New Products: What Separates Winners from Losers?

There is no issue more fundamental to new products managers than understanding the factors that separate success from failure. In this article, Robert Cooper and Elko Kleinschmidt present a series of ten hypotheses which they test using data obtained from their study of 203 new products. Significantly, these products include both commercial successes and failures, since previous studies have concentrated on either one or the other. The authors conclude that product superiority is the number one factor influencing commercial success and that project definition and early, predevelopment activities are the most critical steps in the new products development process. Success, they argue, is earned. It is not the ad hoc result of situational or environmental influences. Synergy, both marketing and technical, is crucial.