inKNOWvations: February 2012

Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up Resource Planning: Which Is Better?

Keith Duncan

In a Sopheon exclusive, Keith shares his well-seasoned perspective on the importance of resource planning as an integral part of the new product development process.

In order to optimize the return on investment from new products, an organization must excel at managing its product portfolio(s). This requires good visibility into the value, risk, expense and resource requirements of individual projects. Unless resource planning is fully integrated into new product development processes, such visibility is limited and, by extension, the effective use of resources is negatively impacted. It’s almost like driving at night with your headlamps off; you can’t see far enough ahead to know where you might run into serious problems.

Over my career, I’ve had the opportunity to get to know a number of CEOs. The general perception in the market is that CEOs of public companies are only focused on meeting the quarterly numbers. The following are 3 CEOs I’ve had the opportunity to spend meaningful 1:1 time with and who “get it” when it comes to innovation.

The Innovation Obsession

Harvey Briggs

In my travels and in my work I hear the word “innovation” thrown around a lot these days. Everybody’s talking about it. You can’t open a business magazine without reading an article featuring it. And, of course there are thousands of “experts” like myself making a pretty good living peddling their particular brand of it.

“Innovation” today is much like “Branding” was in the ‘90s; greatly overused and highly misunderstood. It’s the new buzzword and its ubiquity is putting the entire concept of innovation in serious jeopardy.