Introduction to New Product Process
New product development is a term commonly used in a business setting and as such, it defines the comprehensive process used to deliver new products in a certain market. A product can be described as a set of benefits, which are exchanged for something of value, for instance, money. A product can be either tangible or intangible (French & Bell 2000).
The new product development process entails two parallel paths of which must be followed for an effective NPD. These includes; One that entails the generation of idea, designing the product and engineering the details of the product; and the one that entail researching on the market as well as the market analysis (Denton 2004).
According to the trends observable in established organizations, new product development is usually the initial phase as far as generation as well as the commercialization of new products within an aggregate strategic process with regard to the management of the life cycle of a product, which is used in maintains are and growth of the market share, are concerned (French & Bell 2000).
Generally, the new product development process involves various steps which involve; Idea generation, Idea screening, concept development as well as testing, analysis of the business, Beta testing and testing of the market, technical implementation, commercialization and pricing of the new products (French & Bell 2000).
Thesis Statement
With reference to the new product development process adopted by Harmonium Media, this paper will aim at critiquing the company’s new product development process by identifying the strong points and weak points of the process. In addition to this, the paper will also establish the phase within the process that can be improved significant and therefore providing recommendations as well as justifications of ways to improve the phase.
Discussion
Area that have been performed well (Phase 3-6)
In order to clearly depict the strengths as well as the weaknesses as entailed in the phases involved in new product development for Harmonium Media, it is noble to first understand what each phase concerns (Denton 2004).
Concept definition: This concerns if the company in question understands what new product development is all about. As such, it defines the comprehensive process used to deliver new products in a certain market (Denton 2004).
Product development and feasibility assessment; this is where the product is developed. Feasibility assessment is what the company ought to consider the most. As such, it tends to assess the viability of the developed product. It puts emphasis on establishment of problems that are likely to occur and thereby attempting to answer the main question underlain; will the new product development idea work should it be proceeded with?
Preparation for launch; this is where, after successfully completing the new product development process, the company establishes efforts as well as mechanisms aimed at preparing the product for market entrance.
Strategies are put in place and decisions ion how the product will be introduced to the market are made. A team to facilitate the successful launching is established and allocated with the right and adequate resources (Calantone, Vickery & Droge 2005).
Post-launch monitoring; this occurs right after the product has been launched. Here, several actions are emphasized.
These include; the number of consumers who are familiar with the newly developed product; the way that the customers came to know about the product; if the customers have really purchased the product; the way the product performs and how the customers could improve the product; and if the customers would really buy the product again (Calantone, Vickery & Droge 2005).
Concept definition
The concept of new business development has been excellently established and defined.
Product development and feasibility assessment
According to the case study, the top management of Harmonium Media recognizes the need for product improvements and as such, they participate actively in identification of new products opportunities. In addition to this, the top management is involved in identification of possible new areas of business by conducting an analysis of emergent customers as well as trends in competition (Van de Ven & Ferry 2000).
Further, in this phase, through conducting an analysis, the top management team identifies those areas of the existing new product development process that are not competitive enough and need improvements. The analysis done in this phase establishes the need for new product development as well as process improvement.
In addition to this, all the projects, which Harmonium Media intends to undertake, are scrutinized based on feasibility as well as costing analysis and thereby adding rough estimates of the costs, time lines and risks (Van de Ven & Ferry 2000). Moreover, assessments of costing/Risks/Time lines of the R&D projects that already exist are kept up to date.
Preparation for launch
In phase 5 of the new product development, Harmonium Media did it right by ensuring that the proposed new product development process and process improvements are blended into the already existing schedule of the R&D as well as processes improvement projects, which are being worked on.
The company has put in place, a new product development process project, which the management of Harmonium Media has estimated to exceed $ 35,000. The management ensures that the new product project passes through a comprehensive new product development process (Van de Ven & Ferry 2000).
Finally, in this phase, the R&D vice president has to indicate the range of projects related to strategic new product or process schedule, which Harmonium Media can effectively manage to complete in the course of the next five years based on the resources as well as the budget that have been allocated to the R&D.
Another stronghold entailed in this phase is prioritization of the new product development and improvement of processes and made as part of Harmonium media business strategic planning.
According to Peggy, Harmonium Media has established business units and as such, these business units have led to the initiation of new products as well as product/process improvements (Hauptman & Hirji 2006). In addition to this, the business units fund projects associated with them.
Moreover, they allocate the required expertise as well as other essential staff in a routine manner to aid or participate in the effective execution of the projects (Hauptman & Hirji 2006).
