Three Strategies That Produce Immediate Results From the Desk of Dr. Scott J. Edgett Despite tough economic conditions, new technologies are still being invented and competitors are still aggressively looking at how to take your market share. Business still goes on. The key question is how will your organization respond? Will it be the type of company that battens down the hatches and hopes to ride out the storm until better days arrive? Or, will your organization be in the group that realizes that there are still good opportunities out there? The smart firms will take advantage of these tough times and use the retrenchment of their competitors to gain traction. This 2-page note describes 3 specific actions that produce big payoffs. Read Article.

Last Chance - Register Now Stage-Gate Summit '09 February 24-25, 2009 Top Rated Seminar Strategic Portfolio Management March 10-11, 2009 Free Webinar Successful Product Innovation March 3 , 2009 11:00am (EST) Featured Publication - Order Now Portfolio Management for New Products, 2nd Edition

Accelerate Your Product Innovation Program Through the Recession

During recessions, smart companies quickly isolate their product innovation performance improvement needs, define a plan of action and align the leadership team to move forward. However, this is easier said than done: how do you make sure that the right needs are identified, that the plan of action is the correct one and the leadership teams are truly committed? Solution: benchmark your process against proven best practices, develop the plan as a team, and leverage an expert in improving product innovation performance.

Accomplish all of this through a rapid Benchmarker™ Debrief conducted by product innovation authority Dr. Scott J. Edgett. Dr. Edgett has advised executives and organizations around the world to create billions of dollars in new wealth through product leadership. His award-winning research, three decades of experience working with some of the world's most admired companies and no-nonsense approach will focus your team quickly on what needs to be done to accelerate your product innovation performance.

Complete a Benchmarker™ Debrief Event in three easy steps:

• Conduct an online SG Benchmarker survey with your key product innovation stakeholders
• Schedule a one-day workshop event with your leadership team and Dr. Edgett
• Hold the workshop: debrief your Benchmarker results, agree on priorities and craft a go-forward plan

For more information on Benchmarker™, view the Benchmarker video.  To arrange a Benchmarker™ Debrief event, contact us at solutions@stage-gate.com.

Invest in the Right Innovation Projects
March 10-11, 2009, Clearwater, FL
LAST CHANCE, Register Now

Most companies lack a clear, crisp and communicated product innovation strategy. Their goals for new products lack precision; they have not defined the best arenas to focus their R&D efforts on; and they lack effective attack plans to win in those arenas. By contrast, top performing businesses have a clearly articulated innovation strategy.

Attend the seminar Developing a Product Innovation Strategy and Deciding Your New Product Portfolio and learn:

• What the elements of a robust product innovation strategy are, how to improve the strategic assessment part of your strategy development, incorporating peripheral vision, disruptive technologies, trend analysis, and how to pick the right areas - the right markets, business areas and technologies - to focus your new products effort on.
  
• How to increase your innovation productivity by identifying higher value projects and killing bad projects early. We look at how to use the powerful concept of Strategic Buckets and Strategic Road mapping to maximize the value of the development portfolio, obtain the right balance and mix of projects, and support the business's innovation strategy. We also discover the most effective tools for evaluating and ranking projects - scoring models, the productivity index, real options, effective gating.

So take a look at the brochure, and do join us for solid insights into accelerating your new product process and learn what best practices some businesses have already discovered and are successfully applying. LAST CHANCE, Register Now

STAGE-GATE INNOVATION SUMMIT '09
February 24-25, 2009 - Clearwater, Florida
LAST CHANCE, DON'T MISS THIS MUCH ANTICIPATED EVENT!

Learn from eight case studies from these leading companies • Church & Dwight • Corning Inc. • Fresenius Health Care • ICOM • ITT Industries • Johnson & Johnson • McKesson Provider Technologies • Procter & Gamble and discover how and why certain companies are achieving stellar organic growth results despite the numerous challenges and obstacles before them.

Join us for cutting-edge ideas, solutions, experiences and free-flowing discussions with industry’s best and brightest innovation leaders. Download the Stage-Gate Summit '09 brochure or visit the website for full details.

Free Webinar: Innovation Improvement Techniques for Recessions
Jim Mikell, EVP and Michael Booker, Solutions Manager, Stage-Gate International
Tuesday March 3, 2009 at 11:00 AM EST

Are you struggling with both reduced resources and increased pressure to get new products and services to the market more quickly? Want to get your priority projects accelerated to the market as quickly as possible? Need to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of your recently-constrained resources?

Join Stage-Gate International EVP, Jim Mikell and Solutions Manager, Michael Booker for this complimentary 45-minute webinar to hear the best short-term strategies for improving the performance of your product innovation program. Learn techniques for cleaning out your pipeline, accelerating your key projects and making sure your Stage-Gate^® process is operating at peak efficiency.

Reserve your space today! Registration is limited.