive measures of past activity to planning, proactive, or predictive measures that improve the predictability of R&D and bottom-line results. You will also learn how to differentiate between a corporate and a project metric, as well as to create good project metrics that can be rolled up across business units to result in a good corporate metric. The coursebook contains many examples and case studies of different types of metrics used in different industries.

The price for the PPRD Coursebook has been dropped from $495.00 to $297.00, a deep discount of 40%. For more information or to purchase this valuable report, go to

http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/cgi/catalog.cgi?display_promo.

CONFERENCES OF INTEREST

Brandworks University: Lindsay, Stone & Briggs will hold "Brandworks University" on May 25-26, 2004 in Madison, Wisconsin. Brandworks University is considered "the world's premier conference on branding." The conference theme is "How to have smarter, more successful new product launches." Attendance at the conference is by invitation only, and limited to 350 top U.S. marketing leaders.

Brad Goldense has been invited to speak at this year's Brandworks University. Brad's presentation, "Be Ready to Launch!" will cover the essential pre-commercialization processes and measurements to enable successful launch.

For more information, go to Lindsay, Stone & Briggs' web site: http://www.lsb.com.

2004 International Forum on DFMA (BDI): Boothroyd Dewhurst's 19th Annual International Forum on Design for Manufacture and Assembly will be held June 22-23 in Providence, Rhode Island. The goal of this conference is to provide expert opinion on DFMA and other early design technologies. Manufacturing leaders and research leaders will be on hand to answer your questions on such topics as cost management and reduction, product lifecycle management, shrinking time to market, concurrent engineering, and design for disposal and recycling.

At the conference on Tuesday, June 22, Brad Goldense will present "PLM: State-Of-Practice vs. Best Practice."

For more information and to register, go to BDI's web site: http://www.dfma.com/forum/index.html.

MRT 9th Annual Metrics Conference: Management Roundtable will hold its 9th annual conference, "Product Development and R&D Metrics: Metrics from Ideation to Commercialization," on September 28-30, 2004 in Chicago, IL. The conference will examine how leading metrics experts and advanced industry practitioners are deploying metrics further upstream to capture new product ideas faster and speed innovation efforts. The conference features keynote addresses, case studies, pre-conference workshops, and facilitated Q&A and networking sessions. This year's keynote speakers are Tom Kuczmarski, President of Kuczmarski & Associates, and Larraine Segil, Partner at Vantage Partners.

Brad Goldense will conduct a full-day, pre-conference workshop on Tuesday, September 28 on "Product Development Metrics Portfolios." Brad will also present the results of GGI's 2004 Product Development Metrics Survey on Thursday, September 30.

Register by May 28 to receive an Early Bird discount of $300. More information is available at MRT's web site: http://www.roundtable.com/Event_Center/MET04/MET04.html

WEBINARS OF INTEREST

Winning Practices for Product Development: This free, online seminar series is co-sponsored by Sopheon and the Society of Concurrent Product Development [SCPD]. These one-hour, online events feature experts and leading practitioners who will share process knowledge and practical advice about ways to improve your product development performance and results.

There is currently one webinar scheduled.

18 May - (8:00 am Pacific/11:00 am Eastern/16:00 UK) - Managing a Development Portfolio In Difficult Economic Times: Balancing The Now With The Later, presented by Kim Houchens PhD, former Director of Technology & New Product Development for OMNOVA Solutions, Inc.

For more information on the scheduled webinar, or to look at the archive of past webinars, go to http://www.sopheon.com/events_onlineseminars.asp.

TELEVISION EVENTS

Alexander Haig's World Business Review: Brad Goldense has made several appearances on Alexander Haig's World Business Review in the past year. Streaming video is available for all shows, which aired on August 4, September 29 and December 15, 2002 and on May 20, 2003. See below for details.

May 20, 2003 Broadcast of September 29th In-Studio with Alexander Haig (22.5 minutes): Streaming video for this segment is available at: http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/ggiontv.shtml#wbr5

December 15, 2002 In-Studio with Alexander Haig (7.5 minutes) on CNBC paid programming: Streaming video for this segment is available at: http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/ggiontv.shtml#wbr3

September 29, 2002 In-Studio with Alexander Haig (22.5 minutes): Streaming video for this segment (as well as the entire 30-minute show) is available at: http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/ggiontv.shtml#wbr2

August 4, 2002 On-Location at GGI (3.5 minutes): This On-Location field report is available in streaming video on GGI's website. To see the program, go to: http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/ggiontv.shtml#wbr1

The web page includes links to download a streaming video player, if you do not currently have one installed on your computer.

For more information on any of Brad's appearances on television, go to:

http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/ggiontv.shtml.

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GGI RapidNews is an e-mail publication from Goldense Group, Inc (GGI). Its subject matter includes survey findings, company news, book and article reviews, key industry conferences and R&D information of interest to clients and associates. Please send communications to rn(at)goldensegroupinc.com. Thank you.