New Product Development Strategic Planning

It has been a while since I posted something - summer kicked in, workload and also some time taken out to work out what my topic should be for my Exec MBA dissertation (Management Challenge in Henley Business School speak).  So where are we now?   Topic decided - I will elaborate more in future posts.  It is a topic that is certainly of interest to the product management community and to anybody that has been involved in a merger or acquisition.

In the mean time, a colleague sent this to me today - it certainly resonated and is closely related to my research topic as well:  Strategic Plans for Product Development:

Stakeholder Interests Have to be Balanced

One of the things that I have been trying to do is understand exactly what is required when doing due diligence on a company, whether it is well established or a startup.

Part of that evaluation is undoubtadly understanding why the organisation exists, what the problem is that it solves, and whether its value proposition resonates, but there is another dimension which is equally important - how it approaches the management of its various stakeholders.

While I was researching the topic I came across this article by Charles J. Fombrun on Forbes.com about How To Restore Your Company's Reputation which describes why some organisations have suffered because they have paid more attention to short term financial results than longer term value.  The article identifies 7 key indicators that need to be addressed: