CREATING NEW FOODS
THE PRODUCT DEVELOPER'S GUIDE
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Contents
About the book
About the authors
Preface
1. The product
development project
in the company
2. The organisation of
the product
development project
3. Product strategy
development: idea
generation and
screening
4. Product strategy
development: product
concepts and design
specifications
5. Product design and
process development
6. Product
commercialisation
7. Product launch and
evaluation
8. Summary: bringing
it together
8.10 Textbooks in
product development
Index of Examples &
Problems
Useful links
Feedback (email link)
CHAPTER 1
The Product Development project in the company


1.1 INTRODUCTION

Product development is a basic activity in the food industry. Each company has a product mix, often including hundreds of products, which is constantly evolving - old products dying, products reaching maturity, products contributing to rapid growth and new products being introduced. To achieve a live and enduring product mix requires a far-sighted and organised product development programme which directs innovation in line with the objectives of the company's business strategy.

The product development programme encompasses product improvement, product line extension and product relaunch, as well as product innovation. Product development involves all sections of the company from top management to the machine operator on the line, and it is only successful if there is integration across the company and also strong leadership from top management. As well as integrated company activities, there is a need for integrated company knowledge based on good communications and sympathetic, informed leadership.

The individuals know not only their specific part in the project, but also what has happened upstream, what is occurring at the same time and what will happen downstream in the project.

New product development (NPD) covers not only technical research, but includes the total technology of the company, that is the company's internal organisation, the market and marketing, the customers and the consumers, the technological ambience surrounding the company including competitors, and also the social and physical environments in which the company operates. It is the company's ability to interrelate its own skills and knowledge with the complex ambience surrounding the company that leads to successful product development. Companies recognise that they lack some of the knowledge of the total technology and the resources to find this knowledge, so they have to be selective in the knowledge they collect but need still to ensure that decision-making involves the total technology.

The knowledge selected includes the tacit knowledge already held by individuals in the company, and new knowledge from outside the company and from research.

The cultures of the company and of the individuals in the company have a strong influence on the product development programme. Companies may be high risk or low risk, knowledge seekers or tacit knowledge users, casually organised or bureaucratically organised, old-fashioned or new-technology driven, democratic or autocratic, technically driven or market driven - all these different cultures create different types of product development programmes and different types of innovations. They may be perfectly correct for the time and the place, but companies need to be fully aware of the decisions they make and the influences affecting those decisions, and perhaps the need to change those decisions. This means acquiring new knowledge of the total technology, improving communication and cooperation, and establishing new criteria for product development and even for the business strategy regarding innovation.

It is useful in the company, from time to time, to study the degree of product innovation achieved during the last few years and then to relate this to some of the factors important to successful product development.

Important factors to check are:

    knowledge-seeking objectives and methods;
    coordination of product, processing and marketing research;
    integration of consumer research into the total programme;
    evaluation of the market, in the early stages and before launching;
    financial soundness of the projects;
    top management involvement in product development;
    'go/no-go' decisions by top management at all critical points;
    leadership by top management;
    resources for product development.
Think Break 1.1
Product innovation and company culture

From studying the products that your company* has launched in the last few years place your company and also the company’s competitors on a scale from 'not-innovative' to 'very innovative'.

Not innovative                                                                        Very innovative
0____________________________________________________________10

From the Introduction, identify some factors on which companies can be compared and draw basic linear scales for these factors, for example: 'no market research' to 'continuous market research', 'no consumer research' to 'integrated consumer research'.

Two important factors are resources for product development and top management leadership.

Resources for product development

Poor                                                                                            Very Good
0____________________________________________________________10

For example, this could be done on percentage of sales, 'Poor' <0.5% of sales revenue, 'Very Good' >10% of sales revenue.

Leadership by top management

None                                                                                             High
0__________________________________________________________10

'None' could mean management never involved, and 'High' top management leading product development

Score your company on the factor scales (and your competitors if you can) and decide what the factors are relating to your placement of the company on the innovation scale.

Repeat this for yourself, giving yourself an innovation rating, and studying your personal factors.

*If you are not in a company, select a company near you and interview them.


THE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

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Creating New Foods. The Product Developer's Guide. Copyright © Chartered Inst. of Environmental Health.
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