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GGI RapidNews R&D Product Development eZine: Volume 8, Issue 10 - October 2, 2007
GGI RapidNews is published approximately once a month.

 

In This Issue

GGI BIENNIAL SURVEY - 2007 Survey is Underway

GGI NEWS & NOTES - GGI Opens Two New Wings in the "GGI Book Store"

MANAGEMENT PRODUCTIVITY -"Protecting IP in China" Among Conference Themes

MANAGEMENT PRODUCTIVITY -Fifth Annual Innovation Challenge Underway

BOOK REVIEW -Dealing with Darwin: How Great Companies Innovate

UPCOMING PUBLIC SEMINAR - Jan08 METRICS SUMMIT - Early Bird Rates

NON-PROFIT CONFERENCE - Capturing VoC Throughout the Value Chain

THE WISDOM iSTORE FEATURED PRODUCT 40% OFF - One New Product

THE WISDOM iSTORE NEW LISTINGS - One New Listing This Month

GATEWAYS TO KNOWLEDGE - A Monthly Feature

CALENDAR OF INDUSTRY EVENTS - A Monthly Feature

TELEVISION EVENTS - Alexander Haig's World Business Review

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GGI BIENNIAL SURVEY - 2007 Underway

GGI's 2007 Biennial Product Development Metrics Survey is in full swing and we are very pleased with the quality and quantity of the response to date. Our thanks to all whom have participated thus far.

We hope to have all responses back by October 15, so if you are currently working on a survey, we look forward to hearing from you shortly.

This year's theme is "Tangible Innovation Processes, Tools, Techniques, & Metrics." We invite all product development professionals who have not already done so to participate in the survey. Simply log on to  http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/research-product-development-innovation-process-metrics.shtml. The site provides a description of past surveys as well as instructions for completing the current version.

The Table of Contents for the 2007 Survey is:
  • Innovation Environment
  • Innovation Processes
  • Innovation Identity
  • Innovation Tools
  • Top Corporate Metrics In Industry R&D Practices

All participants will receive a complimentary 40-50 page Summary of the Survey Results at the conclusion of the study. The Summary will address each survey question. For each survey question, we will provide factual observations, management analysis, and graphed answers. GGI is more generous than other firms in what we provide back to the folks that make the time to participate in our research. We understand how busy every one is and a short summary of highlights does not provide an adequate return on time invested. We have received only compliments for what we have provided participants in the past.

Please be sure that your responses will be held 100% confidence. We will never release data in any form that can be attributed to a single company or single response. We will never release data in a small enough sample that any person or organization can figure out which companies were in the sample. GGI has been in business for twenty years and we understand the importance of being trusted and confidential. In fact, we believe that the survey questions do not request any information that would be considered confidential in nature and thus would require permission of a senior manager to be released.

The survey close date is October 15, 2007. For more information please contact Brett Kratchman at GGI at 781-444-5400 x202.

 

GGI NEWS & NOTES - GGI Opens Two New Wings in the "GGI Book Store"

We are pleased to announce the opening of two new "wings" in the "GGI Book Store" on our home page. One wing is dedicated to Portfolio Management, the other to Product Definition. The "GGI Book Store" provides readers access to top books in all areas of process and technology integration. To enter, simply click on the GGI Book Store icon located in the center of the GGI Home Page.

Included in the New Wings are books on:

  • Portfolio Management: topics include portfolio management tools & techniques, guidelines for project, program and portfolio integration, and intellectual property portfolio management.
  • Product Definition: topics include mastering the requirements process, product concept design, and software concepts.

Each Wing contains a "Top 10" list of books as well live links to on-line booksellers.

As noted in previous RapidNews issues, GGI screens newly published books and approximately 90 periodicals a month in a search for the latest trends. Our Book Store is one more free service that we are pleased to offer our readers.


MANAGEMENT PRODUCTIVITY -Protecting IP in China Among Conference Themes

Condensed from a September 12, 2007, Ocean Tomo mailing.

Protecting and Managing IP in China & the Pacific Rim will be one of two topics presented at Ocean Tomo's Fall Conference and Live IP Auction this month in Chicago. Among topics to be discussed on this subject are:

  • Strategies for enforcement of IP rights in China
  • Collaboration and IP strategies in China
  • Challenges in IP Protection: Tales from a mid-sized company

A program on IP Transactions will also be presented. It will cover the following topics:

  • University technology transfer: the beginning of the IP transaction pipeline?
  • Process approach to IP development
  • Identify opportunities, competitors and technologies using patent relevance analysis

The conference workshops, led by top industry leaders, are now approved for nine credit hours in Illinois.

