Stage-Gate Inc.’s Clients Present at the ‘Compete to Win’ PDMA Conference

Stage-Gate Inc. would like to extend congratulations to three of its clients for their excellent best practice presentations in Track II of the 30th Annual International PDMA Conference held in Atlanta, GA. The focus of this year’s event was on what companies can do to stay ‘on top’ in a highly competitive, global marketplace. Track ll attracted many delegates and addressed the questions and issues on how to augment the performance and attitude of product innovation in a constantly changing and competitive environment.

Ansell Limited's Larry DelPrincipe - Manager New Product Commercialization Process, presented the topic ‘Right Metrics. Right Story’. Larry is primarily responsible for ensuring the Stage-Gate process is effectively executed, maintained and improved and that all persons are trained and have access to the necessary materials and information in order to contribute effectively. View this entire presentation here. More Information

Cooper Standard Automotive - Global Fluid Systems' Sean Osborne, Director of Global R&D, presented the topic ‘Make More and Better Product Decisions to Create Greater Impact’. Sean is a leading product development executive at ITT Industries and his team was instrumental in defining a strategy to compete based on product innovation. View this entire presentation here. More Information

Mellon Financial's David Merritt Sr., New Business Development Manager at presented the topic ‘What Growth is Good Growth?’ David is responsible for leading the design and development of advanced treasury management solutions in the Working Capital Solutions division at Mellon. View this entire presentation here. More Information

Stage-Gate Inc.’s L. Michelle Jones, Vice President of Product Innovation and Management, was also a speaker at the PDMA event and presented the topic ‘Got Metrics, So What?’ Michelle leads the transformation of some of the world’s best practice research on product innovation, conducted by Dr. Robert G. Cooper and Dr. Scott J. Edgett, into state-of-the-art products and services for companies striving for innovation excellence. View this entire presentation here. More Information

TRACK II Topics

Stage Gate Inc. Presenter: L. Michelle Jones, VP Product Innovation and Management

Product innovation is an increasingly important tool used to revitalize maturing or failing product lines. But development for development's sake is simply not an effective option and yet, for many organizations, once these projects enter the development process, they often take on a life of their own. It's not surprising that Dr. Robert Cooper and Dr. Scott Edgett report that 68% of new product launches fail to meet business objectives.

Top performing companies recognize the important role metrics play in managing the critical bridge between product management and product innovation. They ensure metrics are established before the project begins, are supportive of business goals and are consistently applied from idea to launch by all contributing cross functional team members and by gatekeepers at gate meetings. They appreciate that the metrics tell a story and it's important to follow that story from start to finish.

This presentation highlights the pivotal points in the product innovation process where it pays to have good metrics in place, describes the types of problems that plague NPD projects when metrics are not consistently applied and offers a short list of metrics that should be considered before allowing a product improvement project to enter the development process. (View presentation)

Right Metrics. Right Story. (View presentation)

Ansell Limited, Presenter: Larry DelPrincipe - Manager New Product Commercialization Process

Many executives would agree that they really only need a few meaningful metrics in order to determine if their product innovation efforts are on track. Despite the value of tracking and measuring a handful of key metrics, the reality is that many organizations don’t take the time to determine which metrics are most important to measure to steer the direction of their product innovation efforts.

This presentation, through a powerful combination of real-life experience and research-based practices, illustrates a popular short-list of metrics used in Product Innovation Dashboards in some of the world’s most innovative companies, the process they use to select the most meaningful metrics, and how they drive actions from those metrics.

Ansell Limited used metrics to help them define and launch a very successful product innovation program that spanned the globe. Their goal – do it right the first time. Their approach – capture a few metrics to tell the story of the current state and the desired state and then implement a plan to address the gap. This effort not only led Ansell to better understand the gains they were making with their product innovation results, but how it has led to a culture of decision-making driven by objective data. (View presentation)

Cooper Standard Automotive - Global Fluid Systems, Presenter: Sean Osborne, Director of Global R&D

The Automotive Products industry is one of the toughest industries to win in today, with intense competition often leading to razor-thin margins. Cooper Standard Automotive (CSA) is a leading global automotive supplier that specializes in the manufacture of systems and components for the transportation industry. CSA is using their world-class Product Innovation Program to provide sustainable competitive advantages and new ways to compete in existing and new markets.

Cooper Standard Automotive has used an integrated approach to Product Innovation to launch new products which command high margins, get to market faster, and give their customers exactly what they want and need.
The presentation will show that a primary measure of new product process health is the quantity and quality of decision making. This insight gives leaders a process metric which leads to bottom line impact. (View presentation)

Mellon Financial, Presenters: David Merritt, Sr. New Business Development Manager

Many executives agree that deliberate growth far outweighs random growth. Despite the risks associated with random growth or growth for growth’s sake, the reality is that many organizations continue to accept any kind of growth they can get their hands on through their product innovation efforts. Why do so many organizations fail to take advantage of widely available, proven practices designed to drive the type of growth that matters to them?

This presentation, through a powerful combination of real-life experience and research-based practices, illustrates practical methods to focus your product innovation efforts to support strategic growth - whether the product innovation program efforts are driven top-down or new product ideas are discovered bottom-up. (View presentation)