As we all know, after introducing IBM's IPD R&D management system, Huawei's revenue has continued to reach new highs. With the development and growth of enterprises, more and more enterprises find that there are some difficulties that are difficult to solve in the process of product management and development. This has also stimulated a considerable number of companies to follow suit and introduce the IPD system. IPD is guided by market demand, with standardized operation as the main line, carrying out "end-to-end" whole process opening, focusing on quality, building the core competitiveness of products, improving customer experience, and supporting the stable improvement of enterprise business objectives. Its core content is market-oriented product development with a focus on customer needs. Treat product development as an investment (business value) and launch products accurately, efficiently, cost-effectively, and with high quality through CBB-Common Infrastructure Modules and cross-functional team operations (multi-team participation and decision-making at each review point, product efficiency and waste reduction through various technological improvements, continuous delivery). It's easy to learn how to use a tool method, but it's hard to use a tool method to the extreme.
Treat IPD implementation as a long-term systems project
There is a problem of adaptability when implementing IPD. The status quo of each company is different, and when you get an IPD, you must first analyze how to tailor and optimize it in order to get the most implementation to the greatest extent. Strictly speaking, IPD is a set of business management models. As a model, its core ideas and ideas are universally appropriate. Such as investment-oriented decision-making, market-oriented innovation, cross-functional teams, and so on. These ideas have nothing to do with the size of the enterprise. Treating IPD implementation as a long-term, complex system project does not mean that short-term and phased results are not focused. The first step is to lay the foundation and achieve results, which is the key to the full implementation of IPD and make a huge difference!
Different companies need different approaches. If you can gradually build up the very important aspects of IPD from the beginning, it will be much easier to implement: the first point is to build a cross-departmental culture, including the establishment of corresponding incentive mechanisms, so that people are willing to invest. Although culture is virtual, but after having culture, it can be implemented through "real" means, so the first point is to do the assessment and build the culture; The second point is that the product development process should clarify and connect the responsibilities of relevant departments and functional departments, so that everyone knows exactly what they should do.
IPD changes require a holistic plan to be implemented step by step
However, at present, many people understand IPD as a set of process systems. From the perspective of business management model, IPD can be described as "Tao"; From the point of view of process tools, it can be described as "art", if you can control the technique with the way, then there will be no question of whether it is used or not. When Gerstner entered IBM from the FMCG field, he was once questioned as coming to "collect the corpse for IBM", believing that the experience and practices of the FMCG industry were not applicable to IT technology enterprises. Gerstner flexibly used the experience accumulated over the years to finally build the business philosophy of IPD and successfully save the once dying IBM. In short, personnel IPD should be understood from the "metaphysical", and must not be limited to the "metaphysical"! The size of the enterprise is not critical, the key is that the cognitive understanding is in place and the implementation is in place.
Therefore, before the enterprise carries out management reform, it must first plan in combination with the resource situation, and carry out the work step by step according to the plan, which is just like the enterprise to launch products to the market step by step on the basis of market and product planning. In the process of implementation, it can be supported by products for large-scale companies. Start with a new product and streamline the whole process through the pilot. If we don't pilot it, if we all implement it at once, it will be prone to many problems. This is also the same in other companies: take a product pilot first, and if the pilot is successful, there will be a great incentive for other products to implement IPD.
Huawei's IPD system construction also follows this principle, and IBM proposed the construction of the IPD system in the ITS & P project with Huawei in 1998Including integrated product development, market management, project investment management, technology and product standards and other sub-projects, the start-up time of these sub-projects is staggered, reflecting the principle of overall planning and step-by-step implementation. In the actual operation process, the time was much longer than the original 27 months, and the scope was expanded, but the idea of step-by-step construction was always adhered to.
IPD change is the most extensive change for enterprises
The primary task of the enterprise to build the IPD R&D management system is to clarify the long-term vision and short-term goals, so that the whole team has a clear understanding of the future development direction and provide a clear guidance for the construction of the R&D management system. It is also important to ensure that the R&D strategy is aligned with the company's overall business strategy, meaning that the R&D activities directly support the company's core objectives and market needs. Next, we need to assemble multidisciplinary teams with different professional backgrounds to ensure that a variety of skills and knowledge areas are covered in the project, thus fostering diversity in innovation and problem solving. At the same time, break the communication barriers between departments and establish a cross-departmental collaboration mechanism to ensure smooth information flow and more efficient collaborative work.
