Product Management & Innovation Blog | Sopheon

Win at New Product Development: Become Agile and Adaptive in Exclusive Seminar with Dr. Bob Cooper, Father of Stage-Gate

Written by Chloe Shoobridge | August 13, 2021

Stage-Gate® is a gated process that has become the backbone of innovation for many companies. Dr. Bob Cooper has continued to introduce new generations of Stage-Gate over the years to reflect updated best practices like agile iterative feedback loops, describing these new generations in each new version of his “Winning at New Products” bestselling books. Having an updated Stage-Gate process makes significant enhancements in relation to:

  • the success rate of innovation projects
  • the time-to-market of new products
  • the motivation within project teams

Where did it come from? Well, in his early research, Bob Cooper found what successful companies were doing, and he found that they used stages for concept development. There was a stage for business development, a stage for launch, and a stage for development. He then came up with a five-stage model and documented this. The model is not only about the stages, but the deliverable that people would prepare for what we call ‘gate meetings’. Between each stage there’s a gate, and this gate is a business decision to fund the next stage.

This methodology took a lot of risks out of development, sped up the launch process and allowed companies to build success portfolio pipelines of products.

Interested in learning how to be agile and adaptive as you implement this methodology into your organization?

Dr. Bob Cooper himself, will be leading this exclusive seminar:
Winning at New Products: Agile. Adaptive. Accelerated.
October 28-29, 2021
Frankfurt, Germany

Hosted by five-is innovation consulting, and sponsored by Sopheon, this event designed for executives and senior managers as well as innovation managers of manufacturing businesses who are responsible for maximizing the returns on their innovation efforts in the fields of Business Development, R&D, Product Management, Marketing and Operations Management.

What you will learn:

  • Mastering the challenges of digital transformation in new product development
  • Launching new products with added value faster and more successfully
  • Applying agile methods in physical product development appropriately
  • Managing innovation activities strategically
  • Focusing on the right projects and optimizing the use of resources for innovation

Need to grasp the concept of Stage-Gate? Listen to this podcast episode: Stage-Gate Methodology Basics with Paul Heller.

About the seminar leader
Dr. Robert G. Cooper is one of the most influential innovation thought leaders in the business world today. He pioneered the original research that led to many ground-breaking discoveries including the Stage-Gate® Idea-to-Launch process. He has published more than 120 academic articles and 11 books, including the best-selling “Winning at New Products”. Cooper is President of the Product Development Institute Inc., ISBM Distinguished Research Fellow at Pennsylvania State University’s Smeal College of Business Administration, USA, and Professor Emeritus, DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

Many companies in North America, Europe, and Asia have introduced his methods, such as: 3M, BASF, Bayer, BSH, Carlsberg, Caterpillar, Dow Chemical, DuPont, Evonik, Exxon Chemicals, Henkel, Hewlett Packard, Honeywell, Kraft Foods, Manner, Microsoft, LEGO Group, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Siemens, Tetra Pak, VISA, Voith Paper, Volvo Construction, and many others.

Cooper’s seminars regularly receive top ratings: “Inspiring, profound, captivating, practical and effective!”

Dr. Bob Cooper Discusses Winning at New Products at Sopheon Seminar