What holes did you find in the article entitled, “Effective Gating?”
Dr. Cooper, R.G., in his article “Effective Gating” claims that modern companies do not stop any projects at their 1st stage, but rather take them all into further business’s product roadmap stations. Taking into account limited resources the company affords, passing too many innovative projects through the Gate 1 stage may result in financial losses and will definitely deter management from the most profitable ideas. However, the author also states that companies can and should kill and send for reviews projects at any stage, not only when the idea is just created (Cooper, 2009, p.13). So, he encourages management of any company to evaluate carefully any innovative idea before its adoption, so that to avoid wasting resources on a low-value ones. Meanwhile, it is important to note that any high-tech company must be highly innovative to remain successful in the market. Thus, many companies actively promote an innovative culture which encourages, supports, and rewards breakthrough thinking and risk taking (Mohr, Sengupta, & Slater, 2010, p. 83). As a good example the history of Microsoft company may serve here.
In what ways are the chief lessons of the article, “Honest Innovation,” relevant to the author’s assertions and recommendations in “Effective Gating?”
Many new products launched are not that successful not even good or important as they are presented to the consumers. Some innovative projects fail due to overestimated prices and lack of innovation itself. Hodock calls the process of an intensive and unfair promotion a Marketing Dishonesty (Hodock, 2009, pp. 18-19). Although he says that numerous researches held on the failed cases help in the further promotion and realization of new innovative ideas. Which can be used as an answer to the Cooper’s statement, that over releasing of low-value innovative projects brings only loses for the company (Cooper, 2009, p.13) Even though, Hodock (2009, p.19) claims that “nothing will stop the new product from being launched”, while Cooper (2009, p.13) says that over 76% of companies “have too many projects and an overloaded development pipeline”, they both agree that there must be a solid procedure of reviewing all innovative ideas before their adoption.
References
Mohr, J., Sengupta, S., and Slater, S. (2010) Marketing of High-Technology Products and Innovations. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN-13: 978-0-13-604996-8
Cooper, R.G. (2009) Effective Gating: Make product innovation more productive by using gates with teeth. Reference paper #37. Stage-Gate International and Product Development Institute Inc. Available at: http://www.stage-gate.net/downloads/wp/wp_37.pdf
Hodock, C.L. (2009) Honest Innovation. Available at: https://archive.ama.org/archive/ResourceLibrary/MarketingManagement/Pages/2009/18/2/Honest_Innovation.aspx
Response to Jerry Merideth
I absolutely agree that articles by Cooper and Hodock are interrelated in many aspects. Namely, both authors discuss the problem of company’s management being overwhelmed with ideas. Cooper says that over two thirds of all existing companies are forced to work out low-value projects, as they were not killed at the first stages. Moreover, the author claims that many businesses rarely consider an option to reject an idea at all (Cooper, 2009, pp.13-14) In his “Honest Innovation” Hodock confirms that modern firms over generate ideas and tend to realize them, regardless their true value and meaning; thus resulting in marketing dishonesty.
At the same time, I do not agree with the statement that Cooper does not suggest any solutions for the problem discussed. Both authors raise the question about ideas evaluation prior to their approval. Among the suggestions offered in two articles there are: more thorough teaching of the corporate ethics; creation of the innovation committee; improvement and adoption of new research methods (Hodock, 2009, pp. 18-19); starting one-time pruning operations; employ transparent and single standards for killing ideas; focus on the long term goals (Cooper, 2009, p.14).
References
Mohr, J., Sengupta, S., and Slater, S. (2010) Marketing of High-Technology Products and Innovations. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN-13: 978-0-13-604996-8
Cooper, R.G. (2009) Effective Gating: Make product innovation more productive by using gates with teeth. Reference paper #37. Stage-Gate International and Product Development Institute Inc. Available at: http://www.stage-gate.net/downloads/wp/wp_37.pdf
Hodock, C.L. (2009) Honest Innovation. Available at: https://archive.ama.org/archive/ResourceLibrary/MarketingManagement/Pages/2009/18/2/Honest_Innovation.aspx
Response to Brittany Dansereau
Definitely, such articles as Effective Gating: Make product innovation more productive by using gates with teeth require solid sources to be cited. Moreover, explaining marketing research results without at least one detailed situation analysis makes the conclusions to be vague. Nevertheless, Cooper’s statement about necessity to examine ideas more carefully before their implementation cannot be named as unjustified.
I absolutely agree, that both authors share the same vision about over consuming of the ideas generated, which later leads to financial loss, marketing dishonesty, waste of human resources and lowering the brand equity. Hereby, Cooper and Hodock both emphasize on the great importance of the honesty in business, starting from cooperation within the team of managers, and ending with building relations with customers (Cooper, 2009, pp. 13-15; Hodock, 2009, pp.18-19).
References
Mohr, J., Sengupta, S., and Slater, S. (2010) Marketing of High-Technology Products and Innovations. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN-13: 978-0-13-604996-8
Cooper, R.G. (2009) Effective Gating: Make product innovation more productive by using gates with teeth. Reference paper #37. Stage-Gate International and Product Development Institute Inc. Available at: http://www.stage-gate.net/downloads/wp/wp_37.pdf
Hodock, C.L. (2009) Honest Innovation. Available at: https://archive.ama.org/archive/ResourceLibrary/MarketingManagement/Pages/2009/18/2/Honest_Innovation.aspx
