Product Development Performance: Strategy, Organization, and Management in the World Auto Industry [Hardcover]

Kim B. Clark (Author), Takahiro Fujimoto (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1991

This book is the culmination of six years of research conducted at the Harvard Business School on how different manufacturing firms around the world approach the development of new products. Its principal focus is the impact of strategy, organization, and management on this critical component of business strategy. This book represents a lengthy study of product development in the world motor car industry, provides detailed information on how the Japanese came to dominate the motor car industry and describes what manufacturers must do to regain competitiveness.

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About the Author

Since 1984, Harvard Business School Press has been dedicated to publishing the most contemporary management thinking, written by authors and practitioners who are leading the way. Whether readers are seeking big-picture strategic thinking or tactical problem solving, advice in managing global corporations or for developing personal careers, HBS Press helps fuel the fire of innovative thought. HBS Press has earned a reputation as the springboard of thought for both established and emerging business leaders.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press (February 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0875842453
• ISBN-13: 978-0875842455
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,131,403 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Successfully measured competitiveness in the Auto Industry, July 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Product Development Performance: Strategy, Organization, and Management in the World Auto Industry (Hardcover)

This book is very famous in the auto industry. It describes and compares world auto makers' overall competitiveness with regard to product development. It explains to us why the Japanese auto makers dominated world auto market in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. The Japanese introduced their products far faster than competitors,the Europeans and Americans, to the global market, not to speak of their superior product quality. What happened to them? Were there any market condition involved? The answer is no. The Japanese product managers were champions not coordinators or linkage men. They influenced more power over functional product development teams, such as styling, design, testing. The Japanese also showed real TQM(Total Quality Management) not a lip-service. I think this book helped other automakers to scrutinze their process and to prepare for the next challenge. The Americans and European automakers do not lag behind now in the survival races. They get back to their position as world leader as they did in the early 1900s. If you want to know more about the logic and reasoning, this book has more.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars solid business book, April 26, 2001

By 

Robert J. Crawford (Balmette Talloires, France) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Product Development Performance: Strategy, Organization, and Management in the World Auto Industry (Hardcover)

All too often, academic studies in business (and many areas for that matter) are exercises in sausage production: they repackage a few new facts in some worn out methodology and claim it is new. But at their best, they can provide a new framework and vocabulary to adress complex new issues. PDP was just such a book on the auto industry, which was in serious crisis in the 1980s.

This is one of the first and best books on concurrent engineering (cross functional development) and it sets a very high standard. It is well written and persuasive. While some diagrams are overly ambitious - one has 59 arrows and 14 explanatory captions - it rarely gets bogged down in jargon or long proofs. Upon re-reading it, it does not at all appear out-dated; indeed, their prescriptions appears to have been learned and integrated into many American industries, from autos to computer networks.