Don't let your customers lead you astray in developing new products

Axel Johne shows that there are risks associated with close working with existing customers. Despite their importance, customer inputs are only one of several factors which contribute towards long-term product development success. Efficient networking with customers can be useful, but requires skilful management within a wider business context, especially when competing internationally.

Succeeding at product development involves more than avoiding failure

While product development is important in many companies, it is often approached in a constrained way. There are two main reasons for this. First, product development options are frequently viewed very narrowly; second, for personal reasons, many managers seek to avoid mistakes with new products rather than using them as a means for exploiting market potentials to the full. A schema is advanced for widening the role of product development and suggestions are made on how product development thrusts can be sharpened.

New service development: a review of the literature and annotated bibliography

Provides a review and ready reference to recent writings on new service development (NSD), especially for the financial services sector. Discusses the types of new service development, the purposes served by them and the processes. Refers to the key activities of NSD and measures its success. An annotated bibliography supplies a very useful guide to the new service development literature