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Weekly Blog
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Choosing a Portfolio Management Tool | |
Software is Not a
Cure-All
One of the most frequent questions we hear from New Product Development (NPD) practitioners is "What software should I use?" Like many questions in innovation, the answer is "It depends."
While we will not recommend specific vendors or software packages in this paper, we will outline general concerns that each firm should consider as they investigate new tools to manage their NPD Processes.
Read more about Choosing a PM Tool. Innovation Members can download a free questionnaire to help screen PM Tools.
(About 12 minutes reading time.) |
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Greetings!
As someone who is committed to staying on top of new developments and critical issues in food science and technology, you may beinterested in the Institute of Food Technologists' upcoming Scientific Program. I'm going to be speaking there on 12 June in a session entitled "Portfolio Management."
 In the event that you're unfamiliar with this event, IFT's 2011 Scientific Program is a food-science focused education forum that combines more than 100 education sessions and more than 1,200 poster sessions, each led by experts in their respective fields. The program is a key part of the IFT Annual Meeting & Food Expo, which is taking place June 11-14, in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Not only will I be speaking at the event, but I'm also looking forward to participating as an attendee. IFT's Annual Meeting & Food Expo provides unique opportunities to exchange ideas with colleagues from around the world, learn about the latest consumer trends and product innovations, and make new professional connections, all in one location. The Food Expo alone features more than 900 exhibiting companies and thousands of products.
If you're interested in learning more about the overall event or the Scientific Program in particular, ift.org/IFT11 has additional information.
I hope to see you in New Orleans this summer! |
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Innovation Fun Fact | |
Get Your Vitamin C
Nearly 70% of Americans have the same item on their weekly grocery list. Americans drink a lot of orange juice - needing over 30 Billion oranges a year. Most of this  production (about 80%) comes from sometimes hot and sometimes rainy Florida, a perfect environment to grow over 5 different varieties of oranges so we can enjoy sweet orange juice all year round.
Maybe you have a juicer at home and can enjoy fresh-squeezed orange juice. But, most of us purchase orange juice by the carton from the refrigerator section. Take a look at this short video (about 3 minutes) to learn how they make orange juice. Pulp or no pulp?
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Recommended Reading | |
Winning in Emerging Markets
 "Winning in Emerging Markets" is an easy-to-read book based upon years of research by the authors, Krishna Palepu and Tarun Khanna, both at Harvard Business School. Rich in case studies of multinational companies making headway into emerging markets as well as "emerging giant" companies making the jump from developing markets to developed markets, Khanna and Palepu offer key action items for business strategy models. As Western firms recover from the recession of 2008-2009, the frameworks offered in this book become even more relevant for cost- and value-conscious consumers because simply "Noting the emergence of these economies is important and interesting but not particularly actionable."
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| Effective Early Stage NPD Processes | | |
Market Research and the Fuzzy Front End
Profitable New Product Innovation requires executing three  key foundational principles with excellence. Each of these principles is supported and maintained by the people that ensure effective organizational structure, easy-to-use systems and tools, as well as targeted market research to support the technical innovations. Sustaining the New Product Development (NPD), these foundational principles are summarized here.
· Senior Leadership Team provides clear strategic direction for the NPD team by defining the market, the technology, and the desired product.
· Timely Portfolio Management reviews focus resources on the right projects by evaluating match with business strategy, financial and economic models, and/or other scoring methods.
· Efficient, stream-lined NPD Processes enable and empower the NPD team by allowing effective and efficient market research methods within the advantaged market and technology platforms.
In this paper, we look at effective techniques for market research paired with the Fuzzy Front End. Read more at www.globalnpsolutions.com or download the paper - Buy Now
(About 12 minutes reading time.)
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