International Review of Economics and Finance 17 (2008) 673–674www.elsevier.com/locate/iref

Book review

Strategic New Product Development for the Global Economy, Toyohiro Kono, Leonard Lynn, Basingstoke,Palgrave-Macmillan, (2007)

This is an innovative and interesting book for three main reasons:

1. The focus is not simply on the management of research and development but on new product development (NPD) aspart of corporate strategy. The goal is not just to produce innovative products and services but to develop products andservices which will enable a company to build a strong market position and produce a long-term stream of profits.

2. The book is concerned with the new globalisation of NPD. This has involved an expansion beyond the Triadcountries of USA, Europe and Japan to include China, India and other emerging nations. This new globalisation hasalso involved the coordination of NPD by virtual teams which communicate both face-to-face and via the internet.

3. The book is the result of an international joint venture. The book was written by Professor Toyohiro Kono ofGakushuin – the Imperial University, an international authority on Corporate Strategy, and Professor Leonard Lynnfrom Case Western Reserve University who is well known for his work on technology policy and technologymanagement.

The authors have been supported in their research, by the Japan Productivity Center, by the US National ScienceFoundation and the Kauffman Foundation. They have surveyed senior R&D managers in leading Japanese companiesand they have produced a large number of NPD case studies.

They have discovered numerous ways of analysing new products, e.g. by technology, by market segments and byassessing risks and rewards. As they explain, NPD can require very different approaches, depending whether you areconcerned with a simple food like mayonnaise, a new line of fashionable women's clothing or a science-based pharma-ceutical product.

However, the most interesting case studies are concerned with well known companies:

– in Japan: Canon, Casio, Daiichi Pharmaceuticals, Toyota, Honda, Matsushita/Panasonic, Seiko and Sony;– in the USA: IBM, General Electric, Ford Motor Company, Corning, Xerox and Proctor & Gamble;– and in Europe: Philips, GlaxoSmithKline, EMI, ICI, Ikea, Benetton and Bodyshop.

Of particular interest to business executives will be the suggestions for accelerating the NPD process. These include:

– appointing a top management sponsor and a product champion;– setting clear goals, development themes and a schedule;– using information technology e.g. CAD/CAM and an information exchange via the internet;– arranging alliances and partnerships with outside organisations;– making acquisitions;– using concurrent engineering;– appointing a full-time project team;– budgeting for staff and capital investment;– the use of common components; and– using progress control and simulation.

doi:10.1016/j.iref.2007.08.002

674 Book review

Most importantly, this book helps to fill a long felt need in the management literature.The authors aim to bridge the chasm in understanding which exists between Business Management and Technology

Management, between Directors of Research & Development and Chief Executives, and between the scientificcommunity on the one hand and the business community on the other.

The gulf is widest in science-based companies e.g. in pharmaceuticals, aerospace, and information technology, andit is narrower in low-technology industries such as food and drink, and household goods. But the gap in understandingis always there between the research and development people who design the products and the top managers who areconcerned with satisfying the customers, building a market position and making profits.

This book is full of practical ideas and well illustrated with company case studies, diagrams and flow charts.Unfortunately the publishers have chosen to present these excellent ideas in a small (A5) format and the text tends to becrowded and sometimes hard to read. A little more space on the page would have made the presentation more attractiveand accessible. The text is not easy to read, but well worth the effort.

Bernard TaylorCentre for Board Effectiveness, Henley Management College, United Kingdom

E-mail address: lesley.quelch@henleymc.ac.uk.