How to Effectively Lead Cross-Functional Teams to Drive Successful Continuous New Product Development?

Abstract

Digital disruption is transforming the financial services industry and innovation is paramount for companies to stay competitive. Firms need to move to customer centric, open and rapid innovation processes and a more open and collaborative culture. While there are a number of studies that look at different parts of the leadership and/ or innovation process there are very few cross disciplinary and process oriented studies that look at innovation in the context of the organisation and show how the process unfolds over time, creating a causal network across variables. In line with the purpose of the DBA, the primary purpose of the research is focused on generating business knowledge by the study of a real business issue and application of that knowledge to practice (Manchester Business School Website, 2017). The research shows a company progress from a closed, product centric new product development process to an open and customer centric process of new product development. Through four case studies and eighteen in-depth interviews a thematic analysis is used to analyse each of the cases in detail. This is followed by a causal network analysis, establishing causal networks for key variables for each of the cases. A cross-case analysis is then performed to develop a causal network based on replication of themes across cases (Yin, 2013). The causal network shows how individual variables influence each other. The model shows the following factors that are critical, and highlights success criteria across each factor: a) Leadership must be agile, with leaders providing senior leader sponsorship and a clear vision that is focused on the customer. Having a clear vision is seen to influence stronger communication, higher team motivation and faster implementation. b) Cross-functional teams need to be high performing through clear communication models that lead to fast decision making, better collaboration and positive team dynamics, that include collaborative and open team environment. The new product development process must leverage: c) Customer centric product strategy, where the market opportunity is well defined and customer needs are gathered using multiple methods. And additionally, d) A rapid innovation process that focuses on developing a minimum viable product through agile delivery, and clear governance and prioritization process. This will enable ongoing product iterations based on continuous learnings. e) Performance measures need to include customer and innovation metrics. Overall, the findings suggest that this model can help companies progress to a customer centric new product development processes and a more open and collaborative culture. The research also contributes to innovation and new product development theory by providing a process driven account of new product development and developing a causal framework of key variables.

Date of Award	31 Dec 2017
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Martin Henery (Supervisor) & Mark Batey (Supervisor)