Class Session: Wednesday 5:35 - 8:15 PM
Prerequisite: BUS 507
Reading Materials: Most of the reading for the course consists of cases and articles from Harvard Business School Publishing. A few additional articles and short cases will be handed out by the professor. All cases and readings are available at the Harvard Business Online course website ( http://www.hbsp.com/relay.jhtml?name=cp&c=c38658). You need to register for the MAR 660 class posted there and pay for the cases by credit card. The materials will then be sent to you and will also be available online anytime you need to view them or print them out. Instructions for viewing the cases online can be found on the Pace Blackboard site for this course (go to blackboard.pace.edu and sign in with your Pace ID and social security number). Each week one case and one reading are assigned. The Harvard cases and readings are listed below:
Cases:
IDEO
Product Development (9-600-143)
Bank of America
(A) (9-603-022)
Pepcid AC:
Racing to the OTC Market (9-500-073)
MarketSoft
(9-800-069)
Innovation
at 3M Corporation (A) (9-699-012)
Hewlett-Packard:
The Flight of the KittyHawk (9-697-060)
Product Development
at Dell Computer (9-699-010)
Living on
Internet Time: Product Development at Netscape, Yahoo!, NetDynamics,
and Microsoft (9-697-052)
Microsoft
Office: Finding the Suite Spot (9-699-046)
Le Petit Chef
(9-602-080)
Project Dreamcast:
Serious Play at Sega Enterprises (A) (9-600-028)
Aqualisa Quartz:
Simply a Better Shower (9-502-030)
Readings:
Enlightened
Experimentation: The New Imperative for Innovation (R0102D)
R&D Comes
to Services (R0304E)
Concept Testing
(9-590-063)
Understanding
User Needs (9-695-051)
Note on Lead
User Research (9-699-014)
Knowing a
Winning Business Idea When You See One (R00510)
Stage-gate
Systems (handout)
Developing
Products on Internet Time (97505)
New New Product
Development Game (86116)
Using Aggregate
Project Planning (301-041)
How to Identify
Your Enemies Before they Destroy you (2136)
Discoving
New Points of Differentiation (97408)
Grading:
Each graded component of the course will be evaluated on a 100 point scale, with each weighted as follows to determine a final grade. Overall grades will be assigned as follows: A (93-100), A- (90-92), B+ (87-89), B (83-86), B- (80-82), C+ (77-79), C (70-76), F (0-69).
CONCEPT
TEST PAPER 30%
CASE
ANALYSES (2 @ 20%) 40%
CLASS
PARTICIPATION 30%
Course Objectives:
To give students familiarity with the issues and problems facing companies attempting to develop and introduce new products or services.
To help students develop skills in new product development, testing, and commercialization which they can use in current or future jobs.
To give students a better understanding of the importance of new products and services to the success of many different types of companies and organizations, both domestically and globally.
To give students an appreciation for the ethical issues which confront new product marketers, the changing technologies which affect new product development and introduction, and the complexity and diversity of the customer base which must be served through new product offerings.
To help students improve critical thinking skills and written and oral communication skills.
Course Description:
The growth of any business in our fast-changing society is dependent upon its ability to introduce new products and services successfully. This course examines the new product development process from conception of ideas to commercial introduction. It considers the role of new products in survival and growth strategies and examines major problems firms encounter in directing and managing product development and marketing activities.
Class Preparation and Participation:
This class will be run as a discussion class. Most sessions will involve new product examples, case discussions, and videotapes or speakers. Because of this, attendance in class is important, as is careful class preparation and contribution to class discussions. Each student is expected to read and thoughtfully prepare all assigned material before the class in which it is discussed and to prepare analyses for all cases. Participation by each student will be graded at the end of each class session based on both quality and quantity of participation in that day's session. In recognition of the busy schedule of working adults, each student will be allowed one absence and one day with lack of preparation (if requested at the beginning of class) without impacting the participation grade. If you are going to miss class, please notify your group members (easy to do using blackboard group pages) so they can communicate with you by email regarding the group project.
Case Analyses:
Each student will pick two cases to write up and hand in for grading. Each case analysis should include a brief introduction providing background (not more than two pages) and answers to the questions posted on blackboard. In answering the questions, most case analyses should discuss alternatives available to the decision maker in the case, pros and cons for each alternative (including doing nothing), and a recommendation for action with the rationale for selecting this option. Papers should be 5-15 pages long, typed, double-spaced. Late case writeups will not be accepted. Any handwritten notes written on the typed case will not be considered for grading.
Any student wishing to write a third case may do so and the best two grades will be used. (Clearly, this option is not available to someone starting with the second to last case). Anyone not handing in two cases by the date the last case is due will receive a zero for the one or two cases missing. All students not selecting to write up a particular case should still have notes for class discussion on all of the questions for each case.
All papers will be graded based on appropriate use of terms from the readings (please put them in bold in your analysis), responsiveness to the questions, presentation (including organization, appearance, grammar, punctuation, spelling, and readability), thoroughness of analysis, and demonstration of an understanding of the case and the readings. Because there are no exams in this course, each assignment should be considered a take-home exam, incorporating as much as possible from readings assigned up to the date the case is due and learning from previous cases and class discussions.
Concept Test:
The term project for the class involves "inventing" two products, evaluating the ideas through use of concept testing, then recommending one product for further development. This will be done in groups, but few group meetings should be required outside of class. Short group meetings will be held during class to discuss product ideas, plan the concept test, and analyze results. A paper should be turned in that is 10-20 pages long, typed, double-spaced, plus appendices. It should include a description of the methods used to generate ideas, a brief description of each of the two product ideas, a discussion of the concept testing approach used, a summary and analysis of the concept testing results, a recommendation for which product you would develop further and why, and how you would approach commercialization of the product, including marketing mix ideas and problems and issues you need to consider in introducing your product. Appendices should include detailed findings from initial consumer research, a list of concepts generated, results of the concept tests for both products tested, and completed originals of all survey responses.
There will be three or four members of each group and students may select members of their group if they wish to do so. Members of a group may choose to each write individual papers or to submit a group paper (or some combination, e.g. two members of a group could submit a group paper while two other members could choose to write individual papers or submit a separate group paper). For group papers, all persons submitting the group paper will receive the same grade for the paper. All students should take notes and all data should be shared so that any student can decide at any time in the process to write an individual paper.
All groups will be asked to "sell" their idea to the rest of the class who will have "money" to invest in new products. All group members must participate in the presentation. Visuals and data collected should be used to support the pitch. After the presentations, each student will decide where to invest his or her money. Prizes, plus an extra credit point on the final grade for the course, will be awarded to the team that gets the most class "money" invested.
Late Assignments and Academic Honesty:
All assignments should be handed in no later than the end of class on the day for which they are due. Any student not able to come to class on a given day is responsible for getting the assignment to the instructor on time and obtaining any materials and information distributed. Any papers turned in outside of class should be delivered via the electronic file exchange on the blackboard site or emailed to the professor before the end of class. No papers should be placed in the instructor's mailbox or put under the professor's office door. Late case analyses will not be accepted. Late term papers will be graded based on a starting grade of 10 points off per day or partial day late unless approved in advance by the professor. All assignments must be original work unless noted. Use of any work that is found to be not original will result in a grade of zero on the assignment involved. The department academic honesty policy will apply to all honesty issues.