3M MPro120 Pocket Projector

• Mobile phone screens can be difficult to watch movies on.
• Projectors are creating a new era for mobile phones, MP3 players, and other devices.
• 3M's MPro120 Pocket projector is a handheld device projecting high-quality images from 8 to 50 inches.
• The MPro120 is about the size of a small TV remote control.
• The MPro120 uses LED lamp technology meaning it does not need internal cooling system.
• The LED lamp technology allows the MPro120 to run for four hours while still keeping the total weight at 5.6 ounces.
• The MPro120 is compatible with personal computer formats, DVD players, iPods/iPhones, and other mobile phones.
• 3M is committed to the environment.
• 3M's Pollution Prevention Pays (3P) program is now in its fourth decade.
• 3M's Pollution Prevention Pays (3P) program emphasizes environmental management systems and eco-efficiency.
• 3M continues to reduce emissions, and it's products eco-design caters to customer demands for environmentally lean products.
• 3M uses a life cycle management program requiring all business units to conduct life cycle management reviews for new products.
• This enables commercializing new products with environmental advantages in component procurement, production, customer use, and product disposal.

Sustainable Competitive Advantages

• Innovative companies include sustainability concerns when designing products.
• Innovation is an effort to create purposeful, focused change in an enterprise's economic, social, and ecological potential.
• Organizations must innovate to attain sustainability by attending to each facet of the triple bottom line.
• Focused change can occur to meet a variety of sustainability needs.
• Innovation addresses growing populations, affordable products/services, growing unmet needs, and reducing environmental influences.
• The need for sustainable innovations is increasing because emerging markets are maturing and mature markets continue to develop.
• If per capita consumption rates in the developing economies mirror developed markets, three Earths would be required to support resource consumption.
• Innovations promote sustainability by finding new ways to do old and new things.
• Analysis of innovation focuses on developing innovative new products.
• Firms innovate through new channel development, new business models, and novel product ideas.
• Product innovation refers to improving new goods and services in terms of technical abilities, functional characteristics, ease of use, and other dimensions.
• Process innovation implements novel techniques for producing goods and services.
• Process innovation yields higher levels of triple bottom line effectiveness.
• Understanding innovation demands consideration of activities within the firm.
• Process innovations developed by one firm can become the product innovations of another such as the package tracking technology of UPS.

Product Innovation Framework

• Firms engage in an interactive process to develop new product and service offerings.
• The stage-gate process elucidates the series of activities in designing new products and recognizes that firms engage in a number of activities between idea conception and market launch.
• These phases are multifunctional, which requires interaction among marketing, R&D, production, and other activities internal and external to the firm.
• Technical flaws account for 20% of product failures.
• Marketing and management-related deficiencies account for 75% of product failures.

Product Development Framework

• Departments within a firm increase the likelihood of new product success by working together.
• Each development framework phase and stage comes with a complementary gate which evaluate a potential product.
• The gates are predetermined and have must meet and should meet requirements of a project or product.
• Firms deliberate whether to kill or allow a project to proceed at each process stage.
• Firms invest substantially when developing new products, and the benefits or costs of either success or failure are staggering.
• Released products in the past three years account for at least 25% of a firm's revenue.
• Failed product launches in the electronics industry are estimated at over $20 billion per year.
• By devising an appropriate series of gates/checkpoints, firms can increase success likelihood and reduce failure potential.
• Costs associated with a product increase as it develops toward market launch with each stage demanding more stringent gates against advancement.
• Decisions to kill products should be made as early as possible in development process to prevent spending resources needlessly.
• Eliminating a known unsuccessful project benefits the firm regardless of when it is killed.

Product Innovation - Idea Generation

• The initial activity in the new-product development process is the generation of an idea.
• Stakeholders associated with an organization are at the forefront of this phase, and it is essential to be treated as partners for product innovation.
• New ideas can emerge from any aspect of the environment.
• It is important to work with stakeholders to understand their vantage points for innovations.
• Product development should therefore include employees, consumers, vendors, government, nongovernment organizations, and the general public.
• Employees are valuable sources of information with the potential to understand the market, as well as production and strategic objectives.
• The logic of business as usual may detract from the ability to offer ideas that genuinely challenge current operations, which can limit employee capabilities.
• Organizations develop teams of employees within new-product development commonly from marketing functions or other technical areas.
• It is imperative for these teams to recognize inherent group development problems to generate ideas successfully.
• The group process may generate production blocking characterized by the inability to offer opinions simultaneously.
• The firm should recognize that the group process may be hindered by employee concerns about evaluations drawn from the idea generation process.
• Asynchronous interaction enables multiple responses without blocking and anonymous participation precludes management from using the idea generation sessions in employee evaluations, improving the influence of problems.
• An organization must contend with the possibility that some team members free-ride in development by not offering ideas.
• Offering employees incentives for their participation lowers this failure to participate in idea generation.
• While typical processes involve surveying the breadth of consumers in a market, recent studies emphasize looking at lead users.
• Lead users are consumers who expect attractive innovation-related benefits from a solution and experience needs for an innovation earlier than most participants in a target market.
• Familiar representative samples may have difficulty conceiving novel product uses/attributes.
• Future-oriented lead users are more inclined to face issues today that most users will face soon.
• These lead users tend to have more consumer product knowledge and experience compared to other consumers.
• Relative to other users, they more frequently commit to risky, innovative, and difficult tasks and are more likely predisposed to innovation.
• Vendors, organizations marketing one's firm, can also be a source of ideas.
• Competitive suppliers close to the firm shorten communication lines, thus facilitating ideas yielding innovation.
• Sales organizations can take innovative ideas and adopt the logic in a novel setting.
• Nevertheless, vendors operate in a mixed-motive model and may not have the seller's best interests in mind.
• Firms have elected to develop personnel teams including vendors as well as users in some cases.
• Interfirm teams increase the quality of new product ideas by reducing misunderstanding working across boundaries.
• Cross-functional teams sharing information early can identify problem areas early.

