The Business Case for Improving Your Idea-to-Launch Process
By Michelle Jones, Executive Vice-President, Stage-Gate International

Fortunately, building a high performance idea-to-launch process is only a little more difficult than building a bad one. Mediocre or poor processes exist simply because the builder(s) was unaware how little separates a good process from a bad one. What is truly inspiring however is the significant difference in the performance results that can be achieved – it pays to build a high quality process and there is much evidence to support this.

Consider these well researched and widely documented facts on just some of the performance levels achieved by companies using a high performance Stage-Gate^® Idea-to-Launch Process:

• New Product Success Rates are 3x higher¹
• Time to Market is 35% faster²
• New Products achieve profitability targets 77% of the time³
• New Product Projects are on time and on budget 79% of the time⁴

The reality for most firms today, and rightfully so, is that every proposed initiative be accompanied with a cost/benefit analysis. This holds true as well for improvements to the company’s idea-to-launch process. Unfortunately, a detailed cost/benefit analysis is time consuming and expensive. This article outlines a few quick yet effective ways to establish whether your process has room to improve as well as some ways to quantify the potential benefits.

How to determine if your idea-to-launch process has potential to deliver better performance

If you are wondering if your process could deliver better results, here are two simple and inexpensive ways to make a quick assessment:

1. Assess your idea-to-launch process for Dr. Robert G. Cooper’s 10 proven drivers. The majority of mediocre processes simply fail to embed these ground breaking critical success factors in practical ways. Complete this abbreviated checklist and receive an instant score. Complete checklist now.
   
   
2. Assess your idea-to-launch process for NexGen™ principles. If your organization is trying to take your Stage-Gate process to the next level, then perhaps it is time to incorporate some of the best practices identified in NexGen Stage-Gate . Compare your organization to this abbreviated checklist and receive an instant score. Complete checklist now.

Four ways to calculate the potential benefits of improving your process

An excellent way to achieve the necessary buy-in and support to successfully undertake an idea-to-launch improvement project is to ‘make the case’ for taking on such an initiative. Each organization has unique performance objectives and as such one metric or calculation does not fit all needs. Here are fourways to ‘guesstimate’ the potential benefits of improving your idea-to-launch process. Experiment with any of the following quick-calculate methods. All have been simplified and therefore require minimal data and effort to calculate.

1. Improved Success Rates. Top performing businesses use a high quality Stage-Gate process to drive higher new product success rates – achieving success 79.5% of the time. Their success rates are 2x higher than that of average performers and 3x higher than that of the bottom 20% of businesses. How much does your company stand to benefit if 80% of the projects which enter into your development stage launch successfully into the marketplace compared to your current rate of success today?
   
2. Time-to-Market. The accepted norm is that time-to-market improves by about 35% after implementing an authentic Stage-Gate process. How much does your company stand to benefit if you accelerated each of your projects’ time to market by 35%?
   
3. Profit. According to a recent research study conducted jointly by Dr. Robert Cooper, Dr. Scott Edgett and the American Productivity and Quality Center, top performing businesses that use a high quality stage-gate process achieve their profit objectives 77% of the time compared with average performers that achieve at best, a 50-50 hit/miss rate. How much does your company stand to benefit if you can improve your ability to meet your profit objectives close to 80% of the time?
   
4. Better Project Management Results. Top performing companies rely on a high quality Stage-Gate process to reduce the complexities of navigating new product development for the first time for each and every project they undertake. As a result, top performing businesses’ projects are on budget 79.4% of the time and on schedule 79% of the time. The average performer achieves, at best, a 50-50 on budget, on schedule hit rate. Multiply the impact this improvement could have by the total number of projects you undertake on an annual basis!

Need help building a business case to justify, improving your idea-to-launch process? Give us a call at Stage-Gate International. We can help you:

• Source performance statistics
• Build a solution uniquely suited to your needs
• Build a case to gain necessary buy-in

For more information call us at +1-905-304-8797 or email us at solutions@stage-gate.com.

Endnotes:
1 Best Practices in Product Innovation authored by Dr. Robert G. Cooper & Dr. Scott J. Edgett with the American Productivity and Quality Center, 2003)
2Comparative Performance Assessment Study by Dr. Abbie Griffin, 2004)
3 Best Practices in Product Innovation authored by Dr. Robert G. Cooper & Dr. Scott J. Edgett with the American Productivity and Quality Center, 2003
4 Best Practices in Product Innovation authored by Dr. Robert G. Cooper & Dr. Scott J. Edgett with the American Productivity and Quality Center, 2003

About the Author
Michelle Jones is the Executive Vice President of Stage-Gate International and is speaker, author and consultant on the topic of product innovation. She leads the commercialization of some of the world’s best practice research on product innovation into state-of-the-art products and services for companies striving to achieve innovation excellence. Her portfolio includes strategic partnerships, product management and marketing and R&D.

Michelle has worked with an impressive portfolio of companies and has over 20 years of experience across several industries including Aerospace, Automotive, Chemical, Consumer Packaged Goods, Defense, Electronics, Energy, Food, Financial, Medical and Pharmaceutical. She has led numerous large-scale and complex Product Innovation Transformation Programs, spanning from Discovery and Stage-Gate Systems to Strategic Portfolio Management, to success.

Michelle holds a Masters of International Business Administration degree from the University of Western Ontario, a Bachelors of Business Administration degree and Specialist Certificate in Project Management from McGill University and is a certified New Product Development Professional (NPDP) with the PDMA. Prior to joining Stage-Gate International, Michelle was Senior Manager of Business Transformation Consulting Services at KPMG (now BearingPoint) where she specialized in implementing complex, organization-wide change projects including product innovation programs, post merger integration and mission-critical business process improvements.

Contact Michelle Jones at michelle.jones@stage-gate.com.