New products: benchmarking the critical success factors

New-product development is emerging as the key strategic endeavour of companies in fields such as medical devices. Drawing on the findings of a recent study, the author suggests that the critical factors that influence the success of new products are process, strategy and resources. Process was found to have the strongest impact on the performance of a new product. This article describes a stage-gate process that provides companies with a template for driving new-product projects from idea through to launch.