p.10 To achieve speed and flexibility, companies must manage the product development process differently.
Three kinds of changes should be considered.
First, companies need to adopt a management style that can promote the process. Executives
must recognize at the outset that product development seldom proceeds in a linear and static manner. It involves an iterative
and dynamic process of trial and error. To manage such a process, companies must maintain a highly adaptive style.
Because projects do not proceed in a totally rational and consistent manner, adaptability is particularly
important... Second, a different kind of learning is required... Knowledge is accumulated on an individual basis, within a
narrow area of focus - what we call learning in depth... nonexperts... are willing to challenge the status quo. But to do
so, they must accumulate knowledge from across all areas of management... Third, ...new product development also acts as a
catalyst to bring about change in the organization.
p.11 Multinationals must achieve speed and flexibility in developing products; to do so
requires the use of a dynamic process involving much reliance on trial and error and learning by doing. What
we need today is constant innovation in a world of constant change.
