Learning is the critical success factor in developing truly new products

OVERVIEW: Successful new product development is tough, especially for truly new products. How can a company successfully develop and commercialize such products? An examination of four radically new innovations - Corning's optical fibers, GE's computed axial tomography, Motorola's cellular telephones, and Searle's (now Monsanto's) NutraSweet - reveals that in each case a learning-driven strategy was critical to success. Leaders who wish to improve their company s ability to develop the kind of products that can create entirely new industries are urged to create conditions under which teams can learn from past experience, even failures.