SIGNS OF AGING: ACCELERATED CYCLE TIME

15 years ago, I spent a lot of time with product development teams that were trying to reduce the cycle time for new product introductions. I recall at the time that one of my clients was scrambling to reduce the time it took to get a product from concept to market from 36 months down to 18 months. Yesterday I spoke with an executive from the same company who told me that the life cycle for these product has now shrunk from what was 24 to 36 months a few years ago down to 18 months today! Think about that! What was the high bar for development time 15 years ago is now the life cycle for a product!

It’s the emergence of value networks, especially in the far east as well as a global design, prototyping and distribution network that makes this searing acceleration possible. And this client is now able to turn out a new design and get it to market fast enough and at a cost that still allows it to make profits in a compressed 18 month S-curve!