The Development Factory: Unlocking the Potential of Process Innovation

by Gary P. Pisano

Book Overview

Gary Pisano argues that the development of distinctive and superior process technologies is a key source of competitive advantage. In a multi-year study of international pharmaceutical firms (with references to a variety of other industries), he challenges the widely held product/process life cycle view of competition, which suggests that industries tend to emphasize either product innovation or process innovation. He also offers a set of recommendations...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0875846505
• ISBN13: 9780875846507
• Release Date: November 1996
• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
• Length: 343 Pages
• Weight: 1.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

If you develop new products in the Pharm/Medical sector....

In the final course in my graduate program, this was required reading to complete the program. With a background in medical and electronics instrumentation, I was not thrilled. Secondly, I was puzzled that anyone at Harvard would spend over a year to write a book with a fairly narrow audience--the right way to develop new products for the pharmaceutical industry. I wasn't disappointed. The development of new products in this sector is a different landscape from typical product development and manufacturing--a strategic chess game where timing, investment, weighing uncertainty and gutsy decision making are everything in the successful development on new products going through clinical trials. Pisano insights are good advice. If you an exec or manager, this would not be one of those popular business books. If you are in the medical sector, this should be part of your outside reading to avoid the potholes of new product development. Highly recommended.