Sources for new ideas

• Government at all levels is a valuable source of ideas.
• The United States Department of Commerce supports efforts to bring new technology to market via the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
• NIST promotes innovation in the United States through high-risk, high-reward research in critical national areas.
• Scientists affiliated with NIST conduct breakthrough research that leads to the innovations.
• The range of NIST effort does not extend to product development.
• Innovation is required on behalf of the private sector to exploit NIST technologies for commercial viability.
• Commercially promising patents require identifying technological gaps that impede their direct transition to the marketplace.
• Supported NIST research has fostered developing flexible computer chip technology which innovators can use to develop marketable processor chips.
• Nongovernment organizations (NGOs) are similar to government in the sense that they serve as sources of information.
• Organizations such as McDonald's, IBM, and Walmart recognize that interaction with these organizations can provide wealth of information that is relevant to the generation of new ideas.

Internal Events that Yield Innovation

• Unexpected occurrences are situations in which customers find novel unanticipated uses for a product.
• Ex: Backpackers forego the use of a pillow when a makeshift one can be made from clothing and a nylon bag.
• A new use for a product emerges when the utility of an item can broaden to include multiple functions.
• Economic and ecological costs decline by enabling a single product to do multiple tasks.
• Incongruities are situations in which there is an inconsistency concerning the prevailing logic in the industry.
• Ex: The personal computing industry being characterized by an incongruity between market growth and falling profits.
• Netbook computers are partially attributable to the desire to overcome this incongruity, and enable firms to generate revenue/profits at price levels lower than most personal computers.
• Process needs are modifications in the operations of a product to enhance its performance.
• Ex: The QWERTY typewriter keyboard was developed in response to the cost of fixing typeface machines that were jammed.
• The new keyboard design was developed to slow down users because users of the alphabetic keyboard often jammed the machines.
• Market changes are situations in which the nature of the industry or market changes.
• Ex: The television industries basic operation changed from an analog to a digital device in 2009 despite recognition that more than 3.5 million American homes weren't ready for broadcasting.
• External events refer to factors outside of the industry that prompt innovation, including: Demographic changes, Changes in perception, New knowledge

Demographic Changes

• Demographics studies vital statistics such as race, age, gender, and income; demographic change can dramatically affect innovations.
• Many countries face rapid population growth yielding higher poverty which, in turn, yields higher population growth. Innovations in irrigation and water recycling are partially addressing the demographic changes.

Changes in Perception

• Changes in perception happens when consumers modify their opinions about marketplace factors.
• Grocery shoppers have modified their perceptions of environmental costs associated with disposable paper and plastic bags.
• Consumers are increasingly using canvas bags that are less harmful to the environment.

New Knowledge

• New knowledge uses of new technical, scientific, or social information to address market problems.
• New knowledge associated with fuel cell and electric motor technologies prompted the advent of hybrid automobile engines.
• After initial idea generation, the firm implements its first topic viability assessment.
• Firms use checklists/scorecards to check whether ideas fulfills must meet and should meet criteria at each stage.
• Product development evaluations are funnels used to assess products moving toward the market.
• The initial screening of the product is less stringent than later.
• The evaluation focuses on project feasibility, strategic alignment, synergy, market attractiveness, and synergy with the company's resources and business, but there are no financial criteria at this stage.
• The firm begins the preliminary assessment if the decision is made to move forward.

Product Innovation - Preliminary Assessment

• Preliminary assessment is the development process's first stage when the firm performs an initial market assessment determining the market potential/size.
• The firm will perform an online/library search for related products and use focus groups/interaction with key users to assess likelihood of marketplace acceptance.
• The market analysis is complemented by a preliminary technical analysis which assesses manufacturing and development feasibility.
• The organization quantifies the time and costs associated with manufacturing the product.
• Effective projects teams, with their clear goals and commitments, are built at the start and include: marketing, procurement, logistics, manufacturing, and R&D.

