Failure breeds success………

Most would agree that Apple is one of the most innovative and successful companies involved in new product development. However even they have had their fair share of Bloopers, so lets take a look at some of them:-

MacTV The Mac TV was released in 1993 and was Apple’s first attempt to integrate the functionality of a P.C with a cable ready T.V. Unforthunately it’s slow bus speed  of 16 MHz made for a slow P.C compared to it’s rivals and a very expensive T.V at over $2000. Needless to say it flopped and only 10k were produced.

macintosh_portableApple’s first attempt at a portable computer was the Macintosh portable. Released in 1989 it was way ahead of its time, and so it should have been at a whopping $6500.  It weighed in at a hefty 7.2kg and had an active matrix LCD screen which was fantastic but the major contributor to its cost.

apple_pipinIn 1995 Apple licensed its PIPPIN technology to Bandai to make a PC based game consol. The only problem was the competition, SEGA, SONY, Nintendo and PC based systems were already dominating the market. Only 42,000 PIPPIN units sold and it was withdrawn from the market.

O.K, you get the picture. Even the most innovative companies have their fair share of commercial failures. Typically this may run as high as 8 failures for every 2 successes, following the well known Pareto rule.

Less successful companies will have an even higher failure rate and in many cases this will lead to their ultimate demise.

So how should an organization skew the playing field to ensure a higher success rate ?

That will be the subject of the next post.

Until then, just remember, failure breeds success.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

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Interim solution….

ap4If you need a project manager sometimes the best solution is an interim one:-

* You appoint a project manager on a fixed term contract to address a specific need.

* The interim project manager will normally have a lot of industry experience gained from a number of roles.

* Having being appointed for a specific purpose leads to a very focused approach.

* If things don’t work out the contract can be terminated quickly and without additional costs such as redundancy or notice.

* The cost of hire will be short term and project specific.

* Interims can normally avoid the organizations political distractions and focus on the job at hand.

Sometimes an Interim solution is the best solution.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

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May the best team win………

north-koreaWhilst the football may not have lived up to the hype so far we have still seen a couple of excellent team performances. So what is it that makes for a great team performance whatever the situation ?

* A leader who doesn’t just tell the team what to do but who provides a vision and who communicates that goal to the team by clearly outlining the task at hand and how it is to be achieved.

* The team are all pulling in the same direction putting individual disagreement behind them.

* The rewards of success are shared equally amongst the team members.

* There is no “finger pointing” if someone makes a mistake and the rest of the team rally round to support the individual.

* The Team leader provides all of the tools and instructions neccessary to complete the task.

As we enjoy the World Cup see which teams exhibit these qualities and measure their success.

The best team may not have the most outstanding individual players but the best team will win.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

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Don’t fear failure…..

jigsawWe are conditioned to fear failure. We must succeed at all costs. Throughout our schooling we are expected to pass our exams with flying colours and to fail is to be labelled as useless.

This fear of failure is stifling and killing our ability to innovate. Thankfully many individuals overcome this conditioning and realize that failure paves the road to success. The secret is to NEVER GIVE UP. To fail is perfectly natural and through failure we improve and succeed.

Any product innovation will fail many times but with an attitude of continuous improvement you will eventually succeed with a product which exceeds all expectations.

For inspiration about new product development success and persistence in the face of failure read the inspiring story of Charles Goodyear the pioneering inventor of vulcanized rubber.

Don’t fear failure – Strive for success.

chris@projectsguru.co.uk

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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
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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

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