MKT520- Managing Product and Service Innovation

Task

Background

In Assessment tasks 2 and 3 you have focused on an organisation of your choice, often your own workplace. This has particular advantages for you including the potential for you to experience and understand subject content in the context of your own workplace, your access to key information to allow substantial analysis and the capacity for you to make a contribution to your workplace both now and into the future.

What you have not yet experienced is the opportunity to gain insights into how NPD or NSD is practiced in a range of different contexts and how context influences key considerations for companies in regard to new product or new service development.

Task

Assessment task 4 provides the opportunity for you to share findings from your assignments, gain further insights into NPD and NSD in a variety of contexts, and reflect on and consolidate your learning on new product development success factors. Participation is compulsory in Week 13 where you will discuss assessment item 4 with your peers.

There are two parts to this task:

Part A: Individual presentation 10%

Part B: Individual reflection 15%

Task 4 A: Individual presentation - Value 10% - Due Monday 14th May (No extensions possible*)

Your task is to reflect on your experience in completing Assessment 3 (individual report on NPD practices) and draw out a number of key issues to present to your colleagues in a short, snappy but insightful presentation. This will be an in-class group presentation. Instructions regarding numbers in groups and makeup of groups will be provided in class.

Your presentation needs to include:

Brief background to company/market

Key issues that came out of your critical analysis of an organisation's new product development practice

Recommendations for improvement

Personal comments on what you learnt.

Commentary that reflects an understanding of relevant NPD or NSD theory

Your task in assessment 4B is to reflect on and write about how your understanding of new product or service development has been developed and/ or changed by the presentations (Task 4A) on new product development practices and success factors across a variety of organisations. Consider what you have become aware of/ or had reinforced by completing your own presentation as well as listening to those of others. Underpin you discussion with reference to relevant NPD theory.

Your reflection on NPD should focus on the differing perspectives and contexts provided by your class members (What did you learn from each other? What new insight or opinion was offered?), as well as similarities and differences in key aspects of new product development practice between the organisation you studied and the organisations studied by your fellow students.

You will need to include a short reference list in APA-6 style.This reference is not included in your word count. Note: Use of first person, e.g. “I was surprised to find…. ", is appropriate in this type of task.

Rationale

This assessment task (parts A & B) have been are designed to help you consolidate your learning. You will do this by participating in a collaborative learning environment and considering alternative situations regarding NPD, based on different organisational and industry contexts.

This task aligns with subject learning outcomes 3 and 4:

to be able to evaluate the new product practices of an organisation and make recommendations for improvement that demonstrate knowledge of success factors in new product development

to be able to examine and critically evaluate current new product activities in the market.

Identifies and insightfully explains three issues in NPD practice, and how these issues are important to success in chosen organisation. Excellent recommendations that are specific and justified by relevant theory

Identifies and explains three issues in NPD practice, and how these issues are important to success in chosen organisation.Very good recommendations made for each issue – well argued

Identifies and explains three issues in NPD practice, and how these issues are important to success in chosen organisation.Good recommendations made but insufficient justification given 

Identifies NPD three issues but presented with limited supporting argument from theory or organisational context. General recommendations that are well supported