The Fast Path to Corporate Growth

Every company can point to a growth strategy. Far fewer, however, systematically implement them; instead, they spend their time on incremental innovations, or rely on acquisitions. Still, organic, internal growth, accomplished through product line renewal and new service development, is essential to the long-term vitality of corporations across all industries. The FASTPATH to Growth takes on the challenge large corporations have in generating internal innovation--developing new product lines that address new market applications and provide the corporation with new streams of revenue. It integrates the key disciplines--new product strategy, user research, concept development and prototyping, market testing, and business modeling--needed for enterprise growth. The book illustrates its framework with in-depth examples of companies that have leveraged their core technologies to new markets and new types of uses in order to generate impressive results, including IBM, Honda, and Mars. Many of these examples contain templates that readers can use in their own projects. The book ends by addressing the human side of new market applications, providing advice on what executives and innovation team leaders must do to execute the steps of Meyers framework for new market applications development. This comprehensive management guide should appeal to practitioners in research and development, new business development strategists, and product managers, along with students in engineering management, innovation management, and corporate strategy courses that focus on technology industries.

Every company can point to a growth strategy. Few, however, systematically implement it; instead, they tweak current products with incremental innovations, or attempt to buy growth through acquisitions. Neither is a satisfactory solution. Internally generated growth accomplished thorugh product line renewal and new service development is essential to the long-term vitality of business across industries. The Fast Path to Corporate Growth takes on the challenge large corporations have in developing new product lines that address new market applications and provide new streams of revenue. The book integrates the key disciplines--new product strategy, user research, concept development and prototyping, market testing, and business modeling--into a practical framework for generating enterprise growth. The book illustrates that framework with in-depth examples of companies--including IBM, Honda, and Mars--that have generated impressive results by leveraging their core technologies to new markets and to new uses. Many of these examples contain templates that readers can use in their own projects. The book also addresses the human side of new market applications, providing advice on what executives and innovation team leaders must do to execute the steps of Meyer's framework for developing new market applications. This comprehensive guide to growth will appeal to R&D practitioners, new business development strategists, product managers, and to students in engineering management, innovation management, and corporate strategy.