Creating Products in the Absence of Markets: A Robust Design Approach

The purpose of this study is to examine how firms deal with a situation of true uncertainty about their potential markets and technologies. Specifically, we ask how firms can create products when the corresponding market does not exist. Design/methodology/approach : This paper is based on a longitudinal study of a high-tech firm, combined with analysis of existing theory in Product Design and Entrepreneurship. Findings – Markets and products are usually a defining choice made early on by firms in their strategic process. Such a choice guides their development by providing a ‘stable concept' to which decisions can be related to. When markets do not exist yet, however, this approach is not effective: Early choice of products and markets limits firms' flexibility by constraining their ability and willingness to adapt, while fundamental new technical and market information is likely to emerge during the project that will prove the initial assumptions wrong."New Product Development";"uncertainty";"high-technology venture"

Projectification of the Firm : the Renault Case

Many industrial firms are implementing fundamental changes in their organizations to increase the efficiency of their product development processes. Here we focus on the relations between project management models and the permanent organization and processes of the firm. The case of the French firm Renault is being studied. This firm implemented a transition, from a classical funtional organization in the 1960's to project coordination in the 1970's and autonomous and powerful project teams since 1989. Such advanced project management has deep and destabilising effects on the other permanent logics of the firm (task definitions, hierarchic regulations, carrier management, functions and suppliers relationship). Therefore a phase of "projectification" is now under way to adapt these permanent processes to the new context.project management, organization, organizational learning, automobile industry.

Front-Loading Problem Solving in co-Development : Managing the Contractual Organizational and Cognitive Dimensions

“ Front-loading ” problem-solving (Thomke et Fujimoto, 2000) is one of the major strategies to reduce development costs and development lead time (Midler, 1995, p 369). In co-development situations, the implementation of such methodologies rises specific questions, due to the difficult partitions in responsabilities and skills between the car manufacturer and the supplier. The problem is particularly important when customer and supplier contributions cannot be clearly interfaced in a “ black-box sourcing ” relation. The result is a difficult and permanent debate about design modifications.

Difunctional polyisobutylene prepared by polymerization of monomer on molecular sieve

Process yields difunctional isobutylene polymers ranging in molecular weight from 1150 to 3600. These polymers have the potential for copolymerization and cross-linking with other monomers to form elastomeric materials

FROM TECHNOLOGY COMPETITION TO REINVENTING INDIVIDUAL MOBILITY FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE: CHALLENGES FOR NEW DESIGN STRATEGIES FOR ELECTRIC VEHICLE

Emissions reduction constraints as well as petrol costs create new opportunities for radical innovations in powertrain solutions for automobiles. In this paper, we focus on the on-going revival of full battery electric vehicles (EV). Our analysis is drawn in two axes. First, we analyse of the on-going context for such EV. As electricity is surely not a new option for automobile industry, we study the past attempts that failed, and show that it is possible to highlight some conditions for a future success and to see why there is nowadays a new window of opportunity for a large scale roll-out of EV. Our reasoning is based both on market evolution as well as technological evolutions. The recent developments around EV suggest that many of the conditions for a successful tidal wave are about to be combined. Second, we characterize the innovation & design strategy that an OEM needs to implement in order to turn this opportunity into a profitable competitive advantage: -Innovation strategy has to expand the scope of design dimensions from electrification of Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles to the complete redefinition of a specific electric product solution. Beyond the product scope, we will see that electric mobility services can provide an efficient enabler to overcome the operational and maintenance pitfalls of electric solutions. -Marketing strategy also needs to dramatically revise the classical auto marketing approach, as electric mobility will require new behaviours from end users as well as favourable regulations and infrastructures from local authorities. -Development processes cannot rely only on the traditional automotive ecosystem, because many competencies required for EV have to be created during the development process. On going EV projects will need a deep rethinking of design system to acquire the new competencies In this paper, we will discuss first outputs from a long term (4 years) action-research launched at the end of 2007. This research is done at an OEM committed to launch a full range of EV, and which, as a consequence, already faces all the challenges related to such a radical innovation.

Creating Products in the Absence of Markets: A Robust Design Approach

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to examine how firms deal with a situation of true uncertainty about their potential markets and technologies. Specifically, we ask how firms can create products when the corresponding market does not exist. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is based on a longitudinal study of a high-tech firm, combined with analysis of existing theory in Product Design and Entrepreneurship. Findings – Markets and products are usually a defining choice made early on by firms in their strategic process. Such a choice guides their development by providing a ‘stable concept' to which decisions can be related to. When markets do not exist yet, however, this approach is not effective: Early choice of products and markets limits firms' flexibility by constraining their ability and willingness to adapt, while fundamental new technical and market information is likely to emerge during the project that will prove the initial assumptions wrong. We show an alternative approach where products and markets actually result from a generic process of products and markets exploration driven by the firm. We suggest that this approach forms a robust design in that it allows the firm to deal with the uncertainty by simultaneously developing its products and exploring markets, while preserving the flexibility to adapt to the changing environment. Practical implications – The practical implication of this paper is to suggest an alternative approach to deliberate planning in high-tech ventures. With this approach, rather than markets and products, strategy defines a market and technology exploration process. Originality/value – The paper is original in three ways: 1) It links the product design and market exploration processes in high-tech firm development; 2) It is based on an in-depth longitudinal study; and 3) It results from an academic-practitioner collaborative work.New Product Development; uncertainty; high-technology venture.

Projectification of the Firm : the Renault Case

Many industrial firms are implementing fundamental changes in their organizations to increase the efficiency of their product development processes. Here we focus on the relations between project management models and the permanent organization and processes of the firm. The case of the French firm Renault is being studied. This firm implemented a transition, from a classical funtional organization in the 1960's to project coordination in the 1970's and autonomous and powerful project teams since 1989. Such advanced project management has deep and destabilising effects on the other permanent logics of the firm (task definitions, hierarchic regulations, carrier management, functions and suppliers relationship). Therefore a phase of "projectification" is now under way to adapt these permanent processes to the new context

How Concurrent Engineering Reconfigures Process Engineering Activity - The Case of the Chemical Industry

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Deforestation as an externality problem to be solved efficiently and fairly

The international community recently agreed on a mechanism called REDD+ to reduce deforestation in tropical countries. However the mechanism, by its very nature, has no reason to induce a Pareto optimal reduction of deforestation. The aim of this article is to propose an alternative class of mechanisms for negative externalities that implements Pareto optimal outcomes as Nash Subgame Perfect Equilibria, and that satisfies some fairness properties, in particular two original axioms of environmental responsibility. Outcomes are individually rational and the scheme does take into account environmental responsibility in the sense of our two axioms. However, envy freeness, even in a weak form adapted to the deforestation problem, turns out to be hard to achieve without dropping the other properties.

Tracking the route of innovation across projects: insights from two case studies

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