New Product Development….

productLifecycleis vital to maintain a companies revenue growth. All products have a similar lifecycle which ends with declining revenue although the timescale between introduction and extinction may be anywhere between a few weeks to decades.

Unless New Product Development brings a steady stream of products to market the companies revenue will gradually decline.

Of course it is vital that the products being developed have a clearly defined market otherwise the costs of development will outweigh any increase in revenue.

Being in touch with the customers needs is the only way to increase the rate of success.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

www.projectsguru.co.uk

Follow projectsguru on Twitter

Why time to market is critical…

Are your products taking to long to develop and adversely affecting your revenue stream ? Time to Market  is absolutely critical in determining product revenue and payback. With product lifecycles becoming ever shorter as new, better, faster models are introduced the development timescale is critical to success. Every day lost in development is a day lost in sales. This is because the overall lifecycle of the product is reduced the longer the development takes.

This may, at first, seem counterintuitive as the product is deemed to have, say, a 12 month sales life following release to the market but this takes no account of the competition which may already have a better model in development. Consequently each day of lost sales is gone forever and never recovered.

If you want to stay ahead of the competition and maximize payback for your developments you need to minimize product development timescales.

No one should pretend that this is easy. There is a fine balance to be struck between developing a quality product which meets the customers requirements as well as any in-house and external Quality approvals. The product development process needs to be robust and well defined.

Your in-house development process will probably be similar to the typical ISO9001 process below.

ISO9001designprocess

Sometimes the only way to generate time to market reduction is to have a look at the process with a fresh “set of eyes”

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

www.projectsguru.co.uk


Follow projectsguru on Twitter

We’re flying tonight…

BAplane2The planes are flying again over Europe as the restrictions imposed due to the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud have been lifted. But are the scenes experienced over the last few days a bleak glimpse into our collective futures ?

It is commonly acknowledged that oil reserves will not last forever but maybe less well known that the period of peak oil production is upon us and in the near future demand will begin to exceed supply. So what are the possible consequences:-

oilgraph1) Oil is like any other commodity and as demand exceeds supply price will increase. This was seen before the financial crash of 2008 when Oil peaked at $147 per barrell. It is current around $82 per barrell.

2) GDP growth is directly dependent on oil supply. China is currently growing at around 10% per annum – this cannot continue.

3) There is no readily available alternative. Biofuels represent a tiny percentage of total fuel volumes and use up valuable land resource which could be used to grow food.

4) We will experience increasing cost of food and other essentials.

5) Air travel will become the preserve of the rich. This can already be seen in the UK with vastly fewer people taking foreign holidays following the financial crash.

6) Our world will shrink; the global village we have experienced since the 1960’s will shrink as travel costs reduce our ability to roam.

7) There will probably be more conflict on a global scale as States compete for scarce resources.

This all sounds like bad news but there will be positive outcomes:-

1) Reduced consumption of Oil will reduce the amount of carbon generation and lessen the risk of global warming.

2) The crisis will force us to develop alternate energy strategies.

3) Being less dependent on “the black stuff” will enable us to take independent geo-political decisions less hindered by our current needs.

4) We will be more concious about re-use and less wasteful of resources.

We live in interesting times.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

www.projectsguru.co.uk

Follow projectsguru on Twitter


ESA launch fuels global warming debate..

The successful launch and deployment earlier today of the European Space Agency’s Cryosat-2 satellite represents a tremendous achievement for the organization. The satellite will measure and track ice thickness in the polar regions providing invaluable data for environmental scientists. Hopefully this data will prove , one way or the other, that global warming is indeed a fact and is caused by man’s activities and needs to be addressed politically in a united and effective manner.

The Scientific project has been ably led by Professor Duncan Wingham of the University College London who commented:-

“Today, it’s just a real pleasure; and I speak on behalf of all the scientists who will use the data to just thank all of those many people who contributed to this mission. Personally, it’s been a fabulous ride for me,” he told the assembled guests at the German centre.

Congratulations Professor Wingham & all at ESA for the successful launch of this incredible Scientific venture.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

www.projectsguru.co.uk

Follow projectsguru on Twitter

Masterchef..lessons for PM’s #pmot

MASTERCHEFI don’t know about you but I love BBC’s Masterchef, not just for the food and the cooking skills but the lessons it has for Project Managers.

And before I hear you scream “not another popular T.V program – tenuous Blog link story” please bear with me, bear with me.