Immediately following the Conference, Ocean Tomo will host its Fifth Live IP Auction on October 25 at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago. The company will offer for sale over 500 premium IP assets in the following categories:

  • Electronics & handheld devices
  • Business methods/Financial services
  • Web based services/e-Commerce
  • User Interface Technology
  • Digital Media Systems & Management

A Conference Program and an IP Auction Catalog are now available on Ocean Tomo's Web Site.


MANAGEMENT PRODUCTIVITY - Fifth Annual "Innovation Challenge" Underway

Los-Angeles based Idea Crossing is currently hosting its Fifth Annual "Innovation Challenge." Two hundred and eighty-five teams with contenders from 55 countries are vying for the title of Most Innovative MBA Team in the World.

During this online event, groups tackle real-life strategic dilemmas from the world's leading corporations. The top 10 teams will move on to the final round, which will be held November 15-17 at the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business. Winners will receive $30,000 in cash and prizes.

Organized by Idea Crossing and the Darden Graduate School of Business, "Innovation Challenge" is world's oldest and largest competition of its type. This year's sponsors include Hilton Hotels, OPEN from American Express, Whirlpool, Lexmark, Harley-Davidson, and Shell.

The competition's Panel of Judges consists of leading innovation experts and executives at sponsor companies. Bradford L. Goldense, President and CEO of Goldense Group, Inc., is among those who have been selected to participate on the panel.

Founded in 2002, Idea Crossing hosts online competitions that allow companies to tap customers, employees, and external partners for ideas. In addition to generating ideas, the contests serve as a marketing tool and provide access to new talent. More information about the "Innovation Challenge" is available on the Idea Crossing Web Site.


BOOK REVIEW

Dealing with Darwin: How Great Companies Innovate At Every Phase of Their Evolution, Geoffrey A. Moore, the Penguin Group, 2005, Copyright Geoffrey A. Moore, 2005, ISBN 1-59184-107-0.

How does one create competitive advantage in an increasingly commoditizing world?  By continuously innovating,says Geoffrey Moore. This unlikely recommendation is based on a framework Moore calls core/context analysis.

The "Core" is any aspect of a company's operation which creates a differentiation that leads to customer preference. "Context" is all the other work performed by the enterprise. Context is important, but it also contributes to organizational inertia.

Moore suggests that companies tackle innovation and inertia in tandem by extracting resources from "Context" and redirect them to "Core" activities.  Successful companies, such as Cisco Systems, do this as part of their day-to-day business practices.

Dealing with Darwin will help organizations:

  • Understand their role in their market ecosystem.
  • Determine where their competitive advantage came from in the past and how it will change in the future.
  • Predict the kinds of differentiation that will be most rewarded in their marketplace.
  • Overcome the inertia that threatens innovation.

The chapters of this clearly written book contain examples from over one hundred companies, the primary of which is networking giant Cisco Systems. We recommend it to Senior Management, Process Influence Professionals, and Product Development Leaders.

For more information or to order a copy of Dealing with Darwin, go to Amazon.com.


UPCOMING PUBLIC SEMINAR - METRICS SUMMIT JANUARY 2008

GGI's Product Development Metrics Summit will be held January 29-31, 2008, in Metro Boston. Please join us for a series of three seminars, which focus on major areas of importance to R&D executives and managers.

Early Bird Rates and Discounts will be in effect until EOB Pacific Time, Friday November 30, 2007.

Many prior Summit participants were kind enough to share their written comments so that future participants could get a better idea of what to expect. Testimonials.

The first seminar [Measuring Product Development II (MPDII)- January 29] addresses setting hurdle rates, assessing risk and complexity, tradeoff analysis, measuring capacity, and assessing overall financial performance. Click here to view the MPDII Abstract or to download the Table of Contents.

The second seminar [Proactive and Predictive R&D Metrics (PPRD) - January 30] focuses on three stages of developing early, predictive metrics that will enable managers to foresee issues on the horizon or to know that success is in front of them. Click to view the PPRD Abstract or to download the Table of Contents.

