Creativity plus business discipline equals higher profits faster from new product development

A study was conducted of 69 analysts evaluating 267 early-stage new product development (NPD) projects in a major global chemical company over a 10-ye ar time span. Positive correlations were found between profits resulting fr om NPD project analyses and the degree of creativity of the analysts evalua ting those projects, Creativity can be reliably measured with standard psyc hological instruments, such as the MBTI(R) Creativity Index. Analysts with MBTI Creativity Indices above the median for the group studied identified o pportunities providing 12 to 13 times more profit than those with MBTI Crea tivity Indices below the median, when both groups were rigorously trained a nd coached in "stage-gate" business analysis methods, NPD requires breakthrough creativity because the first ideas for commercial ization are almost never commercial until they have been substantially revi sed through a thought process involving branching. It is therefore most pro ductive to preselect innovative, creative people for the early stages of NP D, and then teach this group the business discipline required in stage-gate NPD processes. The results show that by utilizing these principles, both the overall speed and productivity of typical NPD processes can be increased approximately n ine-fold, or nearly an order of magnitude when compared to today's typical linear stage-gate processes. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc.