NPD PROCESS & ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

Felfeli , Latifi , Mostafavi

Culture definition

the specific collection of values and norms that are shared by

people and groups in an organization and that control the way

they interact with each other and with stakeholders outside the

organization.

organizational culture is a set of shared mental assumptions

that guide interpretation and action in organizations by

defining appropriate behavior for various situations.

NPD performan

ceNPD process

senior management commitment

the NPD Strategy the

organization of the NPD

programmed

culture and climate for innovation

Important Factors in NPD performance

Sick new product development syndrome

Impact of culture in NPD success

New product failed to live up to management expectations

time.

Industrial product launches fail time.

80%

33%

Impact of culture in NPD success

old study usually focused on aspects and variables that were outcome of something else rather than the main antecedent.

CULTURE , the true antecedent.

The way the company organized, managed and led will influence the

way it reacts to it’s market ,customers and competitors

Impact of culture in NPD success

The essential ingredients in delivering successful new products and services

are the involved and .

Success comes from a vibrant and energetic organization that encourages its

creative members and partners to think innovatively about what they are

doing. They should feel free to generate and integrate new ideas, products, service

concepts, and processes into the system.

key people their creative ideas

one cannot fully understand how a successful new product is designed and

introduced simply by looking at product development processes and

information.

•Dimensions of organizational culture• Hofstede , G.; 2002

Understanding culture

Six Dimensions of Organizational Culture(Hofstede et al; 1990)

Process vs. Results Employee vs. Job Parochial vs. Professional Open vs. Closed System Loose vs. Tight Control Normative vs. Pragmatic

Process- oriented vs. results- oriented effectiveness of the company among the six dimensions

Process Orientation bureaucratic attitude How things are done avoiding taking risk

and as spending the least possible effort

Results Orientation What gets

done(Outcome) employ people who feel

comfortable in unfamiliar and risky situations

Job- oriented vs. employee-orientedconnected especially with style and tradition

Concern for Employee Employee satisfaction Group decision making

Concern for Job

Work and what employee can do

Individual decision making

Open vs. Closed Systemcommon style of internal and external communication

Open System Easy to join Quickly get up to

speed Openness to new

idea friendly and open to

newcomers

Closed System Difficult to join Only certain kind of

people fit in

Loose vs. Tight ControlThe degree of formality and punctuality

Loose Control Casual Improvisation

Tight Control Seriousness cost-conscious

Normative vs. Pragmaticindicates to what extent functioning vis-à-vis the environment

Normative Orientation Ideologically driven applying the

procedures correctly

Pragmatic Orientation Market-driven customer's wishes

Parochial vs. Professional

Parochial Identity taken from being in the

organization

Professional Identity from outside

organization

•Importance of Assessing culture•Tools for assessment

Assessing culture

Importance of Assessing culture

By better understanding who you are, you’ll be better able to implement smart policies and programs that will  sustain

your organization’s character.

Whatever strategy you use to assess your organizational culture, the process must be honest, thorough, and must focus

not on “what we want to be” as much as “who we are right now.” 

Tools for assessment

Interviews of representatives of the organization's different levels allowed us to get a qualitative feel for the gestalt of the

unit's culture and to collect issues to be included in the questionnaire for the subsequent survey

Questionnaires The questionnaire was aimed at collecting information on the

same four types of manifestations of culture as covered in the interview checklist

Studying special situations Observation of activities Seminars and working groups focus groups with employees or customers.

Process-Oriented vs. Results-Oriented

Important decisions made by individuals Organization only interested in work people do Decisions centralized at top Managers keep good people for own department Changes imposed by management decree Newcomers left to find own way Management dislikes union members No special ties with local community Little concern for personal problems of

employees

•How cultures are created?•Building a culture to support NPD success.

• User-involving culture• Accountable culture• Innovative culture• Collaborative culture

Building culture

How cultures are created?

The factors that are most important in the creation of an organization’s culture include:

founders’ values and preferences industry demands.

Founder values and preferences

A company’s culture is inevitably tied to the personality, background, and values of its founder or founders, as well as their vision for the future of the organization.

the way they want to do business determines the organization’s rules, the structure set up in the company, and the people they hire to work with them.

