Relationship Marketing in Practice
There is a realisation and understanding that Customer Retention is beneficial and rewarding than the efforts required in finding a new customer. Marketing managers can be successful only when they know how to build an interactive ongoing interaction with their customers. The scenarios of being in tune with the customer varies from business to business. […]
Understanding and Managing Product Life Cycle
It is crucial to understand the complete product life cycle before introducing a new product or service in the market. One needs to understand that every product goes through certain stages starting from inception to its manufacturing, marketing, branding and finally losing popularity in the market. It is essential for the organizations to manage the […]
It’s Not Just the Data that is collected that Counts, but, the Quality of the Data as well
In God We Trust, Rest Have to Bring Data: The Importance of Data Collection All entities collect data for various reasons. Whether it is the government collecting data on economic growth, employment rate, budgetary purposes, or for welfare schemes, or it is the private firms collecting data on revenues and productivity, there is a need […]
Understanding Market Segmentation – Key Steps and Actions
Segmentation refers to the process of creating small segments within a broad market to select the right target market for various brands. Market segmentation helps the marketers to devise and implement relevant strategies to promote their products amongst the target market. A market segment consists of individuals who have similar choices, interests and preferences. They […]
Emergence of International Retailing
The growth of international retailing business has been a field of study by the academic researchers for the past four decades. Various academicians like Alexander and Kacker have been trying to understand the factors that led to the development of internationalisation of retail business since 1990s. By international retailing we are referring to both the […]
Innovation is the name of the game as far as companies in the 21st century are concerned.
To compete effectively in the marketplace of this decade, companies need to either innovate or perish. Hence, innovation is the latest buzzword among the corporates.
The innovation cycle as applied to product management consists of three stages:
For effective innovation to work in favour of the company these three stages have to be managed well and this is where the product manager comes into the picture.
The product manager has to ensure that there is no breakages in the innovation value chain as represented by these three stages. Hence, the role of the product manager is to make sure that the entire chain is strong since any chain is as strong as its weakest link.
The linkages between the three stages of the innovation cycle are described here.
The idea conversion stage is also the phase where the ideas generated have to be vetted for their technical feasibility and whether the company has the resources and the bandwidth to take the ideas to the next stage and from there the product development phase.
The idea diffusion stage represents the end point of the idea stage and hence the product manager has to ensure that all these phases work together in one single unified link so as to minimize the friction between the various components in the chain.
Hence, this innovation value chain is to be managed by the product manager who has the responsibility in the overall sense of bringing the product to the incubation stage. Any company that is not able to manage the innovation value chain should consider setting up a product management team or hiring a product manager to manage this innovation value chain.
The point here is the innovation value chain must be strengthened and a cohesive and coherent value proposition has to be evolved. For this, the product manager is required to take overall control of the product management function a subset of which is the task of managing the innovation value chain.
In conclusion, the weaknesses in the innovation value chain must be eliminated by careful and thoughtful application of the management principles and this is where the product manager with his or her expertise in the process can help companies innovate better, faster and emerge stronger.
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