Organising future product development

Many companies have recently reorganised their R&D

Reorganisations are heavily triggered by external changes, and these days, things move quickly. To keep up, product development and service organisations need to adapt more rapidly to changes. This calls for a need to reorganise for the future – now.

Changes take place more rapidly

Approximately ¾ of the surveyed companies have experienced external changes leading to a reorganisation of their global R&D organisation, and external changes are expected to be even more relevant in 2020 and onwards.

This picture is aligned with our general observations, where most of our clients, who are either product development or service organisations, express an increasing need to be able to change rapidly to adapt to changes in their environment.

Reorganising for the future

Reorganisations are often a result of:

• New technology-driven product development (inside-out).
• User insight-driven processes (outside-in)
• Inefficient cross-functional collaboration (process end-to-end)

Reorganisation initiatives all have the same purpose in mind: to ensure that companies gain or sustain a competitive advantage through new innovative products and services.

For many companies, however, finding the right approach to organising for the future is challenging – especially when trying to organise across marketing, product management, R&D and supply functions.
Some companies are also starting to see the effect of “negative globalisation” and are moving R&D activities back from abroad, e.g. from China to Denmark.

In this viewpoint, we will provide insights into trends and challenges in global R&D and product management. Also, we will highlight five key dilemmas that need to be addressed when reorganising your product development.

About the viewpoint

This viewpoint is based on Implement’s huge knowledge and industry insights within product development.

Moreover, we have conducted empirical research (simple scout research during projects) about the trends and challenges in global R&D and product management as well as conducted a small sample survey among global companies with a strong focus on physical product development and related services.

Trends and challenges in global R&D and product management

The trends:

• Previously outsourced R&D is more frequently sourced back (recentralisation of R&D).
• Product development projects increasingly make use of virtual tools to ensure effective and sustained progress in a global world.
• End-to-end accountability and commercial success are increasingly important.
  
  

The challenges:

We have identified five key dilemmas that must be addressed when reorganising your product development. To achieve a successful reorganisation of your product development efforts and become fit for the future, you must balance these five key dilemmas. It is important to consider all the dilemmas and adjust solutions to match the context of your organisation.