The PDMA Handbook of New Product Development

33.7. Roadblocks to Achieving Best-in-Class LCM

There are numerous reasons why companies sometimes don't focus as much attention as they should on postlaunch life-cycle management, and thus, don't become effective in optimizing product financial returns once the product launch has occurred. One of the most obvious is in the people area. Compared to the more highly visible, glamorous area of new product development (NPD), LCM seems mundane to many people, often regarded as a maintenance function, and offering little chance of recognition or career advancement. Also, in many companies this impression is reinforced by upper-level managers through the manner in which they mete out monetary and nonmonetary incentives and rewards to people in NPD versus LCM job assignments. Even if these external influences are ignored, the basic dynamics of the LCM job, with its day-to-day problems, constant interruptions, and financial results pressures often tends to provide a less than acceptable balance of positive versus negative personal job satisfaction and feedback for many people. To make matters worse, the opportunities for learning NPD best practices far outweigh those for LCM, because industry conferences, training, and most available written material tend to be focused primarily on NPD topical areas. Comparatively speaking, there are far fewer resources available in the area of product life-cycle management because the issues which must be addressed in this area often tend to be variable ...