New Products & Services

Pressure to deliver top-line growth has forced many businesses to increase their spending on new product development and introducing new services. Products like Apple’s iPod can revive a company’s fortunes and boost the share price in addition to the revenue and profitability-enhancing effects they may have. However, developing new offerings requires the investment of both cost and time and often involves immense business risk. Returns on investment can be hard to come by when the failure rate is high, and for every iPod success story, there are ten examples of how not to do it.

There are many pitfalls to avoid:

• taking too long to get to market – the opportunity cost of launching a day, a week or a month late can be significant
• regulatory approval being denied – in industries where products are regulated by a government authority (e.g. pharmaceuticals), the approval process can sink good products
• developing a compromise solution – trying to please everyone, constraining innovation
• a good idea on paper is not necessarily a good idea in the customer’s hands – witness the failure of “New Coke”.

PIPC has a track record of helping some of the most successful companies in the world manage the risks associated with investing in developing new products and services. We have helped to deliver blockbuster new offerings that grow top-line revenue, faster, smarter and more cost effectively. Our experts serve our clients' needs in key activities such as: reducing time to market, transforming new product introduction, rapid product launch and enhancing innovation.

PIPC Approach

The key to managing investment in new products is to manage the process aggressively from start to finish. Our focus is on delivering the completed new product to market in a sustainable and profitable fashion. We manage the whole lifecycle providing the drive, structure and experience to lead your team and to leverage the maximum value from your advisors. Our approach hallmarks are:

• Simplicity – we ensure that new product challenges are not “over-thought”
• Clarity – people often assume that because innovation is a fuzzy idea, it cannot be broken down into manageable components
• Awareness – because different stages of the cycle require different skills and different management styles
• Energy – often energy and drive is as important as a good idea, we bring energy to the entire lifecycle
• Organisation – we differentiate between developing new products and managing existing products.

Our New Product & Services offering is valuable to any organisation that is under pressure (market pressure, shareholder pressure, new entrant pressure, etc.) to deliver new products in short timescales and in a cost-effective manner. We are of particular value to organisations who:

• have poor historical returns on their new product investments
• are moving from augmentation and revision into repositioning and groundbreaking sectors of the new product quadrant
• need to dramatically increase market share by getting new products/services out rapidly
• need to urgently respond to competitive pressures.

PIPC Proposition

PIPC’s offering is unique. Our role is not one of advisor, accountant, tax specialist or legal counsel. Instead we are delivery specialists who work with you to take ownership for ultimately delivering value back to your shareholders. We have a world-class track record in delivering mission-critical new product development initiatives and process for some of the world’s most prominent organisations.

We also put our money where our mouth is – we always place a percentage of our fees at risk against your ultimate bottom-line outcomes – meaning we have real skin in the game.

Our people are highly experienced, energetic and motivated to get the best from your staff and ensure your new product development process is executed flawlessly and valuably.

PIPC will:

• provide the rigour and discipline to the process without constraining the ‘ideas machine’
• identify, engage and commit key stakeholders early in the process, and don’t be afraid to sell the benefits aggressively
• bring our ability to identify and marshal the right skills
• inject the right level of energy, pragmatism and drive to accelerate delivery
• prioritise and execute relentlessly. Cut out work that does not enhance the chance of success. We are not afraid to ‘kill’ non-performers early in the development cycle.