Writing for primarily a European audience; in eight short, easy to read, detail‐laden chapters, Gijs van Wulfen explains how companies, utilizing the creative power of the human mind, can create for themselves new business opportunities.
FORTH® is an acronym that stands for: Full Steam Ahead, Observe and Learn, Raise Ideas, Test ideas, and Homecoming. The FORTH® method should precede the “idea stage” of the full Stage‐Gate Innovation process.
The author's use of bullet points, checklists (15 in all) and flow‐charts makes this book a valuable investment, if you need to better understand of the “how” of creating ideas for new products. Whether you believe in this process or not, the “golden nugget” is to be found, in chapters 1 and 2.
In chapter 1, Mr van Wulfen outlines the best account I have ever read regarding the struggles companies have innovating new products and/or services. Here he explains the distinctions between products, which are “new‐to‐the‐world”, “new to the company”, or “new to the market”. He also comments on the difficulties in distinguishing between a continuously innovative product, a dynamically discontinuous product, or a truly discontinuous product.
Mr Van Wulfen correctly identifies, on page 17, the “innovation inhibitors” that, from time to time, we all have experienced during our careers. Executives can greatly benefit their companies by recognizing these innovative inhibitors and then removing or reducing their impact on their firms.
Chapter 2 begins with a wonderful quote on page 29: “The start of the innovation process is not fed by technological discoveries. It is usually fed by sudden, disruptive developments on the market which causes the start or acceleration of the product development processes within the company”. In other words, you're competitive intelligence has let you down about what your competitors are doing and now you are scrambling to catch up (think Blockbuster and Netflix; Barnes and Noble's and Amazon, or insert your own industry's example here) to remain relevant in the marketplace.
Another interesting statement, on page 31 states that: “A good product idea is only attractive for an organization if it is going to bring about a larger turnover and more profit, if it fits into their strategy, and above all, it is considered to be feasible”.
Feasibility, in this context, means that the company has the intellectual property and manufacturing capability to produce and market the new product successfully. I wish Mr van Wulfen would have developed and expanded upon this “capability and capacity” point more, as research has shown that the lack of capability and capacity are major contributors to new product failures.
A new term, at least to me, is introduced, in chapter 2, called “Customer friction”. According to Mr van Wulfen's definition, it means, “is the difference between what you (the customer/consumer) want or need and what you get (product performance)”. I learned this concept as “customer insight” but for some reason “customer friction” is perhaps more descriptive of what consumers/customers feel when products over promise and under deliver. Spot on!
Mr van Wulfen ends chapter 2 with a series of critical, but common sense questions that management needs to ask and answer. Some of his question are: “Should Top Management Control or Let Go? Are We Going to Search for Revolutionary or Evolutionary Product Ideas? And When is the Right Moment to Ideate New Products and Services”? These are key questions management has to ask and has to answer with care.
After I read the chapter a couple of times, what was still not clear to me, is Mr van Wulfen's opinion on whether or not the new product process is a “one time” exercise every 18‐24 months or should the process of developing new product ideas be a constant senior management function? I believe that Mr van Wulfen should have made this distinction clearer to the reader.
From chapter 3 on, we begin the full exploration of the FORTH® method. If you like fine detail work (like specifics on the size of the meeting room) then you'll enjoy reading chapters 3‐8. In fact, as I read these chapters I could not help but note that they often read like a recipe book. Which in some sense is the purpose of this book – mix the ingredients right and bingo, you get creative ideas!
Chapter 3, entitled, “The FORTH® innovation method”, explains his method, in more detail, and talks about how to go about implementing the FORTH® method.
Chapter 4, “Full steam ahead”, explains how you select your FORTH® team members, select your evaluation criteria, the KICK‐OFF workshop and introduces us to the book's case study “FORTH New Mobility Services: Full Steam Ahead”. This chapter ends (as does all of the remaining chapters) with a practical detailed checklist that would be very helpful in implementing this process.
Chapter 5, “Observe and learn”, takes us through inspiration, customer “frictions”, exploring trends and technologies, innovative opportunities, and again, very helpful, a list of the “pitfalls” or “lessons learned”. Experiences are great teachers and here Mr van Wulfen shares with his readers some of his own.
Chapter 6, ” Raise ideas”, goes into brainstorming, including the location of the “brainstorming” sessions, the role of the FORTH® facilitator, how to generate and inspire ideas, creating “maps” composed of “idea maps”, product “maps”, and the presentation of and evaluation of these new concepts. The chapter ends with the “pitfalls” and the FORTH® case study, which helps to illustrate the effectiveness of the process.
Chapter 7, “Test ideas”, shows us how to do qualitative research, improving product concepts and pitfalls and the case study. It is here in chapter 7, that one of Mr van Wulfen's statements rang true with me. He offers some sage advice for all managers at any level when on page 172, he states, “With regards to the content of the new concept, it is important to get insight into its acceptance by applying the following six aspects – clarity, relevancy, attractiveness, distinctiveness, does it fit the brand, and trustworthiness”.
Chapter 8 closes out our FORTH® journey with advice and direction of how to present the “mini‐business case”, presentation to senior management and the transfer process of the “new product concepts” to those responsible for market development and implementation. It ends with a wrap up of the case study and offers us a final checklist.
Appendix II is an extra bonus as it offers the book reader 30 brainstorming techniques, two of which are the Russian TRIZ and the Israel's SIT methods. The Russian TRIZ and the Israel's SIT processes have long proven their worth in generating new ideas and concepts. Great additions and thank you!
I cannot say that I enjoyed reading this book past the first two chapters for a variety of reasons. For one, this book is written entirely for a European audience with almost all of the book's examples and illustrations limited to companies and experiences on the continent. Two, I found the detail or the “how to do” steps entirely too specific to be interesting. And third, I found my attention drifting back to the author's point about new products “fitting” the capabilities and competency of the company and I could not get past the fact that he spent so little time exploring this important point.
