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GGI RapidNews R&D Product Development eZine: Volume 5, Issue 7- August 11, 2004
GGI RapidNews is published approximately once a month.

In This Issue

NEWS & NOTES - New Personnel

2004 METRICS SURVEY

BOOK REVIEW - Ten Deadly Marketing Sins (Kotler)

MANAGEMENT PRODUCTIVITY - APQC R&D Productivity Benchmarking Study

MANAGEMENT PRODUCTIVITY - MASP Association's New Production System

FEATURED iSTORE PRODUCT - Usage of Best PLM Practices: State of the Industry [Presentation Slides]

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

NEW iSTORE PRODUCTS - New Articles and Technical Papers

NEW WEB CONTENT - Updated Calendar

CONFERENCES OF INTEREST - MRT Metrics

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

TELEVISION EVENTS - Alexander Haig's World Business Review

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NEWS & NOTES

New Member of GGI's Team: Richard J. James recently joined GGI's staff as Director of Research. Richard has over 30 years experience in the development and manufacturing of complex electro-mechanical and chemical products, focusing on rapid product inception, product and process improvements, cost reductions, vendor relations, and customer satisfaction. He has extensive experience using statistical engineering concepts and tools to establish quality systems and analysis methods for manufacturing and new product development projects. Richard was Technical Manager of Polaroid's Consumer Hardware division supporting multiple overseas and domestic plants. He was 6 Sigma champion and black belt project leader at both corporate and divisional levels, leading corporate-wide product development process improvement projects across design, marketing and manufacturing. Prior to this he was Quality Manager for the SX-70 camera. Richard is a BOD member and VP Finance of Boston's chapter of the Society of Concurrent Product Development, a member of ASQ, and on the Board of Directors of Credit Risk Monitor, the leading internet-based credit information company. He has a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from Northeastern University, and has also completed numerous graduate level courses in management, technical, and statistical subjects. He is a certified ISO 9000 auditor.


2004 BIENNIAL METRICS SURVEY

GGI's 2004 Biennial Product Development Metrics Survey is now in the analysis phase. Thanks to all of you who completed the survey, our best response yet. We received 209 surveys in total, and after eliminating invalid surveys and duplicates within companies we came up with a total of 202 valid surveys. This survey population is our largest to date, and the data has been verified to be accurate and complete. All participants will receive an acknowledgement letter in the mail soon. Any survey respondents who do not receive an acknowledgement letter from us by September 15 should contact Richard James at rjj@goldensegroupinc.com or 781-444-5400, x201. Although we did have several duplicate surveys, be assured that if you sent in a completed survey, you will receive a copy of the Executive Summary of the results in the October time frame.


BOOK REVIEW

Ten Deadly Marketing Sins: Signs and Solutions, by Philip Kotler. John Wiley & Sons. 2004, 1st edition. 160 pages.

Philip Kotler, considered the father of modern marketing, provides a comprehensive guide to the ten most common marketing mistakes and how to overcome them. In today's challenging world, marketing is ever more important to drive business strategy and to identify new opportunities. Kotler asserts that many marketing departments are inefficiently organized and only focus on selling and promoting, missing other key areas of product, pricing and placement. Kotler's "10 Deadly Marketing Sins," their signs, and some solutions are presented here.

1. "Your company is not sufficiently market-focused and customer driven." Signs include poor identification of market segments, weak or no prioritization of market segments, and a lack of market segment managers. Solutions: Improve segmentation and prioritization of market segments, develop specialized sales forces and clarify company values to focus on the customer.

2. "Your company doesn't fully understand its target customers." Signs include out of date customer studies, lower than expected rate at which customers are buying your product, and a high level of customer returns and complaints. Solutions: Perform more sophisticated research to gain insight into your customers' needs, perceptions, preferences, and behavior.

3. "Your company needs to better define its competitors and monitor them." Signs include focusing on the wrong competitor and lacking a way to gather and distribute competitive intelligence. Solutions: Establish a central person or office to collect and disseminate all competitive intelligence, hire people from your major competitors, monitor every new technology that might threaten your business and view them as potential investment options, and prepare offerings similar to those of your competitors.

4. "Your company has not properly managed its relationship with its stakeholders." Signs include unhappy employees, failure to attract the best suppliers and distributors, and unhappy investors. Solutions: Move from zero-sum thinking to positive-sum thinking, manage and reward your employees better, and manage and reward suppliers, distributors and dealers better.

