GGI RapidNews R&D Product Development eZine: Volume 2, Issue 2 - March 13, 2001
GGI RapidNews is published monthly

R&D SURVEY RESULTS
Metrics Survey: GGI's 2000 R&D Metrics Survey will soon be published. The 2000 Survey focused on Product Portfolio Management, and resulted in some interesting findings (see below) from respondent companies. We will provide additional complimentary survey findings over the next few issues of RapidNews.

See the PDF survey questionnaire at http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/Metrics.pdf. The survey results will soon be available for purchase at http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/cgi/catalog.cgi
Selected 2000 R&D Metrics Survey Findings (Portfolio Management Metrics):

• 36% of all companies have clearly defined corporate metrics they use to manage the company!
  
  
• 37% of all companies have clearly defined R&D metrics they use to manage R&D!
  
  
• Time-To-Market and Target Product Cost are the two most important criteria for achieving financial success on any given development project!

Our next R&D Metric Survey will be conducted early in 2002. If you would like to participate, please send me an e-mail to get on our mailing list.

UPCOMING PUBLIC SPEAKING
DFMA 2001 Conference: Brad Goldense will present results from GGI's 2000 Metrics Survey in a paper entitled "Measuring R&D Portfolio Success: Best Practices" to be held at Boothroyd-Dewhurst's 2001 International Forum on DFMA on June 4-6 at the Hyatt Regency Newport Hotel, Goat Island, Newport, RI.

The sixteenth-annual 2001 International Forum on DFMA is the premier conference worldwide on early design analysis for mechanical, electromechanical, and electronic products. It is the one conference to attend to gain an understanding of the impact DFMA has on product development. Successful manufacturers use early design analysis as a standard for decision making and a catalyst for product and process innovation. Listening first-hand to papers presented by expert practitioners from around the world will clarify successful DFMA strategies employed by many different companies across many different industries.

More information on the conference may be found at http://www.dfma.com/forum/index.html.

BOOK REVIEWS
Product Leadership: Robert G. Cooper's third book is a worthwhile read. "Product Leadership," 314 pages, was published late in 2000 by Robert G. Cooper and is distributed by Perseus Books. While Cooper's trademarked Stage-Gate methodology is discussed, the emphasis of this writing is on Product Strategy, Product Selection, and Portfolio Management. It is a well-researched book and represents key industry surveys done by the Product Development & Management Association [PDMA] and the Industrial Research Institute [IRI], in addition to Cooper's own proprietary research. Chapter 1 contains numerous facts and figures about product success and failure rates in industry. Chapters 2 and 3 outline thirteen critical success factors that make good sense for companies wishing to achieve leadership positions. Chapter 4 extends Stage-Gate as it is known today into a third generation framework which tickles the mind. Chapters 5-7, covers the mechanics of product selection and portfolio management and explains many useful tools that professionals can put to use without outside assistance. Chapter 8, the final chapter, is essentially an Executive Summary of the book as a whole. Appendix A discusses "ProBE," which is a proprietary software package that is useful to "benchmark practices and performance against industry averages and also against the 20% best firms." Appendix B discusses the "Scoring Model" which is emerging as the product selection methodology that has the highest correlation to overall product success rates in most companies.

Emotional Intelligence: From a "what works," rather than "what's broken" perspective about upper management, Robert Weiss wrote the 1990 book entitled Staying The Course. Weiss examined the emotional and social lives and habits of men who were successful at work. About the same time (1989), Stephen Covey wrote The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, in which he noted many personal characteristics of work effectiveness from what has now come to be called "emotional intelligence." Daniel Goleman's book entitled "Working with Emotional Intelligence," 383 pages published in 1998 by Bantam Books, is a far more thorough review of the emotional characteristics of highly effective people than the previous two. Goleman contends, with references and examples to support his points, that emotional intelligence is more important to success at work than even intelligence or expertise. In fact, he contends it is statistically twice as important, according to information he assembled. What then is emotional intelligence? Goleman says it is a combination of emotional self-mastery (knowing yourself, controlling yourself and having a passion for achievement); people skills (one's influence and collaboration abilities); and a new ingredient to the "learning organization," which is one's capacity to learn these emotional competencies. The good news is that Goleman contents we all can and should learn these emotional competencies if we would maximize our work-related success, especially, he demonstrates, for those managers of companies in markets requiring strong technical disciplines.

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