What great products have to tell us.
11/11/2002
Over a ten-year period, the authors studied some 700 product launches to ascertain why 60 percent of new products (and that sounds optimistic to us) fail. The book goes behind the scenes of fifty of the most popular products ever, including Colgate's Total toothpaste, Apple IIe computer, PowerShot staple gun, Handspring Visor, and Polycom SoundStation conference phone. Five "critical practices" were found to be in common: commitment from senior management, clear and stable vision, improvisation, information exchange, and collaboration under pressure. According to Lynn and Reilly, "Blockbusters were just as likely to come from small companies as big ones; big teams were just as successful as small ones; the type of new product or service represented was irrelevant."