We had a great turn out to ExportNZ's Better Exporting Series Event - Developing World Class Products on Wednesday morning. Hosted in Sharp Tudhope's stunning boardroom, thankfully the presentations were as interesting as the stunning view of the harbour!
Locus Research's Timothy Allan kicked things off and talked us through the importance of a structured design process that starts with good research. Successful products are usually driven by new insights - solving a problem that will really make a difference to the customer - like the introduction of the auto button on cameras. But to get the insight, and that "dadah" moment, requires a broad and deep understanding of the conditions in which the product is used through it's lifecycle.
Tim introduced the concept of looking at the Product System - this includes the product and associated service and understanding the interactions and activities of users, purchasers, stakeholders and influencers. Understanding and clearly defining the product system is an excellent start point for uncovering new and valuable insights. Start thinking of your products in terms of the benefits they deliver - it's not the milk bottle it's convenient fresh milk, it's not a chair it's a body suspension system.
Research doesn't have to be expensive or complex. Often companies are already collecting valuable information, but unfortunately aren't utilising it because the information is not recorded, shared or reviewed. Tim's message - get collecting and sharing. Put some structure in place and you'll soon find you're developing a rich source of information and inspiration.
Next up Kylie van Heerden of Sharp Tudhope Lawyers spoke about structuring commercial relationships and associated agreements to suit your needs. Kylie talked us through all the things you should consider when contracting an R&D provider -agreeing on the project scope, fees and payments; agreeing on ownership of IP; confidentiality; insurance and indemnity; and termination and dispute resolution.
The important thing is to get all this clear and agreed before starting a working relationship for the benefit of both parties.
Kylie than explained some structural options for taking projects forward. Often a company will get to a point where they no longer want to, or are able to take their vision to the next step alone. There are various structural options, and the right structure will depend on a number of factors, including capital requirements, tax considerations, number of interested parties, Government funding requirements etc.
Kylie talk us through three common options and the pros and cons of each. Incorporated Joint Venture; Unincorporated Joint Venture; and Limited Partnership. Deciding which structure works best for you will depend on a number of factors such as capital and finance requirements; tax losses; residency of participants; number of parties; expertise of parties etc. Thanks Kylie for a good plain English explanation.
Jonathan Prince of Motovated Design and Analysis, like Tim, talked about the benefit of a good design process to successful product development. He gave some excellent examples of getting it right and getting it wrong. Jonathan talked about the danger of designing products based on perception rather than research and fact. He gave an example where one visit to the field to see how a product was actually being used, would have saved that company hundreds of thousands of dollars. As per Tim's presentation that's not an expensive piece of research, but it is surprising how the often the obvious is overlooked because fundamental questions are not asked at the start of a project.
Jonathan also showed how tools such as Finite Element Analysis (FEA) can help companies save time and money by getting the design right before you cut the steel. Jon also gave some eye opening stats from McKinsey & Company around the impact of development time vs ROI. Time to market has a big impact on project profitability so anything you can do to speed time to market will reap rewards - research, process, tools and team.
A big thanks to Angela and Tracy from ExportNZ BOP for putting on this event. We think they do a wonderful job supporting exporters in the Bay!
