Achieving a steady stream of successful new products and reducing time-to-market remain elusive goals for many organizations," reports Dr. Robert G. Cooper, the world's top innovation management scholar and creator of the widely implemented Stage-Gate^® process. "Through our benchmarking studies, we have discovered that a high quality new product process increased new product success rates by almost 40% and the meeting of profit objectives by 88%." Cooper notes that the study proved that merely having a formal process in place had no impact whatsoever; it was the nature of the process - the ingredients built in and the conscientious implementation of the process that made all the difference. The ingredients, referred to by Dr. Cooper as the 10 critical success factors, are what matter most.

Between 80%-85% of North American companies are now using Stage-Gate Idea-to-Launch processes, at varying degrees of proficiency, to drive new products to market. The challenge today is not whether to implement Stage-Gate but rather how to continuously evolve it and implement it so it is delivering the top performance results it is designed to deliver.

To help address this need, Dr. Robert G. Cooper and Dr. Scott J. Edgett co-chair the annual Stage-Gate Innovation Summit. This unique event with its highly specialized focus attracts Stage-Gate Users from around the world - both veterans and newcomers alike. Its agenda concentrates solely on the robust sharing and exchange of leading edge ideas, solutions, tips and real case presentations delivered by highly respected innovation champions from leading organizations.