Another stronghold that Harmonium Media’s adopted NPD process depicts in this phase is the acquisition of new businesses thus acquiring new products. Acquisition of new businesses means that, new products as well as product improvement projects are inherited.
The company did not let go the key people of the acquired businesses since they were the sources of expertise required to develop or improve the new products (Hauptman & Hirji 2006).
Another thing that Peggy saw as done right is the concentration on the acquisition of companies that are capable of giving Harmonium media an entry into new markets. In addition to this, the company acquired those companies that had existing products range as well as specialist expertise that Harmonium Media lacked.
Post-launch monitoring
According to the report by Peggy, it is indicated that Harmonium media makes follow up efforts after launching the new product such that, they promote and advertise the product. In addition to this, to ensure that the set sales target are achieved, the company gives price discounts and indeed, this encourages the customers to buy the company’s products.
If any company develops new products and successfully launches new products into the market, it is not advisable that it stops there. Indeed, a wise thing to do is to come up with the most viable strategies concerning monitoring of the product, that is, strategies to monitor how the product is fairing on within the market (Van de Ven & Ferry 2000).
Moreover, according to the report by Peggy, we are informed that the products as well as the marketing managers have developed short term targets and as such, they do whatever they see as leading to the achievement of the short term targets.
Another thing that the Management of Harmonium Media Company does right is whereby they spend on incentives in order to entice the managers into doing whatever it takes in an effort towards achieving the right and most desirable results.
It is in this phase that the team put in place strategies to monitor the viability or the competitiveness of the new product developed. If the company does not engage itself in such efforts, the new product desirability is deemed to vanish (Van de Ven & Ferry 2000).
Areas that have been performed poorly
According to Peggy’s analysis, Harmonium Medias R&D staff has not conducted substantial research, with regard to the feasibility assessment as well as new product development. In addition to this, the management does not regard the ideas, which have been generated internally by the employees of this company, as significant in the new product development process (Handfield, Walton, and Seegers & Melnyk 2007).
According to Peggy’s report, the existing processes used to identify and thereby developing new products takes a lot of time to deliver the desired results.
In addition to this, she noted that the existing process of launching the new product is not effective. In a certain conversation within Peggy’s report, it is indicated that the launching of the product adopted by Harmonium Media is based on art. As such, it ought to be based on science. To elaborate this further, Harmonium Media give priorities to product launching strategies, which had been previously adopted, despite the fact that they resulted to diminishing end point effectiveness (Handfield, Walton, and Seegers & Melnyk 2007).
According to the conversation with Mark, most of the management team in Harmonium Media have their ideas based on tradition, that is, the company’s revenues comes from the print media and as such, they have maintained it as a culture and part of history.
Most of the management team members came from the print media and therefore they don’t understand the need for change, that is, to change into digital world.
The team that has been mandated with the responsibility of conducting research usually finds it difficult to find time where they would come together for discussions. This is because; they are always held up or compromised by tight deadlines (Handfield, Walton, Seegers & Melnyk 2007).
In this phase, according to Peggy, there is no substantial testing or research done after the new product developed is launched.
Phase that needs significant Improvements
According to Peggy, the phase that needs significant and considerable improvement is one that concerns preparation for launching the new product development, that is, phase five.
The reason why this phase has been singled out as needing transformation or improvements is the presence of various issues depicted by the report by Peggy. As such, this poorly performed aspect diminishes the effectiveness of the Harmonium Media New product development process launching (Funk 2003).
Time taken to identify and develop new product
According to Peggy, it takes a long time to identify and develop new products. In order to change this pattern, it is necessary that the top management identifies a team constituted of members entailed with abundance of expertise.
As such, the team ought to be placed with the responsibility of designing and implementing strategies that will effectively meet the planned objectives with regard to the new products development as well as improvement of the processes.
There should be a time line where the time limit for the development as well as the implementation of the new product will be defined and as such, it should not be exceeded (Funk 2003).
In addition to this, the top management ought to clearly define the incentives that will be made available if the team successfully develops and implements the new products or improves processes within the set time line and delivers quality (Funk 2003).
The rationale of establishing a timeline, incentives and expatriate team
By establishing a team of expatriates, it follows that the best and worthwhile ideas and conclusions are identified. In any situation, by bringing people with knowledge and skills together, the most probable thing resulting from such discussions is the establishment of indispensable and quality decisions and way forwards (Rothwell 2002).
A timeline specifies the period by which a certain project ought to be completed within. It is essential as it defines the time limit in which the team mandated with a certain task should operate within. Timelines will always define the deadlines given to execute a task and as such, the team will act against the set deadline.
