June PDMA Pittsburgh Innovation Forum Focuses on Growth Strategies In Your Backyard

Join us June 3rd at Shadyside Courtyard Marriott

The June Innovation Forum - The Power Of Adjacency: Growth Strategies In Your Backyard, presented by Mark Carr, Managing Partner at South Street Strategy Group - will be held on June 3rd at the Courtyard Marriott in Shadyside. 

Identifying and exploiting new opportunities for growth is a constant point of tension for companies. Yet in this never ending quest for growth, many business strategists fail to see the opportunities that are right in their backyards - customer or capability adjacencies that are very natural extensions of their current strategies. An adjacency-based approach to growth has the benefit of leveraging business assets that already exist, but it does come with risks. For example, strategies that are too far afield from your core offerings - and thus with weak linkages - are likely to fail.

In this presentation, you will hear best practices in embedding an innovation culture into an organization through a structured approach of defining, scoping and exploiting adjacencies that can build a long-term pipeline of opportunities for growth. You will walk away from this session being able to: 

• Apply several methods for leveraging adjacencies in your own organization
• Understand how to evaluate and prioritize the best adjacencies for growth
• Identify the key issues required to succeed with adjacencies and the risks to watch out for
• Learn from case studies that demonstrate how a successful adjacency strategy can be developed and implemented.  

Register today! 

Watch your email, or find us on LinkedIn http://bit.ly/PDMAInnovate and Twitter @PDMApittsburgh for event updates. 

Sept16th Innovation Forum Focuses on Big Ideas

In a world full of problems, why are we so focused on redoing what has already been done? Can we really say that the world is better off because of our work? Could we do better work, more important work?

Join us at Catalyst Connection on Monday, September 16th for the next Innovation Forum - "Why Aren't We Doing Big Ideas Anymore?:  A Call to Arms For New Product Development Professionals" - presented by Chris Miller, Ph.D., NPDP. 

As innovation professionals we have a special responsibility to lead, to show the way, to make a difference. It’s not about process, though process is important; it’s not about voice of the customer, though those who choose to ignore the customer do so at their own peril; it is not about technology mapping, or open innovation, culture or cross-functional teams, as important as these things are. