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GGI RapidNews R&D Product Development eZine: Volume 5, Issue 8- September 16, 2004
GGI RapidNews is published approximately once a month.

In This Issue

2004 METRICS SURVEY

BOOK REVIEW - Why Not?

MANAGEMENT PRODUCTIVITY - APQC R&D Productivity Benchmarking Study

MANAGEMENT PRODUCTIVITY - Axiomatic Design

FEATURED iSTORE PRODUCT - Usage of Best PLM Practices: State of the Industry [Presentation Slides]

2002 BIENNIAL SURVEY - 2002 RD&E Survey Results available now

NEW WEB CONTENT - Updated Calendar

CONFERENCES OF INTEREST - MRT Metrics

WEBINARS OF INTEREST - Sopheon's Winning Practices for Product Development, IDe Webinar

TELEVISION EVENTS - Alexander Haig's World Business Review

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NEWS & NOTES

2004 BIENNIAL METRICS SURVEY

GGI's 2004 Biennial Product Development Metrics Survey is now in the analysis phase. Thank you to all of you who completed the survey. We received 208 surveys in total, and after eliminating duplicates within companies and invalid surveys there was a total of 202 valid surveys.

The survey response rate was exactly 5%. This survey population together with the response rate is statistically strong! Sixty-nine percent of survey respondents were from Public Companies, and 31% from Private Companies. In terms of types of companies, there were 65% from Industry, 29% considered Hi-Tech and 6% from the Services sector. We are already seeing some very interesting results. The first of its kind research of the Intellectual Property Decision Process is showing how different this decision making is from portfolio decision making, even though it too is a portfolio.

All participants will soon receive an acknowledgement letter confirming we received your survey. Any survey respondents who do not receive an acknowledgement letter from us by September 30 should contact Richard James at rjj@goldensegroupinc.com or 781-444-5400, x201. Although we did have several duplicate surveys, be assured that if you sent in a completed survey, you will receive a copy of the Executive Summary of the results in the October time frame.


BOOK REVIEW

Why Not? How to Use Everyday Ingenuity to Solve Problems Big and Small, by Barry Nalebuff and Ian Ayres. Harvard Business School Press. 2003, 1st edition. 256 pages.

Generating innovative ideas could be as simple as asking "why not?" according to authors Nalebuff and Ayres, both professors at Yale University. This book offers simple techniques for creating new solutions to existing problems and for applying existing solutions to new problems. The authors remind us not to rely only on high-tech breakthroughs, but to look at "everyday ingenuity" as a source of ideas. They suggest the following four questions as tools for innovation.

1. What would Croesus do? Croesus was an extremely wealthy king of ancient Turkey whose name is synonymous with wealth. In other words imagine solutions where cost is no object. These may lead to more practical solutions.

2. Why don't you feel my pain? This "internalization" questions leads to solutions with incentives that allow all parties to feel the impact of their decisions on each other, rather than, for example, actions that benefit a seller but hurt the consumer.

3. Where else would it work? This "translation" question poses the challenge to find a different context for an existing solution, in order to solve a new or previously unnoticed problem.

4. Would flipping it work? This "symmetry" question involves reversing each component of an existing solution to generate new solutions to other problems.


MANAGEMENT PRODUCTIVITY

APQC R&D Productivity Benchmarking Study

The American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC) is conducting a consortium research and benchmarking study, entitled "Measuring R&D Productivity." Goldense Group, Inc. [GGI] is Subject Matter Expert for this study. This study breaks new ground in understanding the drivers of R&D productivity. Fifteen global sponsors from four continents will benchmark five best practice companies on two continents after a rigorous screening process.

The APQC consortium benchmarking study addresses the following three areas:

1. Identify the areas where improved attention, knowledge, and education would lead to higher R&D productivity. [What are the key areas for best practice?]

2. Use measurement to increase visibility and awareness, which in turn will facilitate enhanced performance in R&D. [What are the measures for these areas?]

3. Determine effective change management activities to support the realization of improved R&D productivity. [How did the best practice companies achieve their practices?]

The kickoff meeting took place on July 20, 2004, and the study will be conducted with site visits during October, 2004. The Knowledge Transfer Session occurs in early December. Results remain confidential for 3 to 4 months and then will be available for purchase in February 2005 through the APQC web site.

For information about this study, go to http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/apqc.shtml. For general information about APQC, go to http://www.apqc.org. For general information about Goldense Group, Inc., go to http://www.goldensegroupinc.com.


MANAGEMENT PRODUCTIVITY

Axiomatic Design

Can the product design process can be repeatable? Creators of the axiomatic design process believe that by applying a set of axioms or patterns of successful design, companies will consistently come up with the best solutions to customer needs.

