How Can CEO's Stop Stifling Product Innovation?
June 22, 2010
Nielsen finds that CEO's and senior executives interfere with the product innovation process.
"Nielsen’s research of the innovation processes at 30 large CPG companies operating in the United States reveals that companies with less senior management involvement in the new product development process generate 80 percent more new product revenue than those with heavy senior management involvement."
Plus..
"Nielsen’s research indicates senior management should precisely manage the new product development process, not the ideas themselves."
Seems to me this is a good argument for agile marketing practices. Develop ideas, deploy them, and see what happens.
Though I admit its a little difficult to deploy a CPG into the marketplace easily, the costs are so high. However, as the research indicates, the problem is at the idea level, not enough ideas get from the brainstorm session into development, once in development if an idea isn't going to make it, the idea doesn't. Though now I'm wondering if more bad ideas get through if senior management is involved, and because senior management was involved, ideas go through product development that wouldn't make it if the product development team was just making the decision. I'm wondering if senior management's influence on product development ideas influences the rest of the process?