The Chamber of Commerce Luncheon

The guest speaker sat down to a warm round of applause. Jim Hoffman was a well-known local consultant with a seemingly unlimited repertoire of humorous stories and anecdotes. And his subject, “The Dangers of New Product Introductions” always went down well.

“Thank you, Jim. That was great as always” the president said. “Does anybody have any questions?

How can ensure the new service we are planning is a success? What would you recommend that I do to determine whether it is worthwhile introducing? {This came from Tom Wheeler, the owner of Washburn Pharmacy who was considering introducing a pick-up and delivery service for prescriptions}

Why are large firms that can afford to do extensive research are often no more successful than the introductions by small firms with very limited resources? {This came from Paul Scholes, the regional manager for a multinational paper company}

Why, after all going through all the steps described in your talk in an effort to make sure that the new product introduction is a success, you can end up with a disaster? What went wrong? { this came from Maggie Smythe, the owner of a small medical products manufacturing company}

Everybody in the know laughed. Maggie Smythe had hired Jim’s firm to help her develop a campaign to introduce a new line of product to the dental profession and it had been far from successful.

Question 1: how would you answer Tom Wheeler? What do you think he can do, in advance, to endure that the introduction of a pick-up and delivery service for prescriptions if worthwhile?

Question 2: If Pail Scholes’ assertion is true [that large firms are no more successful than small firms when it comes to new product introductions] is true, what does this say about the new product introduction process

Question 3: what might have gone wrong in the case described by Maggie Smythe?