Best in Brief: Less smoky, More gutsy

A summary of an article in the Harvard Business Review about the need for customer 'solution' information in R & D.

Best in Brief: Less Smoky, More Gutsy

(Harvard Business Review)

Stefan Thomke andEric von Hippel

Douglas WestProfessor of Marketing at the University of Westminster, provides a brief summary of this article.

The basic problem of product development is that the 'need' information side of the equation resides with the customer while the 'solution' information resides with the manufacturer. Consider the case of BBA, which develops speciality flavours to bolster and enhance the taste of processed foods. A traditional project might start with a client requesting a single sample of a meaty flavour for a soy product. The...

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