We ’ ve Come a Long Way Baby 1

W hat are the most important factors that underlie new-product success? And why are some new-product projects and products so successful? Do you know? Many people still don’t or choose to ignore them—witness the high failure rates of new products, and the large number of businesses with very poor innovation performance. It is estimated that about 40% of new products fail at launch, even after all the development and testing work; further, out of every 7 to 10 new-product concepts, only one makes it to market as a commercial success; and only 13% of firms report that their total new product efforts hit their annual profit objectives! But there are wide variances around these and other performance statistics, with a handful of firms—the best performers—doing dramatically better than the rest! Which begs the question . why? When research into product innovation began in earnest circa 1970, nobody knew much of anything about how to succeed in product innovation. For example, my “literature search” chapter in my PhD thesis in 1973 was pitifully thin—not much had been published on the topics of new product success, failure, innovation performance, or best practices in innovation! Thus the theme of much of the research over the years that followed, research by others and by me, was to probe the “drivers of success. ” Some research looked at why new products win or fail; other studies lowered the microscope on businesses and their innovation performance, and sought reasons for their results, both positive or negative; and some focused on particular strategies and methodologies and their impact on performance. Early research often focused on individual projects, typically describing methods associated with notable successes. While case studies continue to be valuable, JPIM encouraged broader surveys that examined overall patterns of development activities. An understanding of these drivers of success was considered vital to improving new-product performance in industry: Such knowledge is fundamental to designing systems, approaches, and practices for conceiving, developing, and launching new products; for managing innovation more effectively; and for making the right R&D investment decisions. Our research, reported in this virtual issue of JPIM, has been much like a coach and the football team watching video replays of football games: Patterns emerge and insights are gained into what works, what doesn’t, what to avoid in future games, and what new plays or actions should be built into the new playbook. The themes covered in these 17 articles in this virtual issue cover many different facets of new-product performance and practices. The first article, “How New Product Strategies Impact on Performance,” was the lead article in the inaugural issue of JPIM more than 30 years ago. As the current article title suggests, we sure have come a long way in our understanding of how to excel at product innovation. Some of these earlier articles and the research upon which they were based seem almost primitive and na€ıve. And by today’s standards, they are! But we would not be where we are today were it not for this and others’ early research. (“We” refers to a growing new products management community rather than to just those whose research focuses on achieving success.) Here’s a quick summary of the themes you’ll find in this issues’ articles—they’re a “good read”: