Controlling New Products in Large Diversified Firms: A Presidential Perspective

This article reports the findings of a pilot research project which investigated the nature and degree of control that presidents of large, diversified firms exercise over their new product initiatives. The research findings of this exploratory study challenge some of the conventional notions that exist regarding the management of new products. The control dimensions associated with “high” and “low” new product output situations are identified, and the role of a new product's strategic category in understanding the variations in presidential control is underscored. Most important, the findings represent a first step in capturing the “balance” that presidents appear to strike between “loose” and “tight” control when managing new products. As such, they suggest the potential for developing a control template against which presidents of other large, diversified firms might someday be able to judge their own new product control practices.