ABSTRACT

To assure its short-term future in any market a company must pioneer, and to ensure itself of longer-term profitability it must pioneer on a continual and regular basis. At any point in time its existing products have a strictly limited life span. Pioneering cannot be achieved by trivial product modification. Each new product must be an innovation, perceived by the consumers as a distinct improvement over existing solutions to their problems, and as performing according to their expectations of it. The only way for the organisation to meet such objectives is by assigning new product development a central role in the company, and one supported by adequate and totally committed resources. Furthermore the approach cannot be piecemeal, according to the exigencies of the day, but must be continuous, co-ordinated and systematised. The organisation needs to evolve a well-defined new product development system, supported and maintained by specialists, but involving all departments of the company and organising the application of explicit tested procedures to every aspect of the development process.