6.2.2 Chief executives

Chief executives have commitment to the organisational role of product development, understanding the needs of product development, recognising the knowledge and skills for product development, recognising the product development process as it relates to their company. They need the abilities:

     to develop the structure in which product development operates;

     to organise a management system for product development;

     to integrate all the functional areas taking part in product development;

     to develop a clear product strategy and a product development programme;

     to set clear goals;

     to indicate the decisions to be made at different parts of the
        product development processes, and make decisions with careful analysis.

They need to be able to define the long-term company development strategy and assess the strategic importance of new company initiatives and their relation to the present core capabilities (Cooper, 1998). They are responsible for effective portfolio management, making strategic choices of markets, products and technologies that the business will invest in (Cooper et al., 1999).

The chief executive develops a positive environment, actively supporting, leading and directing product development on a continuous basis, and providing integrating communication between different groups, usually the functional departments of marketing, production, R&D and finance, with product development. Since product development spans many disciplines, it should not get locked into one image - marketing, production or R&D.