Product Development

• Team members should collectively possess the capabilities to achieve the project's objectives.
• They should be supported by resources and psychological support needed to maintain a high level of motivation/focus.
• The team structure should emphasize a collaborative work environment promoting effective communication.
• Team leaders should provide a consistent focused message to direct all team members to achieve high performance levels.
• Gate 2 evaluates potential products at the end of the first stage
• Though the Go/Kill decision will not be markedly different from the initial screen, the should-meet criteria now incorporate considerations brought to the proess by customers/sales.
• Financial criteria are not substantial at this point at this point, but address the potential break-even point for the venture.
• The project moves forward to business case preparation if the project adequately addresses the should-meet and must-meet criteria.

Product Innovation - Business Case Preparation

• Business case preparation is the last stage before investing substantially in product development.
• A firm identifies the product's attractiveness associated with manufacturing, marketing, legal, and financial constraints.
• The manufacturing assessment must address the investment required for production and costs; Because organizations that do not address sustainability concerns face increased social and economic liability, consider triple bottom line costs with manufacturing/supply chain.
• The marketing component requires assessing consumer needs/wants to determine customer expectations.
• Firms propose new products to customers to determine new product acceptance, thus gaining input to make product enhancements.
• The firm identifies the economic, social, and ecological merits of the product as they relate to potential consumers.
• There must also be a patentability and legl/regulatory constraints assessment.
• Legal requirements are embracing beneficial/less harmful technologies.
• Ex: Prevailing EU law prevents firms marketing electrical/electronic components of lead, cadmium, and hexavalent chromium.
• Gate 3 is the last chance to eliminate the idea prior to sizeble investment.
• Considerations to incorporate before advancing to product development exists within the stage-gate model.
• Product competitive advantage - The new product value must be superior and compelling with respect to some facet of the triple bottom line which must be recognized by the consumer with the ecological merits being greater than the limitations.

Strategic Fit

• The new products must be consistent with the business strategy.
• The importance must be recognized.

Market Attractiveness

• Market attractiveness includes market size and growth.
• The margins realized by competitors in this market should be established, and the competition's intensity must also be identified.

Core Competencies Relatedness

• Projects reflect core strength in the firm.
• The attractiveness of new products should increase when they enable a firm to leverage strengths in marketing, production, technology, and distribution.

Technical Feasibility

• Assessed by looking at the data and complexity of the technology associated with a new product.
• The firm should identify familiarity with the technology inherent to a new product.

Financial Risks and Rewards

• The financial assessment should consider the risk level and the firm's ability to address it as well as the financial reward in terms of net present value, productivity index, and size of the opportunity.

Product Innovation - Product Development

• When product concepts pass through gate three, they move into product development with marketing/manufacturing occurring in parallel.
• Marketing continues to track potential and obtain feedback regarding the offering's ecological, social, and economic value.
• Determining the extent to which consumers understand, recognize, and value the benefits is essential.
• Manufacturing develops a product prototype, evaluating new product feasibility.
• At the close of this stage, the firm faces Gate 4, reviewing Gate 3's criteria regarding the attractiveness of the product.
• Marketplace attractiveness/financial are incorporated into the decision calculus, and if the decision goes forward, the firm mobilizes to perform a market test.

Product Innovation - Test Market and Validation

• In the final stage before full market launch, the firm examines whether the product can be manufactured/marketed profitably.
• The firm engages in pilot production to determine production rates/costs where previously identified triple bottom line criteria must be observable in the test runs.
• The firm cannot determine by-product amounts at production, but observes the by-products provided by manufacturing that might be used in operations or costs returns.
• Steel manufacturers identify the amount of marketable slag they market to the cement industry.
• The by-product assessment assesses amount of greenhouse gasses, or gas production, that can be available to the market offsetting cost.
• Marketing looks deeper to determine interest/acceptance from consumers.
• Demand determines resources needed for production/marketing.
• Test-marketing provides insight into resource constraints, implementing a complete strategy and provides estimates of sales/profitability.
• Ex: Procter & Gamble began test marketing concentrated liquid laundry detergent in 2006, which produces less chemical by-products than traditional-strength detergents.
• Testing provided opportunity to know consumer product use/acceptance.
• Gate 5 is the final point to asses whether the product is ready for full production when costs should be evaluated. Objectivity is desired at this stage because many individuals have have dedicated substantial effort to product development.
• Projects that will not obtain profitable sales are eliminated at this stage, increasing saving.
• The test reveals potential and cost regarding the profits, sales, social, and economic costs to then offer a precise prediction of sales and product potential.
• Resources are estimated to project human resource to enable the firm to estimate resource requirements and production by-products.
• The firm then begins full product production if profit potential is sizable.