Market Oriented Product Innovation

Knut Holt is Professor Emeritus of Technology Management at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. He holds a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Norwegian Institute of Technology and has conducted postgraduate studies in Industrial Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. He has been Visiting Professor at Syracuse University; Erasmus University Rotterdam; the International Institute for the Management of Technology, Milan; Waseda University, Tokyo; and the Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna, Austria. Further he has had assignments from a variety of organisations including Alfa-Laval and Volvo-Penta, Sweden; Valmet Oy, Finland; Danfoss, Denmark; Battelle Institut, Germany; TNO Holland; Bekaert SA, Belgium; OECD, France; IFAP and PRAXIS Management, Italy; The Ford Foundation and IBM, USA; Sony, Japan; and the Hong Kong Productivity Institute, Hong Kong. Throughout a long academic career he has given numerous seminars and lectured extensively in Europe, Japan, and the United States.

• One — Introduction.- I Scope.- II Historical review.- III Key concepts.- IV Creative thinking.- V People and change.- VI Summary of Part One.- Two — Strategic issues.- VII Organizational culture.- VIII Management philosophy.- IX Business concept.- X Objectives and strategies.- XI Organization.- XII Competence.- XIII Communication.- XIV Summary of Part Two.- Three — Operational issues.- XV Key participants.- XVI Product innovation and problem solving.- XVII Processing of projects.- XVIII Provision of need information.- XIX Need assessment in practise.- XX The user and quality.- XXI The user and the environment.- XXII Conclusion.- XXIII Summary of Part Three.- References.- Name index.- About the author.

"This book is comprehensive, goes into concrete details, describes special tools an is easy to read." (Professor Dr Horst Geschka, Technical University Darmstadt and President, Geschka & Partner Consulting)"Based on Professor Holt's research and his academic and consultancy skills, the resultant book benefits from his experiences in, and knowledge of, many countries. It merits a place on all managers' bookshelves, filling a niche hitherto overlooked, by being written from a product viewpoint. The book also deserves to feature in University courses - graduate and postgraduate." (George Hayward, Editor-in-Chief, TECHNOVATION)"The book offers an unusual perspective in combining two peculiar areas of knowledge (market orientation and technology innovation) in the light of needs assessment. It is a happy mix of a systematic and scientific approach reviewed and tested through a long life consultant experience." (Professor Ferdinando Chiaromonte, Director of Studio Chiaromonte, Past President ISPIM)