Product Description

The right new products program can produce exponential growth..if all the pieces are in place. And that's what this all-new edition of Tom Kuczmarski's landmark book does. It broadens and deepens the message of previous editions with the introduction of a new approach whose greatest strengths are its simplicity, effectiveness, and proven results.

Called the MAP System, it provides a detailed guide to the secrets of developing a consistent stream of winners--sometimes even the kind of breakthrough product innovation that creates an entire new business unit or industry. It outlines the disciplined approach to creativity and newness that begins by determining customers' needs and wants and by developing the internal culture that encourages the creative decision-making needed to make real innovation happen.

The MAP is a way of organizing for new product innovation by looking differently at the skills and tools that are already in every organization--but too often under-used or not used at all.

Key elements include:

M - for Measure, Manage, and Motivate
A - for Attitude, specifically for developing and Attitude or Culture of Intelligent Risk-Taking
P - for Plan, Process, and People

Arming yourself with the best market information, developing a risk-embracing culture, and organizing around a plan that reflects both: these are the essential elements of new product success.

In this all-new edition, the author shows how to marshal a company's assets for greater growth and profitability. From conducting diagnostic audits to structuring new product blueprints and strategies through successful product launches to measuring and motivating team performance, this book will give you the tools for managing new product risk more creatively, improving your new product hit rates, and managing your programs more effectively.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1110426 in Books
• Published on: 2000-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 274 pages

Al Ries, Chairman, Ries & Ries and author of The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing
"Forget line extensions. The future belongs to companies that innovate with truly new products. Thomas Kuczmarski's innovative management system will show you the way."

Allan J. Magrath, Director Corporate Marketing & New Business Ventures, 3M Canada Company, author of Zero-Defect Marketing
"Robust New Product Development is the oxygen that feeds the fire of corporate growth. Kuczmarski's MAP System is a great road map to guide and sustain such processes so that new product ideas bear fruit for the benefit of all the firm's stakeholders."

Don E. Schultz, Professor, Northwestern University and President, Agora, Inc. and author of Integrated Marketing Communications
"Successful new products are inspiration and perspiration. Tom Kuczmarski's MAP approach systemizes the inspiration and reduces the perspiration. It's a winner!"

Customer Reviews

Review for Managing New Products
This is an amazing book for people planning to specialize in marketing and are currently pursuing an MBA degree.

Simply Elegant
Many people still think that being smart means being obscure or difficult to understand. If you need evidence to prove them wrong, get this book. The author lays out an amazingly simple yet insightful paradigm for thinking about and developing the kinds of dramatic, innovative new products that really matter to a company's present and future growth and success.

My only complaint is that the author shortchanges his own system by calling it "New Products." The scheme he describes so well applies to any kind of new service as well as new product. The most "profound" element of his system is that it is flexible enough to be used for any kind of innovation. Its simplicity and broad applicability are beyond comparison.

Managing New Products
For any business person this book is a must-buy for several reasons.

First, the form and content reflect the substance. Simply put, most second or third editions of books are warmed-over versions of their predecessors. So, given the speed at which hte world changes, an unchanged third edition is old news.

This one isn't. It presents a totally new way of looking at new product innovation and putting it to work in the real world. The author has actually followed his own advice. One of his key tenets is that "new and improved" line extensions ar destroying many (e.g., packaged goods) companies. He certainly hasn't just changed the "flavor" of this edition with a drop or two of intellectual rose water, a new cover, and shouts of "new,new, new." I own a copy of the previous edition, and this one has at least 60 percent new information.

Second, in addition to the new model the author has developed for this edition, the author has added an entire chapter on Innovation Metrics. There's only one way to know where you are and where you are going--measure it. And he provides several techniques, from the relatively simple to the fairly sophisticated, for "putting a number on" one's new product innovation efforts. This is possibly the most important way to take new product innovation from the realm of unmanageable and idiosyncratic activity that just "happens" to its proper role as a set of specific activities that can be used to manage risk.

Third, I love the simplicity and practicality of the MAP system. At its most basic level it gives a business exec a new way of looking at what his or her business already has--but in a new way. I know lots of workaday buseinss people who are sick to death of getting sucked into "new" systems that, in mid-stream, run out of gas or need big financial suport to stay afloat. Virtually any company of any size already has the basic components of the author's system.

On the other hand, you can continue to peel back layers of the system and get as much complexity or sophistication as you need. The point is that this system begins at a simple, practical level and can grow as the user's needs dictate. Too many business books are built on sytems or "Just take your customer base of 700,000 names and apply formula XYZ or ABC to it." At just about this time, the average person is from you or anyone else." So many of the business models out there are useless to most people or business circumstances because they (1)either haven't been tested in a real business (2) or will only function on a scale beyond the scope of most companies. Kuczmarski's approach is invaluable because it is eminently useful and usable--right now, today--for any level or size of business.

I'm sure it's obvious that I recommend this book highly.