5. "Your company is not good at finding new opportunities." Signs include lack of exciting new opportunities identified in recent years and failure of new ideas that have been launched. Solutions: Set up a system for stimulating the flow of new ideas from your partners and find a way to use creativity systems for generating new ideas.

6. "Your company's marketing planning process is deficient." Signs include the marketing plan does not include the right components or logic, the planning software does not allow you to simulate the impact of alternative strategies, and the plan does not consider contingencies. Solutions: Establish a standard plan format (including situational analysis; strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats; major issues; objectives; strategy; tactics; budgets; and controls), and establish flexible budgeting to allow allocation of money to those who can do the best with their budget.

7. "Your company's product and service policies need tightening." Signs include the firm has too many products and many are losing money; the firm is giving away too many services for free; and the company is poor at cross-selling products and services. Solutions: Use a product tracking and evaluation system, offer and price services at different levels, and improve the processes for cross-selling and upselling.

8. "Your company's brand-building and communications efforts are weak." Signs include your target market does not know much about your company, your brand is not seen as distinctive and better than the other brands, your company allocates the same amounts of its budget to the same marketing tools every year, and you do little evaluation of the ROI impact of your promotional programs. Solutions: Improve your brand-building strategies and measure the impact on our brand equity, shift money into marketing instruments of greater effectiveness, and require marketers to supply estimates of the financial impact of their spending requests.

9. "Your company is not well-organized to carry on effective and efficient marketing." Signs include the head of marketing does not seem very effective, the staff lacks some marketing skills needed in the 21st century, and there are bad vibes between marketing and the other departments. Solutions: appoint a stronger leader of the marketing department, and build new skills in the marketing department such as positioning, brand asset management, customer relationship management, Internet marketing, and profitability analysis.

10. "Your company has not made maximum use of technology." Signs include the company has made minimal use of the Internet, the company's sales automation system is outdated, the company has not introduced any market automation, and the marketing group lacks decision-support models. Solutions: Make more use of the Internet, improve sales automation systems, use more market automation, and develop decision support models


MANAGEMENT PRODUCTIVITY

APQC R&D Productivity Benchmarking Study

The American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC) is conducting a consortium research and benchmarking study, entitled "Measuring R&D Productivity." Goldense Group, Inc. [GGI] is serving as a subject matter expert for this study. This study breaks new ground in understanding the drivers of R&D productivity.

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.

2. Use measurement to increase visibility and awareness, which in turn will facilitate enhanced performance in R&D.

3. Determine effective change management activities to support the realization of improved R&D productivity.

Fourteen sponsor companies are engaged in this consortium research and benchmarking study. The kickoff meeting took place on July 20, 2004, and the study will be conducted with site visits during September and October, 2004. The Knowledge Transfer Session occurs in early December. Results remain confidential for 3 to 4 months and then will be available for purchase in February 2005 through the APQC web site.

For information about this study, go to http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/apqc.shtml. For general information about APQC, go to http://www.apqc.org. For general information about Goldense Group, Inc., go to http://www.goldensegroupinc.com.


MANAGEMENT PRODUCTIVITY

The MASP Association's New Production System

Summarized from "Enterprise Integration in Japan," by CASA/SME Tokyo Chapter authors Keiju Matsushima, PhD, Hiroaki Uno, Atsushi Endou, and Yoko Ogushi, PhD, CASA/SME Blue Book Series, Computer and Automated Systems Association of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. 2004.

From their high performance in manufacturing technology in the 1980s, Japanese manufacturers have significantly lost competitiveness over the past decade. To revive their competitiveness, Japanese manufacturers have initiated various improvements, many focused on enterprise integration. This Blue Book provides an overview of a number of initiatives through case studies; we present a summary of one, MASP's new production system that integrates production control and product development.

MASP, the Manufacturing Architecture for Series Product Association, is an association that since its founding in 1998, has focused on building a new, more flexible production system architecture more responsive to changing product mixes, engineering changes, shorter product life cycles, etc., compared to MRP. MASP has developed a new tool to implement the core of a new system that offers more flexibility and allows for quick delivery, rapid and efficient product development, and rapid response to different customer needs. This new tool, the SPBOM (Series Product for Bill of Manufacturing), handles series products and focuses on reusing technology on the level of the product group or sub-product group. The SPBOM integrates the bill of materials and the manufacturing data through groups rather than item codes and can facilitate "pliant production" where final product specification are not needed at order entry. The SPBOM combines the conventional BOM, item structure and item routing, focusing on processing functions and their sequence. Through object-oriented database technology, changes to the order specification during the production process can be resolved easily. This system has been in use in some Japanese firms since 1999 and will certainly enhance their competitiveness.


