Product Leadership ^{2nd Ed.}

Robert G. Cooper’s “Stage-Gate” process revolutionized the field of new product development. The process — used by 75% of all businesses today — was laid out in cooper’s classic book Winning at New Products, which has become an indispensable part of every business library. Product Leadership is the advanced course — a comprehensive guide to how managers should think about product development.

Product Leadership is aimed at senior managers and executives to help them lead their businesses to profitable product innovation. The impetus for this second edition is a major new study Cooper has completed — the largest study of product development practices and results ever undertaken. He has analyzed thousands of new successes and failures from hundreds of companies, with a particular emphasis on high-technology products and services. This edition of Product Leadership shows:

• How specific companies have organized their new product game plan from idea to launch using a Stage-Gate approach;
• What leaders do to drive their businesses to optimal results in product development;
• What distinguishes the top performers from the rest;
• How to create the right climate and culture for product innovation;
• How to chart a competitive strategy for product innovation;
• How to pick winning new products in order to maximize the return form an R&D investment portfolio.

Product Leadership doesn’t just explain what strategies are helpful to a company’s success — it tells how much they help. As we see time and time again, all the promotion in the world won’t save a product that somehow isn’t right. Robert G. Cooper is the world’s leading expert on making sure every new product introduction succeeds.

1. Winning Is Everything
• Product Innovation Warfare
• New Products: The Key to Your Business's Prosperity
• The Drivers of Innovation
• Warning: It's Not So Easy to Win
• The Role of Senior Management
• What's New About a New Product
• An Introduction to the Product Innovation War
2. What Distinguishes the Best Performers
• Learning from Past Victories and Defeats
• Keeping Score-Performance Results Achieved
• What Separates the Best Performers from the Rest
• The Innovation Diamond and the Four Points of Performance
3. A Product Innovation Strategy for Your Business: What Markets, Products, and Technologies?
• Win the Battle, Lose the War?
• What Is a Product Innovation Strategy?
• Why Have a Product Innovation Strategy at All?
• The Evidence in Support of Strategy
• The Elements of a Product Innovation Strategy and Their Impacts
• Setting Goals for Your New Product Effort
• Defining Target Arenas for Your Business
• Developing the Attack Strategies
• Deciding Your Entry Strategies
• Some Thoughts on Your Product Innovation Strategy
4. Product Innovation Strategy to Portfolio Management-Resource Commitment and Deployment
• Optimizing Your New Product Investments
• Resource Commitment-A Decisive Factor in the Innovation War
• How Much Is Enough-Deciding the Investment Level for Your Product Innovation Effort
• Deploying Your Development Resources-Portfolio Management
• The Vital Role That Portfolio Management Plays
• The Five Goals of Portfolio Management
• Begin with Strategic Portfolio Management
• Establish Strategic Buckets
• The Strategic Product Roadmap
• Putting Your Product Innovation Strategy to Work
5. Portfolio Management for New Products-Picking Winners and Investing in the Right Projects
• Focusing Resources on the Right Projects
• Two Decision Levels in Portfolio Management
• The Tools to Use for Effective Gates and Portfolio Reviews
• Popularity and Effectiveness of Portfolio Methods
• An Effective Portfolio Management System-How to Integrate These Tools
6. Building Best Practices into Your Idea-to-Launch Framework
• Where's Your Idea-to-Launch Framework?
• Build in Quality of Execution from Idea Through to Launch
• Seek Competitive Advantage Through Differentiated, Superior New Products
• Build in the Voice-of-the-Customer
• Insist on Sharp, Early Product Definition Before Development Begins
• Make Sure the Upfront Pre-Development Homework Is Done
• Build In Tough and Demanding Go/Kill Gates
• Put NPD Performance Metrics in Place
• Toward an Effective Idea-to-Launch Framework
7. A World-Class Stage-Gate^® It Idea-to-Launch Framework for Your Business
• The Stage-Gate^® Framework
• The Ten Goals of a Best-in-Class Idea-to-Launch Framework
• The Structure of the Stage-Gate^® Idea-to-Launch Framework
• A Walk-Through the Stage-Gate^® Framework-Idea to Launch
• Who Are the Gatekeepers?
• Linking the Gates to Portfolio Management
• Stage-Gate^® Express for Lower-Risk Projects
• What About Technology Development Projects?
8. The People in the Product Innovation War-The Right Climate and Environment, Effective NPD Teams, and the Role of Senior Management
• The Troops on the Ground
• Effective Cross-Functional Project Teams
• The Way That NPD Project Teams Are Organized
• More Characteristics of Effective NPD Teams
• The Climate and Culture for Innovation and NPD
• Senior Management Practices and Roles
• Gatekeeping-A Vital Role for Senior Management
9. Taking Action-Executive Summary
• Twenty-Five Ways to Win the Product Innovation War
• It's War and Winning Is Everything
• What Distinguishes the Best Performers
• A Product Innovation Strategy for Your Business: What Markets, Products, and Technologies?
• Product Innovation Strategy to Portfolio Management-Resource Commitment and Deployment
• Portfolio Management for New Products-Picking Winners and Investing in the Right Projects
• Building Best Practices into Your Idea-to-Launch Framework
• A World-Class Stage-Gate^® Idea-to-Launch Framework for Your Business
• The People in the Product Innovation War-The Right Climate and Environment, Effective NPD Teams, and the Role of Senior Management

• Appendix Effectively Run Gate Meetings-A Good Procedure

Lives up to the promises.

It really is a book for senior executives and it really describes a product innovation/development model. And it does a good job and it is very well written.

A very good book that really fulfills its promises.