In the IPD R&D management system, the communication and sharing of information is equally important. usA centralized information sharing platform can be established to ensure that team members can get the information they need at any time and reduce the lag in information delivery. You can also set up regular team communication meetings that include project progress, problem solving, experience sharing, etc., to ensure that all team members have a clear understanding of the overall situation of the project. Finally, we identify key performance indicators that align with R&D goals and strategies so that all employees can identify goals and motivate team members to work towards common goals.
At the same time, a regular performance evaluation mechanism is established, including the overall performance of the team and individual contributions, so as to identify problems and put forward suggestions for improvement in a timely manner. By following these steps, companies can gradually build an efficient IPD R&D management system to better achieve R&D goals, improve product innovation capabilities, accelerate project progress, and ensure a high degree of collaboration and flexibility throughout the R&D process.
For enterprises, the design and pilot operation of the IPD system must have a special project manager on the enterprise side who is responsible for organizing the system design content of the project manager of the consulting party, not only to receive the "fish", but more importantly, to digest the "fish" and promote the internal transformation and construction of the IPD system. Enterprises will inevitably encounter various obstacles and difficulties in implementing the IPD systemEnterprises must select a strong enterprise project manager to do a good job of connecting the top management of the enterprise, the middle and grassroots of the enterprise and external consulting institutions to ensure the implementation of the IPD system in the enterprise.
How to choose a consulting company to make IPD introduction less detours
Different from other field changes, IPD change is the most extensive change involved in the enterprise, which requires deep involvement in various fields, which puts forward very high requirements for change leaders, in addition to mastering IPD knowledge and IPD implementation experience, but also having certain professional knowledge in various fields, otherwise it is difficult to effectively communicate with functional departments. IPD consulting is a major change involving all levels of the company, and when the enterprise lacks qualified internal consultants, the intervention of external consultants can use their implementation experience to help the enterprise avoid detours, and can objectively understand the problems faced by the enterprise from the perspective of a third party. In the face of functional sector conflicts, it is more able to judge from a neutral point of view. However, if the wrong choice of external consultants, these benefits can not only be wiped out, but also create more uncertainty about change.
Therefore, the choice of IPD advisory bodies must be done carefully. First of all, it is necessary to choose a senior and professional consulting agency, which has a wealth of IPD consulting and introduction cases in various industries, which can provide rich experience and materials for IPD import for enterprises, and can allow enterprises to avoid detours in IPD import. So how do you choose a consulting firm?
It's not so much about choosing a company as it is about choosing people. Some large consulting firms have a lot of consultants, but very few have a sufficient understanding of IPD. Most consulting companies are platforms, and key research activities such as enterprise research and consulting program reports of consulting projects are basically presented to enterprises by consulting companies with the best resources available. However, the implementation and implementation of the consulting program still rely on consultants, and it can be said that the most lacking consulting project in the industry is reliable consultants. Consultants should not only have the knowledge, tools and methods of consulting services, but also be able to apply and practice scientifically, systematically and efficiently.
Because the consultant teacher is the real person in charge of the consulting project, the service object is not only to run in and interact with the employees of the enterprise, but also to interact with different teams and various organizations of the enterprise. It is necessary to have a suitable match for business experience, an effective party**, and especially values and work attitude. The right consultant is key to the successful delivery of a consulting project. When choosing a consulting company, it is necessary to clarify which consultants are involved in the project, conduct a background check on the consultants, and after passing the interview, it is necessary to clearly require the consulting company not to "transfer the contract" in the terms. For example, CARsgen Pipeline and Yisi Consulting have a good reputation in the industry.
Finally, managing IPD change is an ongoing process that can be divided into one or several projects, and the best strategy is to manage them according to a project management approach and translate the key success factors into specific activities in the project process, setting standards for these activities, and managing them in a granular manner. Choosing a suitable consultancy is an important factor in the success of IPD implementation.