Managing New Product Development Processes the Right Way

Abstract

Companies successful in one product category or technology often fail badly when they enter into new markets or new technologies. The failure is not due to poor personnel or poor product design. In most cases the failure results from an inappropriate management approach to the new product development project. In this paper, we examine the reasons for such failures and present case studies of successful and failing projects. We relate these incidents to a theoretical framework for classifying new product development projects based on their contextual nature. This framework leads to determining the right approach for any new product development project based on its contextual nature.