First of all I love the passion. The contestants exude passion about food and cooking, we experience the love of their craft and their pain when their expectations are not met. One scowl off John is enough to reduce the strongest contestant to tears. As project managers we need to display the same level of passion for our project deliverables.

Secondly I love the drama of execution as the dish is put together to arrive at the nominated time, cooked perfectly, presented beautifully and demanding to be eaten. The time management skills on display would put the best project manager to shame and if we could deliver our projects to the same standard we would be very happy PM’s indeed.

Of course, like any project, things can go wrong and mistaking sugar for salt will end in disaster, a lesson in attention to detail there.

At the end there is only one winner but the runners up all learn from their mistakes, another attribute of good project managers.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

www.projectsguru.co.uk
Follow projectsguru on Twitter

All change at British Airways..

bacrashIs the current industrial strife at British Airways indicative of a poorly managed change process ?

Change which is imposed rather than negotiated is rarely successful. In fact any change process needs to go through fundamental stages to succeed and the unrest at B.A would suggest that these key stages have been ignored.

Change is inevitable but its successful implementation requires real management skills.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk
Follow projectsguru on Twitter
www.projectsguru.co.uk

No feedback is negative…

customer feedbackI was recently asked “how do you deal with negative customer feedback ?”

If you are interested in your customers (as every business should be) no feedback should be considered ‘negative’ and all feedback welcomed.

Customer feedback is an excellent source of improvement and should be welcomed at every stage of the product development process.

Samples should be supplied to the customer as early as possible and any feedback should be used to fine tune product development.

Get close to your customers and welcome their feedback, no one will appreciate this more than the customer themselves.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

www.projectsguru.co.uk

Follow projectsguru on Twitter

Great idea…but why won’t it sell ?

stupidinventionThis is one of the most common questions in the world of New Product Development and is often asked after the developer has spent thousands of dollars in development costs.

Here are some possible answers:-

1) Who says your product is “great” ?  many  companies develop new products because they think it’s a great idea – unfortunately no one else does. It may seem obvious but New Products have to meet a market demand in order to sell. Just because your design engineer thinks its a great idea doesn’t mean anyone else does.

2) Does anyone know about your great new product ?  What is your Marketing and Advertising strategy. Unless your Innovation is publicised how will anybody find out about it ?

3) Is your product overpriced ?  What is the nearest competitor selling at ?

4)  Is it priced too low and perceived as cheap ? Ask yourself this question – When you buy a car do you buy the cheapest model available ?

5) What level of service and support do you offer with your product ? – Is the competition offering a better warranty or service.

All common sense but sense aint that common.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

www.projectsguru.co.uk

Follow projectsguru on Twitter

The Innovation game…

innovationInnovation is the name of the game; especially in the competitive world of consumer electronics. The only way to remain competitive is to continue to produce new, relevant products which the customer wants.

Apple is a terrific example, before the release of the ipod Apple was a company on decline; despite the fact that it had the worlds best desk top computers for graphic design and desk top publishing they were too expensive for the home computer market which was cornered by IBM clones.

Then along came the ipod, the revolutionary pocket music player which was cool, trendy, affordable and  desirable.

The rest is history and Apple also leads the field in Smartphones with their iconic iphone. Recently they have released their latest product, the touchscreen notebook – the ipad.

These are terrific examples of product Innovation in the highly competitive field of consumer electronics which show that a company which continues to innovate will continue to thrive.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

www.projectsguru.co.uk

Follow projectsguru on Twitter

The Brain Machine….

brainmachineThere has been lots of recent talk from politicians, particularly The Conservative Party, about rejuvinating British Industry. Indeed James Dyson, the renowned inventor of the bagless vacuum cleaner which bears his name, recently issued his  Ingenious Britain  report on the subject.

Such debate is welcome and well overdue. With manufacturing in the U.K shrinking to around 10% of GDP we urgently need a strategy which focuses on what we do best – Innovation.

There is no way we can compete with Far East manufacturers on cost (labor or Capital) but we can and do compete strongly when it comes to Innovative design and technology. This is partly due to our strong engineering history and professional project management skills. It is also down to our open and democratic culture which leads to a rigorous debate of ideas.

We have a wealth of scientific and engineering talent in the U.K which we can exploit to deliver new and innovative products to the worlds markets.

We need to rev up the Brain Machine.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

www.projectsguru.co.uk

Follow projectsguru on Twitter