The third seminar, a capstone, [Product Development Metrics Portfolios (PDMP) - January 31] covers the areas of metrics for R&D and product development that are not discussed in the prior two seminar days and then shifts focus. Company teams gather and working groups form around Innovator, Innovator/Extender, Balanced, and Extender R&D strategies for the purpose of developing a set of measures for the R&D organization as a whole, including the few measures that should be used by the corporation to measure R&D productivity, output, and overall performance results. Click to view the PDMP Abstract or to download the Table of Contents.

All three seminars are geared to executives and top-level professionals that manage entire organizations, departments, and budgets. It is also of benefit to senior program management executives.

Registration is easy. If you are registering a team, you can sign up any number of people in one transaction. Our site provides for registering the contact information for one person. We will contact you to get the contact information for the remaining team members.

If you are already registered, our Leisure Time Activities page may be useful for planning transportation, meals, and personal time outside the Summit.

For more information please download a brochure.


NON-PROFIT CONFERENCE - Capturing the VoC Throughout the Value Chain

Learn how to hear what your customers want at the upcoming SCPD conference on "Capturing the Voice of the Customer Throughout the Value Chain." Scheduled for Wednesday, November 7, 2007, at the Boston University Conference Center in Tyngsboro, MA, this one-day conference and workshop is hosted by the Society of Concurrent Product Development.

Former Chrysler executive and noted speaker John Miller will share his experiences with Impact Zones and Voice of the Customer processes. Other speakers include Professors Frank Hull (Cass Business School) and Paul Collins (the University of Washington) as well as Peter Fritz of 3M and Mary Kotler of PTG Industries.

Three breakout sessions will be offered on the following topics:

  • Lead Customer Involvement and Ethnographic Methods
  • Analytical Methods and Tools for VoC
  • VoC Integration in the Product Creation Value Stream

To register for the conference, go to the Society of Concurrent Product Development Web Site and click the conference link. Early-bird rates offer a $100 savings and are available through October 15.

THE WISDOM iSTORE FEATURED PRODUCT 40% OFF - Design Review Checklists

Discounted Item: Periodically, GGI's iStore features one item that we discount 40%. We are now offering our Design Review Checklist, DR10PAKc.

Design Review Checklists (Electronic Copy - Corporate License),  Goldense Group, Inc., Needham, MA, USA, $570.00 [List Price $950.00]

Covers all ten checklists, covering a wide range of products, from those with a single technical domain (like mechanical), to those with mixed domains (such as mechanical, electronics and embedded, operating system and/or applications software).

GGI's Featured Item changes approximately every other month and is always offered at 40% discount. To order this material, please go to GGI's Featured Item on the GGI Home Page.


THE WISDOM iSTORE NEW LISTINGS - 1 New Listing

A new item has been added to the Wisdom iStore since we last wrote. Please click on the item number for a more detailed description and ordering information.

T68 "Linked Metrics Portfolio(tm) Method," Copyright 2007 by Goldense Group, Inc., Needham, Massachussetts, USA, ISBN 1-932468-70-6, August 23, 2007 [65 pages].

Price: T68h (hard copy) = $260, T68c (electronic corporate license) = $325, T68sc (electronic corporate/supply chain license) = $488.

T68 presents nine Linked Metrics Portfolios(tm) created at GGI's August 2007 Metrics Summit held in Norwood, Massachusetts. Drafted by six separate teams of participants at the summit, this document contains metrics portfolios that measure the entire R&D organization including: overall metrics, projects, functions, improvement efforts, and corporation-level metrics.

Created by Goldense Group, Inc, the Linked Metrics Portfolio is a natural fit for environments that have many projects, such as marketing, research and development, and operations. It allows project, functional, and improvement teams to identify key metrics and roll them up to the vice presidential level.

The report provides charts illustrating the logic and method of the Linked Metrics Portfolio method. The final portfolios represent a variety of industries including software, electronics, health management, pharmaceutical, mechanical equipment, and hardware/software co-design.

For more information, please go to The Wisdon iStore. T68 is specifically located in the Technical Papers Section.

BIENNIAL METRICS SURVEY RESULTS

2004 Product Development Metrics Survey - Product Selection, IP Management, and Top Corporate Metrics:  The Summary Report (MR32h) and Highlights Report (MR31h) for GGI's 2004 Biennial Product Development Metrics Survey are now available for purchase by the public through GGI's Wisdom iStore.  These reports are completely based on primary research performed by GGI researchers.  The research includes 202 respondent companies.  There was a 5% response rate.

