The proactive creation of new products has been established practice for many years in a number of different manufacturing sectors. Leading organisations in those markets where this approach to new product innovation is a critical business skill have developed highly sophisticated processes which are managed at a senior level in the company. They aim to present many appealing new products to a fast changing market, knowing that at least some will be successful. As a result, the processes and concepts behind NPD are well-established and known to provide demonstrable value. Research has shown, for example, that a new product design process reduces both the risk of product failure and the costs of innovation.
Laurie Young, MBA, DipM, FCIM, is an internationally recognised specialist in themarketing and selling of services, and one of the few independent advisers to the professions who has himself been a partner in a leading firm. Laurie’s career has included senior positions with BT, Unisys and PricewaterhouseCoopers, and he has also founded, built and sold his own consultancy company.
Laurie now divides his time between consultancy work (including teaching on the Executive Education Programme of Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania), public speaking and writing. As a consultant he assists senior executives and marketing professionals, providing guidance with the resolution of strategic marketing issues, brand strategy, new service design and client care programmes. Amongst Laurie’s recent assignments he has Chaired Fujitsu's ‘Customer Experience Management’ panel and is on the Innovation Board of Allen & Overy. Over the years his clients have also included Russell Reynolds Associates, Deloitte, Phillips, Lucent, Clifford Chance, Ericsson, Ingersoll Rand, Microsoft, the BBC, Cable & Wireless, American Express, Nokia and BDO Stoy Hayward.
A popular presenter, Laurie speaks at a range of events every year from in-company seminars to larger international conferences. He also enjoys writing and, in addition to contributed articles and expert comment in the national press, Laurie has had over a hundred articles on service marketing published in various trade journals.
Laurie has written chapters for edited books on the IT industry and has had three books published to date. Of these, Marketing The Professional Services Firm (Wiley, July 2005) combines deep knowledge of the professional services industry with sound service marketing theory, whilst From Products To Services (Wiley, April 2008) draws on case studies of many leading international companies to trace the steps manufacturing businesses go through to become successful service providers.
Laurie’s work is attracting increasing interest in Asia, with a Chinese language edition of From Products To Services being published in March 2009. His latest book,Marketing the Technical Services Firm, has been published in early 2010.