Incentives are an important aspect in enticing a person or a group to perform. When incentives are established upon timely execution of a task, the team will put more efforts in an effort towards seeing that the task is completed within the time specified.
If further incentives are established upon establishment of processes, which can be regarded as worthwhile, the team will obviously concentrate on delivery of quality in order to benefit from the defined incentives (Bingham & Quigley 2009).
Ineffective process of product launching
Regardless of whether phases one to six are superior, viability of a new product development process is washed away by the ineffective process used in product launching. In order to improve on this situation, it is important that adequate research and analysis is conducted in order to come up launching the new product development process, which is the most appealing and desirable (Bingham & Quigley 2009).
Moreover, Harmonium Media’s management ought to establish a quality assurance team to look into the existing and identify flaws that make the existing process ineffective. By scrutinizing the existing ineffective launching of the new product development and improvement process, Harmonium Media will be able to identify the cause leading to inefficiency and therefore making necessary adjustments to correct the problem
Alternatively, the company can adopt another new product development process and discard the existing one. Since the process adopted, according to the report by Peggy, is ineffective, it is advisable that Harmonium Media do away with the existing process.
In new product development launching process, there are several approaches or processes that can be used and as such, the company can pick any of them in an effort towards improving the situation (Bingham & Quigley 2009).
Rationale of research, quality assurance and alternative new product development process
Research is the best as well as an essential approach towards finding the best solution to a prevailing problem. As such, research is conducted following an identification of some loopholes and if the complete process of research is followed, the exact problem leading to inefficiency in a system is usually established and worthwhile recommendations are advanced (Balachandra & Friar 2007).
Quality assurance is an aspect of total quality management and the essence of the aspect is improvement of any system’s process. According to total quality management, where a problem occurs, do not blame it on the employees.
The problem lies within the existing processes making up the system of production. With a quality assurance team put in place, it is easy to identify where the problem lies and thereby providing a solution to it. For instance, it is easy to establish the cause of infectiveness of the adopted new product launching process and thereby making necessary adjustments (Zirger & Hartley 2006).
Where several alternatives exist, if adoption of one alternative fails, one can use the trial and error approach until the best alternative that delivers the desired results is identified.
Even though this could be cost ineffective, it is a noble thing to try different processes rather than adopting one that leads to constants failures. In such a case, one may find out that the cost used to try different processes is far much less than the costs used to offset losses resulted from adoption of inappropriate process that leads to constant failures.
Art based Launching process
In launching a new product development or improvement process, a company ought to adopt a scientific based process. Harmonium uses an art based process and as such, it is the cause of ineffective launching. Art based processes are process based on the past trends.
They can be said to be probabilistic processes. The management of Harmonium Media ought to deviate from this and come up with innovative ways where worthwhile process basis is established and such; an ideal basis would be scientific basis (Rothwell 2002).
In scientific based processes, the process of launching a new product development follows a well organized procedure. Which includes; planning the process, managing it, tracking the process and measuring the new product development launching process conception?
Rationale of Scientific based New Product development and improvement Launching Process
A launching of new product development process is far much superior as compared to the art based process (Zirger & Hartley 2006). In a scientific based process, there are prerequisites that should be considered before launching of the new product process. Art based processes does not entail these prerequisites and as such, it is the major reason why failure occurs. These essential aspects include;
End to end product development launch process
A scientific based process is usually a well established and sufficient an end to end process and as such, there is no possibility of a hitch surfacing and therefore, the process is rendered effective.
Time phased tracking
In scientific based launching process, the process is consistently checked in equal intervals and as such, any flaws within the process is identified and adequately handled. In art based processes, there is no time phased tracking and as such; the flaws of the process are identified upon realizing that the process is ineffective (Zirger & Hartley 2006).
The capturing of product cost and measurement
As compared to art based new product development launching, the costs incurred in implementing a new product development launching process are usually captured and measured and thereby establishing if the budgeted or allocated resources were depleted before the process was implemented or if they were just enough for the whole process.
Management of work flow
In scientific based launching processes, the flow of work is usually managed and as such, vital information is made available and shared across all the new product development stages involved. Art based launching processes are not ideal as information regarding the launching process is usually withheld or concealed from the other employees and as such, lack of information guarantees a failing process.
Sharing of information is a vital aspect as it ensures that; events or activities involved in the launching process are effectively coordinated and therefore, delivery of qualified end results (Rothwell 2002).