FEATURED GGI iSTORE PRODUCTS

Featured Item: GGI's iStore features one deeply discounted offering, which changes periodically. The current Featured Item is "Usage of Best PLM Practices: State of the Industry [Presentation Slides]" (T38).

This Keynote/Featured Presentation, from the 2003 PDMA Conference last fall, provides a definition of current industry practices for the eight processes that have emerged in the past five years as Best Practices for Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). The presentation is based on results of three research surveys and case studies of North American companies. Numerous graphical examples and detailed descriptions are provided for each of the eight Best PLM Practices that span the following key areas across the entire product life cycle:

* Ideation and Concept Management
* Product Selection
* Intellectual Property Management
* Resource & Capacity Management
* Portfolio Management
* Product Obsolescence Management


Detailed case study and research results as well as a detailed definition of the best practices are presented in each area. Overall benefits are also discussed. This presentation puts you on top of the most current Best Practices for PLM that can help drive your company to better customer satisfaction, higher profits, time savings, and ultimately greater success.

The price for the presentation, "Usage of Best PLM Practices: State of the Industry," has been dropped from $330.00 to $198.00, 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.


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 RESULTS report is the only version published that contains cross-population cuts of the data, in addition to analysis of the survey population as a whole.

The 2002 Survey focused 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 2002 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/research-product-development-innovation-process-metrics.shtml or in the Market Research Reading Room at http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/readmarket.shtml.


NEW iSTORE PRODUCTS

New Items: GGI's iStore has now been updated with 1 new Article and 4 new Technical Papers & Presentations. See details below, or go directly to GGI's iStore storefront:

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

New Published Articles

A53 - "When Companies Outsource R&D, The Main Focus is NPD, According to Study" Visions, Product Development & Management Association, July 2004 [2 pages]

New Technical Papers & Presentations

T50 - "R&D Productivity: Finding The Strategic Drivers & Measures" R&D Productivity Study Meeting, APQC, July 21, 2004 [80 Pages]

T49 - "PLM: State Of Practice vs. Best Practice [Presentation Slides]" The 2004 International Forum on DFMA Conference Proceedings, Boothroyd-Dewhurst, Inc., June 22-23, 2004 [66 pages]

T48 - "Six Key PLM Practices: State of Practice vs. Best Practice [Paper]" The 2004 International Forum on DFMA Conference Proceedings, Boothroyd-Dewhurst, Inc., June 22-23, 2004 [15 pages]

T47 -"R&D Productivity: Finding The Drivers" R&D Productivity Webinar, APQC, June 3, 2004 [67 pages]

For detailed descriptions of each item and information on how to order them, go to GGI's iStore:

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


NEW WEB CONTENT

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

Calendar of Industry Events MEGA Gateway is one of our top 3 MEGA Gateways. It contains a listing of links to Conferences, Seminars, Distance Learning Centers, Webinars, Colleges & Universities, Executive Education, and Corporate-Sponsored Universities. The calendar has just been updated with over fifty new seminars and conferences. If you are looking for a conference or other learning opportunity, check out the Calendar first. This free service for our readers is now front and center on GGI's Home Page. Or, go directly to the Calendar of Industry Events MEGA Gateway at:

http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/gateway/calendar3.shtml


CONFERENCES OF INTEREST

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 conference co-chairs are GGI's Bradford L. Goldense and Tom Kuczmarski, President of Kuczmarski & Associates. Keynote speakers are Tom Kuczmarski and Larraine Segil, Partner at Vantage Partners.

The highlights of GGI's 2004 Product Development Metrics Survey will also be made public for the first time on Thursday, September 30. Brad Goldense will also conduct a full-day, pre-conference workshop on Tuesday, September 28 on "Product Development Metrics Portfolios."

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 are currently no scheduled webinars.

For more information on these webinars, 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/ggi-goldense-product-development-tv-television-broadcast.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/ggi-goldense-product-development-tv-television-broadcast.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/ggi-goldense-product-development-tv-television-broadcast.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/ggi-goldense-product-development-tv-television-broadcast.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/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.