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Innovation is the lifeblood of American business, coursing through corporate boardrooms and trickling down to consumers who wait eagerly for the newest "must-have" product or service. Without the creativity and business savvy to successfully create and sell cutting-edge products, a company will quickly lose its competitive advantage. Knowing this, corporate leaders invest more and more heavily in research and development.
Even though American companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year researching innovation initiatives and bringing new products to market, the fact remains that nine out of ten new items introduced to the public fail to achieve their targeted profit expectations. Poor management decisions and an inadequate understanding of the likely market often undermine even the most high-powered and expensive research efforts. Every company wants to be the first to introduce the next "big thing," but America's dismal innovation track record poses a vital question: Can we continue to be a formidable global competitor with this kind of failure rate?
In Why Smart Companies Do Dumb Things industry professional Calvin L. Hodock examines eight typical innovation blunders that, time after time, undermine the success of new product development. From "dead-on-arrival products" to "fatal frugality" and "timetable tyranny," he discusses not only why such mistakes occur, but also the dire consequences they bring to both investors and employees. Breakdowns in the marketing research process, marketing dishonesty, lack of real-world preparation among newly graduated MBAs, CEOs under pressure to deliver unrealistic earnings targets, clueless boards of directors, and the general absence of accountability are among the culprits Hodock points to as he describes in absorbing detail a fascinating array of costly innovation failures. He uses his marketing expertise to elucidate real-world case histories that have not yet appeared in the public domain, showing how even modest improvements in the innovation process could double the bottom line for any company.
Hodock's inventive approach demands that companies take responsibility for their mistakes and forces them to learn from past blunders. This candid and incisive analysis is an illuminating new approach to successful development -- a must-read for students of business, seasoned corporate executives, and anyone interested in the future of American business.
Calvin L. Hodock is professor of marketing at Berkeley College, an adjunct professor at New York University's Stern School of Business, and a guest lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. He is the former chairman of the board of the American Marketing Association, the world's largest professional marketing society. He is also on the board of directors for NuVim, Inc., the maker of a patented refrigerated dietary supplement.
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