These design axioms emerged in the late 1980s and were described in the 1990 book, The Principles of Design, by MIT Professor Nam P. Suh (Oxford University Press). Software tools were then developed by Axiomatic Design Solutions, Inc. (ADSI) to facilitate the implementation of the axiomatic design process.

Axiomatic design is a scientific approach to product design that seeks to decouple design components and make direct links between customer needs, functional requirements and design parameters. The axiomatic design process connects customer needs to design parameters through a large matrix, which during a recent demonstration reminded us of a large QFD matrix, that records design decisions and rationale.

The axiomatic design process helps to increase the reliability of the product development process and to shorten it by reducing or eliminating redesign. Axiomatic design process technology was awarded Industry Week's Technology of the Year award in 1999, and earlier this year ADSI signed an agreement to provide training and technology transfer with matching funds from NIST-sponsored Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MassMEP).

ADSI is conducting a 3-day seminar on axiomatic design process in Waltham, MA, beginning September 28, 2004. NIST/MassMEP funding will match firms' investments in this lean design process training. For more information, go to MassMEP's web site at http://www.massmep.org or ADSI's site at http://www.axiomaticdesign.com/events/default.asp.


FEATURED GGI iSTORE PRODUCTS

Featured Item: GGI's iStore features one deeply discounted offering, which changes periodically. The current Featured Item is "Usage of Best PLM Practices: State of the Industry [Presentation Slides]" (T38).

This Keynote/Featured Presentation, from the 2003 PDMA Conference last fall, provides a definition of current industry practices for the eight processes that have emerged in the past five years as Best Practices for Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). The presentation is based on results of three research surveys and case studies of North American companies. Numerous graphical examples and detailed descriptions are provided for each of the eight Best PLM Practices that span the following key areas across the entire product life cycle:

* Ideation and Concept Management
* Product Selection
* Intellectual Property Management
* Resource & Capacity Management
* Portfolio Management
* Product Obsolescence Management


Detailed case study and research results as well as a detailed definition of the best practices are presented in each area. Overall benefits are also discussed. This presentation puts you on top of the most current Best Practices for PLM that can help drive your company to better customer satisfaction, higher profits, time savings, and ultimately greater success.

The price for the presentation, "Usage of Best PLM Practices: State of the Industry," has been dropped from $330.00 to $198.00, a deep discount of 40%. For more information or to purchase this valuable report, go to

http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/cgi/catalog.cgi?display_promo.


2002 BIENNIAL SURVEY

2002 RD&E Survey - Resource & Capacity Management: Complete results from our 2002 Product Development Metrics Survey are available, including our most detailed "RESULTS" report. The RESULTS report is the only version published that contains cross-population cuts of the data, in addition to analysis of the survey population as a whole.

The 2002 Survey focused on the following 5 areas of resource and capacity management:
- Loading the RD&E capacity pipeline,
- Providing capacity for RD&E activities,
- Balancing cross-functional resources (staffing ratios),
- Using systems, tools, & metrics to manage capacity, and
- RD&E metrics used in industry.

The 3 versions of the 2002 Survey results reports that we offer for sale to the public are:

1. 2002 SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS: A text-only report (65 pages),including the full text of all the results and analysis of the survey population analyzed as a whole,

2. 2002 SURVEY SUMMARY: A report of composite results, where the survey respondents are analyzed as a whole (116 pages, including a full set of graphics), and

3. 2002 SURVEY RESULTS: The most detailed report, complete with the composite results and "special cuts," where the survey population is segmented and analyzed in the following groups: Public vs. Private, Smaller vs. Larger, Process vs. Repetitive/Discrete vs. Job Shop, Higher Technology vs. Lower Technology, and More vs. Fewer Employees (223 pages).

These reports are available in the Market Research section of GGI's iStore (http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/iStore/store.html). The original survey questionnaire as well as a description of the survey (including survey focus and demographics, tables of contents for the 3 reports, and examples of key findings) can be found at the Survey Information page at http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/research-product-development-innovation-process-metrics.shtml or in the Market Research Reading Room at http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/readmarket.shtml.

McKinsey & Company, Texas Instruments, Rockwell, and Datacard are representative of companies that purchase market research from GGI.

