5 Leadership Myths - Your November NPD Newsletter

THE VILLAGE

a newsletter for the global NPD community

In This Issue

An American Tradition

5 NPD Leadership Myths

Recommended Reading

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Training Calendar
NPDP Certification

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Forward to a Colleague

Three Simple Methods

for New Product Sales Forecasts

Despite all the fun "work" expended to develop a new product, we only should be working on products that will deliver financial rewards to the company. Certainly, there are products that "go viral" as illustrated by the re-

discovery of Hush Puppy shoes in Malcolm Gladwell's classic "The Tipping Point." But, most of us need to provide specific metrics to our management in order to demonstrate that the new product idea will actually generate a profit.

Sales forecasts are tricky even for mature products in existing categories. In this issue, we offer some simple methods to estimate new product sales at earlier stages in the development process.

Read more about new product sales forecasting here.

(Approximately 6 minutes reading time.)

November 2010

Innovation Fun Fact

An American Tradition: Football!

In the United States, we celebrate the founding of our country on Thanksgiving Day. The traditional meal of turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie is followed by a televised football marathon. I especially love the pumpkin pie and football.

Football resulted from a divergence of rugby in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Most important were the rules of scrimmage and "down-and-distance" rules initiated by Walter Camp, considered the Father of American Football.

Professional football can trace its roots to a $500 playoff between the Allegheny Athletic Association and the Pittsburgh Athletic Club in 1903.

Click on the adjacent photo of a football center ready to

hike the ball to view a short video (approximately 5 minutes) on how footballs are manufactured. Then I recommend grabbing a piece of pumpkin pie and watching one of the many great games broadcast on Thanksgiving!

5 Myths of NPD Leadership

Or "How to Effectively Manage New Product Development:

Successful New Product Development (NPD) depends on many things, including doing good up-front customer research, organizing an effective cross-functional team, and providing sound leadership with a strong sense of strategic vision. In this paper, we investigate five myths of NPD leadership - common mistakes made by companies and individuals as they navigate the complex roads of new product development on the journey from idea to launch.

Recommended Reading
Burning the Ships See our recent book review of "Burning the Ships: Intellectual Property and the Transformation of Microsoft" by Marshall Phelps and David Kline in the October issue of Journal of Product Innovation Management ( available at www.PDMA.org). Facebook and Twitter followers will get $50 off any on-line NPDP Training class through February 2011.

Join Us for a Free Webinar
What is New Product Development? Join us for a free 30-minute webinar on 23 November 2010 at 1 pm Central Time (2 pm EST, 11 am PST) for a free introductory presentation to NPD. Register now at www.globalnpsolutions.com

Global NP Solutions is Your Strategic Innovation Partner helping deliver new product profitability in the marketplace. Our clients are preferred employers of New Product Development Professionals in all industries. Click here for more information.

Best Regards,

Teresa Jurgens-Kowal
Global NP Solutions, LLC