What are your NPD plans for FY2010-11?

As we move well into the final quarter of this 2009-10 financial year, the business community begins to ramp up it’s planning, strategizing and forecasting activities.

So it got me thinking: how about developing a formal New Product Development (NPD) plan just as you would a cashflow, marketing and overall business plan?

To develop a decent NPD plan, you would need to consider the following goals as essential:

• Deliver new products and services that are relevant to your customers real needs and desires (regardless of whether your customers are aware of them or not!)
• Help your business grow by providing increased and sustainable profits
• Reduce and/or minimise environmental impact through better materials and process decisions.

Achieving these goals is not easy, but you can adopt some simple yet effective strategies to kickstart the process:

1. Reduce your risk… When you look at your market, are there any particular risks, issues or problems that may be preventing you from increasing your sales or profitability? What tweaks can you make to your products that minimise or even eliminate those issues?
2. Innovate… Look for ways you can change, enhance and accessorize your current line of products and/or services to improve your customers’ experience, influence their decision to buy and differentiate you from your competitors
3. Niche-down and specialise… Perhaps your product may be pushing the boundaries of a commodity; meaning that your market may be highly competitive with numerous major players and/or brands… What ways could you revise, simplify, exchange or even delete certain products to give your brand a higher quality, more focused, targeted and “niche” feel that could in fact help you reduce costs, charge more and achieve higher profits?
4. Sustainability… How will you harness all things ‘green’ and also deliver improved profits and customer satisfaction? Can you increase your usage of recyclable / recycled materials? Can you improve your production processes to use less energy, water, raw materials and toxic chemicals? Are there renewable energy or material sources available in your industry? If there are new (aka expensive) technologies available which can reduce your environmental footprint, can you form buying consortiums with partners, competitors and/or complimentary organisations to share upfront and one/off implementation costs?

How about hosting a session with your team to address these areas and develop your FY10-11 NPD plan together? Your aim is to keep your team engaged and excited about the coming year, and what better way than to lay out a roadmap together of the next year’s product development projects?

NPD plans that focus on addressing real needs & delivering true benefits to your customers, shareholders and broader community will ultimately set your business up for a higher chance of success.

If you’d like some help preparing your NPD plan and/or hosting a workshop with your team to work through the process, please contact me