NEW WEB CONTENT

GTK-Gateways To Knowledge: Your resource for industry and product development related information and contacts offers thousands of links to providers of technologies and services for line management functions. The main entrance to GTK can be found at:

http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/gateway/index.shtml

Calendar of Industry Events MEGA Gateway is one of our top 3 MEGA Gateways. It contains a listing of links to Conferences, Seminars, Distance Learning Centers, Webinars, Colleges & Universities, Executive Education, and Corporate-Sponsored Universities. The calendar has just been updated with many of the events being held in fall and winter 2004. If you are looking for a conference or other learning opportunity, check out the Calendar first. This free service for our readers is now front and center on GGI's Home Page. Or, go directly to the Calendar of Industry Events MEGA Gateway at:

http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/gateway/calendar3.shtml


CONFERENCES OF INTEREST

MRT 9th Annual Metrics Conference: Management Roundtable will hold its 9th annual conference, "Product Development and R&D Metrics: Metrics from Ideation to Commercialization," on September 28-30, 2004 in Chicago, IL. The conference will examine how leading metrics experts and advanced industry practitioners are deploying metrics further upstream to capture new product ideas faster and speed innovation efforts. The conference features keynote addresses, case studies, pre-conference workshops, and facilitated Q&A and networking sessions. This year's conference co-chairs are GGI's Bradford L. Goldense and Tom Kuczmarski, President of Kuczmarski & Associates. Keynote speakers are Tom Kuczmarski and Larraine Segil, Partner at Vantage Partners.

GGI's 2004 Product Development Metrics Survey will be made public for the first time as a featured presentation on Thursday, September 30. Brad Goldense will also conduct a full-day, pre-conference workshop on Tuesday, September 28 on "Product Development Metrics Portfolios." The seminar teaches and applies GGI's Linked Metrics Portfolio(TM) Method, a strong alternative to Scorecards for R&D and Product Development.

More information is available at MRT's web site: http://www.roundtable.com/Event_Center/MET04/MET04.html


WEBINARS OF INTEREST

Winning Practices for Product Development: This free, online seminar series is sponsored by Sopheon. These one-hour, online events feature experts and leading practitioners who will share process knowledge and practical advice about ways to improve your product development performance and results.

There are currently two webinars scheduled.

9 September - (8:30 am Pacific/11:30 am Eastern/16:30 UK) - Managing Breakthrough Innovation: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, presented by Gina O'Connor PhD, Associate Professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

28 September - (8:30 am Pacific/11:30 am Eastern/16:30 UK) - Outstanding corporate Innovators: A Bird's-Eye View of Winning Companies, presented by Douglas G. Boike PhD, President of Triad consulting

For more information on these webinars, or to look at the archive of past webinars, go to http://www.sopheon.com/events_onlineseminars.asp.

IDe Webinars: IDe is presenting a series of webinars designed to help general managers and IT executives understand how to automate the management of strategic initiatives. These on-line events feature industry leaders and experts in product development initiatives who will share best practices for managing projects, portfolios, resources, and ideas to drive revenue growth.

There is currently one webinar scheduled.

16 September - (11:30 AM to 1:00 PM Eastern time) - How Do Corporate and Product Development Projects Coexist?, presented by Mark Kleinle, Director of Process Improvement at Shure Incorporated.

For more information or to register, go to
http://www.ide.com/Webinars/ShureWebinar16September2004.htm


TELEVISION EVENTS

Alexander Haig's World Business Review: Brad Goldense has made several appearances on Alexander Haig's World Business Review in the past year. Streaming video is available for all shows, which aired on August 4, September 29 and December 15, 2002 and on May 20, 2003. See below for details.

May 20, 2003 Broadcast of September 29th In-Studio with Alexander Haig (22.5 minutes): Streaming video for this segment is available at: http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/ggi-goldense-product-development-tv-television-broadcast.shtml#wbr5

December 15, 2002 In-Studio with Alexander Haig (7.5 minutes) on CNBC paid programming: Streaming video for this segment is available at: http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/ggi-goldense-product-development-tv-television-broadcast.shtml#wbr3

September 29, 2002 In-Studio with Alexander Haig (22.5 minutes): Streaming video for this segment (as well as the entire 30-minute show) is available at: http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/ggi-goldense-product-development-tv-television-broadcast.shtml#wbr2

August 4, 2002 On-Location at GGI (3.5 minutes): This On-Location field report is available in streaming video on GGI's website. To see the program, go to: http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/ggi-goldense-product-development-tv-television-broadcast.shtml#wbr1

The web page includes links to download a streaming video player, if you do not currently have one installed on your computer.

For more information on any of Brad's appearances on television, go to:

http://www.goldensegroupinc.com/ggi-goldense-product-development-tv-television-broadcast.shtml.

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GGI RapidNews is an e-mail publication from Goldense Group, Inc (GGI). Its subject matter includes survey findings, company news, book and article reviews, key industry conferences and R&D information of interest to clients and associates. Please send communications to rn(at)goldensegroupinc.com. Thank you.