Editorial Review:
In today’s business climate, where speed-to-market is paramount and there’s no margin for error, companies who fail to excel at new products stand no chance of survival. Companies who live and die by their products need better tools for linking product development to strategy to ensure that resources are deployed efficiently from idea to launch across the full range of products.In Portfolio Management for New Products, the authors present a rigorous and practical approach to managing a company’s product portfolio as you would a financial portfolio—investing for maximum long-term growth. With its field-tested, step-by-step framework, the book provides corporations and managers with the methods and strategies they need to assess and realign their current R&D divisions, determine which products are most worthy of resource allocation, design and implement a portfolio management process, maximize the value of their product portfolios, create balanced portfolios, and recognize and solve challenges as they arise. Portfolio Management for New Products, is an essential resource for any company whose profitability, and very existence, relies on the products it chooses to develop and the speed with which it brings those products to market. This book clarifies the decision-making process, demystifies R&D, and puts corporations on track to understanding and developing the strategies necessary to succeed in the highly competitive and volatile world of product development.
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Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: 
Nice overview on Portfolio Management  2008-08-11
I was skeptical about Portfolio Management for New Products, as I've not been a big fan of Coopers writing, but this book did surprise me and I have learned from it.
I'd say that the book consists of four different parts. The first two chapters are the introduction chapter where the authors go over their research on portfolio management and try to convince the reader that portfolio management is a really good idea. In the second chapter they define the three goals for portfolio management: maximizing value, link to strategy and balancing the portfolio.
The next three chapters three looks at different portfolio management techniques for the three different goals. Chapter three looks at the value side and draws some rather interesting conclusions. I liked the examples of how different companies work. The fourth chapter looks at the balancing part and spends most of its time on the bubble diagrams and how/why to make them. The fifth chapter then covers the link with strategy and how to make sure the products in your portfolio are aligned with the companies strategic goals. The sixth chapter was almost a summary of the previous three and looks at how to combine them and which methods are best.
Chapter 7 and 8 seems kind-of "in between chapters". Seven covers some of the challenges related to portfolio management and chapter Eight covers data integrity. Some points made related to the reliability of the data are good and valid, though the recommendations for increasing data validity were weak.
The last part talked about the actual portfolio management process. First it looks at the high level, the strategy level and how to make the decisions there. Next it looks on the business unit specific level and especially talks about the relationship between portfolio management and a stage-gate process. The last chapter of the book is the "change" chapter which gives hints about how to implement portfolio management in your organization.
The book surprised me, though I had low expectations, so it might have been easy. It was thorough on techniques and gave lots of case examples. It discussed several advantages and disadvantages, which I enjoyed.
Though! I do think there were also some serious problems with this book. First of all, its way too big. It repeats and repeats and requires too much words. The whole book could be 1/3rd of the current size and then it would still cover all the topics. I hate this since I rather read a tense 100 page book than a fluffy 350 page book. Next, I was extremely annoyed by the authors self-promotion for their services and their products. At times, I felt I was reading a Cooper marketing brochure instead of a book on portfolio management.
But, by far, the biggest problem is that I felt the books was very traditional. It talks about command-control hierarchical way of working in an organization. It makes lots of assumptions about the role of senior management, the role of strategy and budgeting. I know, this is a fact of life in most organizations, but still... some more insight in modern organizations would have been nice.
Overall... I enjoyed the book. I was thinking about a rating between three and four stars. It's definitively not a five-star book due to the mentioned drawbacks. I decided to go for four because, at this moment, I do not know a better book on this subject. Recommended to read for those who do not mind about the mentioned drawbacks.
Excellent reference, even with the hand-waving  2008-06-16
I find Robert Cooper to be a bit grandiose in all of his publications in his conclusions from various studies (including his own) and thus you have to take them with a grain of salt. However, this book is very good in showing lots of different ways of approaching the problem of portfolio management. You can be assured that the right answer is different for every company, so read how others have done it and decide which version or hybrid may be right for you.
Excellent Reference 2008-04-27
I'd highly recommend this book to anyone establishing and/or revising a portfolio management process. There are several real-company examples that can be used as a starting point for discussion for your own organization.
Comprehensive catalog of portfolio management techniques 2007-08-17
Three professors, Robert G. Cooper, Scott J. Edgett and Elko J. Kleinschmidt, wrote this book. The good news is that they really know their stuff; the less-than-great news is that they write like, well, professors. The book is hampered by academic prose, qualifiers, tangents and a scholarly, if balanced, reluctance to commit completely to most propositions. We find that readers seeking a comprehensive catalog of product portfolio management techniques will benefit from the detailed initial chapters. Meanwhile, readers who are in search of practical, applicable information will find more of what they want in the later chapters.
Portfolio Management 2007-04-11
Great guide for those with multiple NPD projects in the pipeline. Best when used in conjunction with "The PDMA Handbook of New Product Development, Second Edition."
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