Managing Product and Service Innovation: A Reflective Essay

This essay reflects on the new product development (NPD) process, drawing insights from class presentations and discussions, particularly focusing on Coca-Cola's strategies. It emphasizes the importance of aligning NPD with market changes and customer preferences, supported by cross-functional teams and effective organizational structures. The reflection highlights differing perspectives on achieving competitive advantage, including customer focus, product uniqueness, and the role of technology. Ultimately, the essay concludes that a customer-centric approach, combined with strategic marketing and organizational synergy, is crucial for successful NPD in a dynamic market. Desklib offers a wealth of similar resources for students seeking to deepen their understanding of business and innovation.

Running Head: Managing Product and Service Innovation 1
Managing Product and Service Innovation
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Introduction
In the current dynamic and unpredictable market, most organizations use the path of new
product development (NPD) in order to survive. NPD process helps many organizations to
improve the customer’s preferences, make changes in technology development and increases
competition (Hoyer, Chandy, Dorotic, Krafft, & Singh, 2010). I have clearly understood that
prospector company such as Coca Cola a leading company in the industrial sector implements
some of the NPD factors to increase the rate of success of new products. Innovative businesses
flourish by considering what their market requires, improving products and introducing new
services and products which meet and exceeds their customer's prospects. It is also important to
understand that to make NPD successful other departments such as engineering, manufacturing,
purchasing, research and development, marketing, and finance should coordinate. The marketing
department should first make an evaluation concerning the new product and then a team created
for the new product has to be involved for the advancement of new product theory (Tidd &
Bessant, 2018). This paper is a reflection on the NPD process focusing on the differing
perspectives and contexts provided by class members.
Discussion
During the presentation on new product development practices and success factors in the
Coca-Cola Company I have found that the general product performance developments are
important in the competitive advantage of a company with its competitors. This was a similar
opinion with other class members who presented on different organizations. Similarly, I have
discovered that to thrive in a competitive world a company must be in a position to develop new
products and services, methods of production, and delivering services techniques (Reeves,

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Haanaes, & Sinha, 2015). Also, I have understood that in order to be competitive it is essential
for the organization to align the new products development processes with the new market
changes or new customer preferences. Thus an organization should develop marketing strategies
at the initial stage of new product development (Pride & Ferrell, 2010).
Consequently, I have learned the development of a new product is difficult but it is
essential for a company to succeed. A company should consider these success factors which
include cross-functional teams, support from the upper management team and an accommodative
organizational structure (Holbeche, 2018). Also, it is vital to understand the successful
components such as the product performance, cost, and speed of the market and their relationship
with the success factors. This relationship will help the managers to direct their efforts by
reinforcing product development which has the most important key factors to elevate the
components of product development that have the greatest priority.
I have discovered that focusing on the customer’s needs before introducing NPD
processes is a fundamental requirement. From other class presentations, it was highlighted that
customer’s preferences is key to product development. This is because if the customer need is
not met then the company financial return is likely to be affected. In a different opinion, a
company must focus on the uniqueness of its product to achieve a competitive advantage. For
instance, in the presentation, I have underlined how Coca Cola has various principal
competencies such as cost controls, distribution networks, and strong value of the brand,
administrative controls, and franchise network. Also, the opinion on how technology aid in
product development and satisfaction of customer needs was interesting. In this era of social
networking, organizations can use technology to advertise their products hence promoting sales
and innovations of the company (Heesen, 2016). Therefore, it is important to develop a product

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or service at the appropriate time and which suits the customer needs so as to earn a competitive
advantage in this challenging global economy.
Conclusion
In summary, for the NPD process to be successful it is essential for an organization to
focus on satisfying the needs of the customer. As highlighted, synergy from the management
support, cross-functional teams, and effective organizational structure are integral in achieving
the required product performance, market speed, and cost of development. Marketing strategies
are essential for new product development since it is the path to attaining the set objectives,
safeguard customer focus and competitor awareness. As discussed, a company should focus on
the present demand and adjust their new product accordingly otherwise it will be very hard for a
company to thrive in the challenging market.

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References
Heesen, B. (2016). Effective Strategy Execution: Improving Performance with Business
Intelligence. Springer Berlin Heidelberg: Berlin, Heidelberg.
Holbeche, L. (2018). The agile organization: how to build an engaged, innovative and resilient
business. London; New York, NY: CIPD, Kogan Page.
Hoyer, W. D., Chandy, R., Dorotic, M., Krafft, M., & Singh, S. S. (2010). Consumer Cocreation
in New Product Development. Journal of Service Research, 283-296.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1094670510375604
Pride, W. M., & Ferrell, O. C. (2010). Marketing. Mason, OH: South-Western/ Cengage
Learning.
Reeves, M., Haanaes, K., & Sinha, J. (2015). Your Strategy Needs a Strategy How to Choose and
Execute the Right Approach. Boston Harvard Business Review Press.
Tidd, J., & Bessant, J. R. (2018). Managing innovation: integrating technological, market and
organizational change. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

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