Dimensions
158 x 234 x 20mm
Constantly devising new products or services or making substantial improvements on existing ones is essential to ensuring every company's long-term business survival. Today, most companies operate in a paradigm where the innovative aspect of product development is either confused with creativity, or is attached to an ineffective process, as is the case with the product-development cycle favored by most companies. This process not only takes months to complete, but has a high rate of failure (the average Fortune 1000 company wastes between USD50 and USD800 million each year in failed product initiatives). It's clear that a more reliable, streamlined, process-driven approach to innovation as it relates to product development would be a welcome business tool. Capturing What They Crave which is based in part on the author's article in the January 2002 issue of Harvard Business Review replaces the traditional thinking on innovation with the advanced tools and framework readers will need to create a product development process that will constantly move their business forward.
In addition, the author's approach overcomes many of the problems associated with traditional market research, concept generation and testing techniques, enabling companies to evaluate the potential of new product and service innovations with both speed and accuracy. The author, a consultant in market research and product strategy, has spent the past 15 years using pattern recognition techniques to devise and implement a universal framework for managing the product development cycle for a number of his clients, including Motorola, Nortel, Bosch, United Technologies and Cordis. Ulwick provides tools and strategies for solving many of the issues that cause failed product initiatives, and demonstrates that innovation is indeed a process that can be obtained and perfected.
Readers will find groundbreaking information on such topics as: * The three steps that comprise the innovation process, and the seven causal factors that can derail that process * How product development begins with listening to your customers but succeeds only if you know when to stop listening * An exploration of the "innovation formula" how to target opportunities for innovation and focus the idea-generating power of your employees on maximizing those opportunities Ulwick's approach to product development works across industries, and for companies of all sizes, offering readers a set of clarifying ideas that will enable them to maximize the benefits of their work for years to come.