McKinsey & Company, Texas Instruments, Rockwell, Kimberly Clark, JDS Uniphase, Shure, Curtiss Wright Flight Systems and Datacard are representative of companies that purchase market research from GGI.

The 2004 Survey focused on the following five areas of product selection and IP management:

  • Product Selection Process
  • Product Selection Tools
  • IP Management Process
  • IP Management Tools
  • Top Corporate Metrics Used in Industry RD&E

We have already shared many results with GGI RapidNews readers since we began this line of business in 1998.  2004 Survey results ran in six RN issues, RN V5I11 - RN V6I5, which may be found in the RN archives, along with results from prior years.

Some additional complimentary information about the survey is available:

The three commercial versions of the survey results that we currently offer for public purchase are:

1. 2004 SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS: A text-only report (75 pages), including the full text of all the results and analysis of the survey population analyzed as a whole, and
2. 2004 SURVEY SUMMARY: A report of composite results, where the survey respondents are analyzed as a whole (149 pages, includes a full set of graphed answers for every survey question).
3. 2004 SURVEY RESULTS:  A report of composite results, where the survey respondents are analyzed as a whole AND five different cross-sections of the survey data contrasting Public vs Private, High Tech vs Low Tech, Big vs Small Revenues, Large Number of Employees vs Few Employees, and Process vs Repetitive, vs Discrete vs Job Shop (313 pages, includes a full set of graphed answers for survey questions).

Individual sections of the research reports, as well as logical combinations of sections are also available.  All reports are available in printed or electronic versions.

These reports are available in the Market Research Section of The Wisdom iStore.

2002, 2000, 1998 Product Development Metrics Survey:  The Summary and Highlights Reports for GGI's prior Biennial Product Development Metrics Surveys are also available for purchase by the public through The Wisdom iStore. Information about the purpose and focus of prior surveys may be found in our Biennial Survey Archives.


GATEWAYS TO KNOWLEDGE

GTK- Gateway To Knowledge is a DIRECTORY OF THOUSANDS OF LINKS to providers of engineering, purchasing, and manufacturing technologies and services.  If you hit the right subjects, it is more useful than a search engine! The "main entrance" to GTK can be found at:

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

For those of you that do not want to go through the main entrance above, some of the Gateways that we believe you will find useful or entertaining are highlighted below.

Technology Providers
Service Providers
Professional & Trade Associations
Government Services
Travel

 

CALENDAR OF INDUSTRY EVENTS

GGI's Calendar of Industry Events contains an up-to-date listing of links to Conferences, Seminars, Distance Learning Centers, Colleges & Universities, Executive Education, and Corporate-Sponsored Universities.   The calendar has just been updated with 60 upcoming conferences and seminars throughout 2007.  The categories we follow are:
Seminars
Distance Learning Centers
Colleges & Universities
Executive Education
Corporate-Sponsored Universities

The categories of conferences, seminars, and distance learning are further organized into the following subject areas:
Strategic, Knowledge & General Management
Marketing & Sales - Mechanical, Electro-Mechanical, Electrical, & Electronic
Marketing & Sales - Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology, & Life Sciences
Product Development - Mechanical, Electro-Mechanical, Electrical, & Electronic
Product Development - Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology, & Life Sciences
Manufacturing & Automation - Mechanical, Electro-Mechanical, Electrical, & Electronic
Manufacturing & Automation - Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology, & Life Sciences
Software, Internet & IT
Project Management
Metrics

If you are looking for a conference or other learning opportunity, check out the Calendar.  This free service for our readers is front and center on GGI's Home Page.  Or, go directly to the Calendar of Industry Events MEGA Gateway.

 

TELEVISION EVENTS

Alexander Haig's World Business Review: Brad Goldense has made several appearances on Alexander Haig's World Business Review. 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 on GGI's web site.

December 15, 2002 In-Studio with Alexander Haig (7.5 minutes) on CNBC paid programming: Streaming video for this segment is available on GGI's web site.

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 on GGI's web site.

August 4, 2002 On-Location at GGI (3.5 minutes): This On-Location field report is available in streaming video on GGI's web site.

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/ggi-goldense-product-development-tv-television-broadcast.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.