Process control
Scientific based processes are ideal to use in new product development launching process because they are characterized with a control component management. This is an ideal aspect as the process is close monitored and as such, there is no chance that a flaw can occur within the process.
Use of processes based on the past
Harmonium Media adopts launching processes that have been implemented in the past without regarding what the outcome was after the process was implemented. This company acquires new businesses and as such, the company ought to depict a high level of innovativeness in order to be successful.
Relying on the past implemented processes is not an ideal thing to do putting the growing nature of the business into consideration. Processes adopted in the past may be incompatible with the current nature of launching process of the new product development and therefore, should not be adopted. This is indeed the major cause of the failure depicted by the inability to deliver quality as Peggy found out (Cooper 2009).
Rationale of being innovative
Any new situation requires new ways of doing things. If old methods are put in place to handle the new situations, it maybe that; the desired end points are of inferior quality if at all they are reached. Therefore, a company ought to do extensive research and therefore come up with superior and innovative ideas each time product development launching process is established (Cooper 2009).
This will indeed help greatly in ensuring the success of the process advanced as in most cases, the launching process will be completed successfully and the results would be far much appealing than it would have been if the company relied on the past implemented launching processes (Cooper 2009).
Reliance on old methods
Harmonium and Media Company constantly base their new developed products on tradition, that is, they rely entirely on the print media. The company needs to embrace technology and blend the print media with the digital media. As such, they will see the change in outcomes as they will experience increased returns. Contemporary, most people prefer the digital media as it is usually cost effective and brings a comprehensive coverage.
Rationale of embracing digital media
Foremost, digital media is the most acknowledged by most people across the world. This is due to the comprehensive coverage as well as the satisfaction obtained from the digital media. As such, digital media is a source of entertainment, which most people cherish. In addition to this, digital media brings a great deal of revenues since most of the advertising companies prefer the digital media over the print media.
The reason behind this is that the advertisement made through the digital media is capable of reaching a great number of people as compared to the print media (Handfield, Walton, and Seegers & Melnyk 2007).
This follows that, as more and more individuals as well as companies advertises, revenues increase tremendously and in the long run, usually the sales targets are achieved. Therefore, it is advisable that a company develops or acquires digital media products in order to realize more sales.
Conclusion
From this analysis, it is clear that the new product development process entails two parallel paths of which must be followed for an effective NPD. These includes; One that entails the generation of idea, designing the product and engineering the details of the product; and the one that entail researching on the market as well as the market analysis (Calantone, Vickery & Droge 2005).
According to the trends observable in established organizations, new product development process is usually the initial phase as far as generation as well as the commercialization of new products within an aggregate strategic process with regard to the management of the life cycle of a product, which is used in maintains are and growth of the market share, are concerned (Balachandra & Friar 2007).
Generally, the new product development process involves various steps which involve; Idea generation, Idea screening, concept development as well as testing, analysis of the business, Beta testing and testing of the market, technical implementation, commercialization and pricing of the new products (Denton 2004).
Harmonium media’s adopted new product development as well as improvement process has various areas of stronghold, which includes: concept of new business development being excellently established and defined;
ensuring that the proposed new product development and process improvements are blended into the already existing schedule as well as processes improvement projects, which are being worked on;
all the projects, which Harmonium Media intends to address, are scrutinized based on feasibility as well as costing analysis and thereby adding rough estimates of the costs, time lines and risks;
recognition of the need for product improvements and thereby active participation of the top management in identification of new products opportunities as well as possible new areas of business derived from the analysis of emergent customers;
and, identification of trends in competition and conduction of an analysis where the top management team establishes the areas of existing NPD that are not competitive enough and need to be improved, among other areas.
However, there are areas, which the business has performed extremely poorly, and which, leads to the inefficiency of the process (Calantone, Vickery & Droge 2005).
Such areas include; Harmonium Media’s R&D staff has not conducted a substantial research with regard to the feasibility assessment as well as new product development; disregard of ideas, which have been generated internally by the employees of this company;
the existing processes used to identify and thereby developing new products takes a lot of time; launching of the product adopted by Harmonium Media is based on art; and, most of the management team in Harmonium Media have their ideas based on tradition, that is, the company’s revenues comes from the print media and as such, they have maintained it as a culture and part of history among other weaknesses.
Generally, the business can be said to have succeeded in delivering a new product development process that is worthwhile. The only thing that the company needs to transform is the weaknesses depicted and discussed in this analysis. With this done, it will follow that the adopted process will not entail any flaws and the desired end point will be of good quality (Calantone, Vickery & Droge 2005).
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