Industry demands

the industry characteristics and demands act as a force to create similarities among organizational cultures.

many companies in the insurance and banking industries are stable and rule-oriented

many companies in the high-tech industry have innovative cultures

those in nonprofit industry may be people-oriented.

Building a culture to support NPD success

User-involving culture Accountable culture Innovative culture Collaborative culture

User-involving culture

A user-involving NPD culture is a mindset centered on an attitude of wisdom that makes Organizations to encourage and reward cooperation and knowledge sharing across company boundaries, both internally and externally.

A user-involving NPD culture has three design elements that motivate, grow and sustain the user-driven mindset of NPD.

1- User integrator role

User integrators are individuals designated to perform external and internal knowledge brokering. They process information and build new ideas rooted in organizational experience. The key function of user integrators are to establish and to maintain relevant links between users and new product projects.

key tasks of user integrators

1. Filter the information flow to and from users and the organization.

2. Provide clear focus for user contributions to NPD.

3. Nurture relationships with users.4. Match users’ role with the stage of the

new product project.5. To maintain an internally and externally

innovative dialogue.

2- NPD transparency

When involving users in new product projects, it is essential that users understand their role in the NPD process and how their inputs will be treated. Transparency is a condition of high openness and trust on the part of users. Expectations have to be clear to avoid user dissatisfaction and negative impact on the quality of the user inputs.

3- knowledge relationships

This element is about generating and using information to build a knowledgeable NPD process. Knowledge relationships with users are significant to user driven NPD, because their main purpose consists of generating two-way flows of creative input.

A good knowledge relationship not only provides information but also ensures that this information is given to the right people for further processing and feedback.

Accountable culture

speed to market is everything in the new product development environment. Creating a culture of accountability where people and teams stay focused on priorities, engage their inventiveness in everything they do, creatively deal with obstacles and take personal accountability to hit deadlines and budget expectations is essential to success.

Innovative culture

Creating the right organizational culture that can encourage innovation is one of the primary tasks for top management to ensure success of NPD.

Innovative culture promotes new product ideas and reward staff for their contribution towards new product development.

Collaborative culture

Collaboration is the basis for bringing together the knowledge, experience and skills of multiple team members to contribute to the development of a new product more effectively than individual team members performing their narrow tasks in support of product development. As such collaboration is the basis for concepts such as concurrent engineering or integrated product development.

Collaborative culture

Early involvement and the availability of resources to effectively collaborate.

A culture that encourages teamwork, cooperation and collaboration.

Defined team member responsibilities based on collaboration.

A defined product development process based on early sharing of information and collaboration.

Change culture

•attraction-selection-attrition (ASA)•New employees on-boarding

Maintaining culture

attraction-selection-attrition (ASA) Organizational culture will act as a self-

defending organism that protects itself from external forces. It is maintained through a process known as attraction-selection-attrition (ASA)

New Employee Onboarding

On-boarding refers to the process through which new employees learn the attitudes, knowledge, skills, and behaviors required to function effectively within an organization

Some techniques for getting onboard

Being proactive, seek feedback, and build strong relationships.

Relationship building or networking A formal orientation program mentorship

•Apple•GN Resound

Case studies

Case study : Apple

Apple was near the brink of death in 1997s. It had $150 million in

the bank, and its stock was trading at a few bucks a share. Steve

Jobs, is widely recognized as the driving force behind apple’s

culture of innovation that took it from near collapse to become an

industry leader and one of the most respected brands globally.

Case study : Apple

Jobs could have focused on near-term fixes. Instead, he

focused on building a high-performance culture by

doing three things well.1. He refocused the strategy to be about one thing.

2. He eliminated passive aggressiveness and encouraged debate when new ideas were forming

3. He set up a cross-disciplinary view of how the company would succeed. This holistic vision means there is cohesion throughout the company, from concept to product to sales

Case study : GN Resound , user-driven NPD culture

Resound values:

Accountability: empower employees to be accountable for their actions ,

their ideas and their innovations

Innovation: share what we learn and experience , we thing outside the box

Results oriented : we encourage new thinking, initiatives and dynamics

energy in all employees

Openness

Commitment

Case study : GN Resound , user-driven NPD culture

CIT :concept innovation team

Insures internal and external communications.

Resound insures transparency through an open internet platform.

Knowledge relation through their special interest group.