35.1. Introduction

Lessons learned from leading practitioner companies are often a very effective technique for companies facing challenges in launching or improving their new product development performance. The PDMA's Outstanding Corporate Innovator award companies can provide a valuable set of such learning experiences for companies. The objective of this chapter will be to survey the learning from sixteen years of Outstanding Corporate Innovator award winners of the PDMA. This award has been in place since 1988 and annually recognizes select companies on the basis of their innovation success in new product development. Each year's award winners have shared their lessons learned in presentations at the PDMA Annual International Conference. This chapter will summarize the key lessons learned and provide real-life case studies of these leading companies.

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