RONALD L. KERBER

Overview

Create and market the right product-fast

Strategic Product Creation is a true working guide to developing market-savvy, cost-effective products and services. Delivering expert guidance in the five key stages of product development, authors Ronald Kerber and Timothy Laseter present real-world examples of industry leaders who have produced innovative products-giving you a foolproof blueprint for delivering customer satisfaction without breaking the bank.

Provides not only practical experience, but a solid conceptual framework for developing your own product creation model
Highlights seven principles of effective product creation
Features instructive case studies of world-class leaders such as Walt Disney Imagineering, Whirlpool Corporation, Mars, Inc., and IBM
Includes key questions and milestone decision issues from each stage of the product creation process
Covers both short- and long-term strategies, coupled with suggestions for advanced technology
Explains how to combine customer knowledge with external market needs to stimulate new product and service ideas
Reveals ways to utilize your suppliers as a talent pool for process improvement and product innovation
Addresses sensitive issues of branding and intellectual property rights

Biographical note
Ronald L.Kerber, Ph.D. is the former executive
vice president and CTO of Whirlpool Corporation. He is a leading
consultant with the Department of Defense.
Timothy M. Laseter, Ph.D. serves on the faculty
of the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University
of Virginia.

Back cover copy
(Ronald L. Kerber and Timothy M. Laseter/Strategic Product Creation/0-07-148655-0/

(Back Cover Copy)

Praise for Strategic Product Creation

“A practical guide for product creation . . . written by practitioners who have been there and done that.”
William D. Marohn
Chairman, Newell Rubbermaid Corporation

“Strategic Product Creation has captured the essence of the product development-discipline process, review points, metrics, great people, and executive leadership. The reader will learn from the proven experience of diverse product development companies.”
David Swain
(Retired) President of Phantom Works, CTO of Boeing and COO of Boeing's Integrated Defense Business

“This is a much-needed, how-to-do-it book for industry leaders on creating an environment and process for continuous innovation. Well-written, with wide-ranging case studies, and full of practical experience of the authors, this is a 'must-read' in an age in which innovation is increasingly the distinguishing characteristic of the truly great corporations.”
The Honorable Jacques S. Gansler,
Vice-President for Research at the University of Maryland College Park,
Former Under-Secretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics)

“This is a 'must-read' for anyone interested in doing serious and successful product creation!”
Ann Dahmer
Co-founder and partner, Smith-Dahmer Associates, LLC


(Flap Copy)

Are you satisfied with your speed to market with new products? The effectiveness of your product creation organization? Your product position relative to your competition? The stream of pioneering ideas feeding your new product creation?

If you answered “no” to any of these questions, Strategic Product Creation is required reading. Written from a practitioner's perspective, former Whirlpool and McDonnell Douglas executive Ron Kerber and Tim Laseter, a former Booz Allen Partner and professor at the esteemed Darden Graduate School of Business, show you how to integrate effective, innovative product creation deep within the fiber of your organization. They present proven techniques and real-world examples for creating and marketing the right product at the right time-quickly and cost-efficiently.

Offering practical guidance in the five key components of product development, the authors give you the tools to:
Determine where your product creation stands, the capabilities you need, and how to achieve your vision
Design a product creation process based on your industry, business model, corporate culture, and objectives
Understand your customers' needs and integrate that knowledge into new products and services
Master a suite of advanced technologies to support your products
Train senior management to guide and sustain continuous business renewal

Featured case studies augment the five components, illustrating the transformation experiences of industry leaders who have approached product creation in distinctly different, successful ways. The authors also cover the critical, softer side of product creation-people and project management-offering insights into motivating your staff, management discipline, project initiation, process documentation, and continuous improvement.

A true blueprint for delivering customer satisfaction without breaking the bank, Strategic Product Creation will help you create a corporate environment that fosters the innovation necessary to turn great ideas into profitable products.

Ronald L. Kerber, PhD, is the former executive vice president and CTO of Whirlpool Corporation, where he globally integrated product development and procurement and introduced a new, corporate-wide product creation process. A former senior McDonnell Douglas product and business development executive and deputy undersecretary of defense at the Pentagon, Kerber is now a consultant with the Department of Defense and Batten Fellow at the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia.

Timothy M. Laseter, PhD, serves on the faculty of the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. Formerly a partner at Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc., Laseter is a prolific writer for business executives and a contributing editor for strategy+business.

Ronald L.Kerber, Ph.D. is the former executivevice president and CTO of Whirlpool Corporation. He is a leadingconsultant with the Department of Defense.

Timothy M. Laseter, Ph.D. serves on the facultyof the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the Universityof Virginia.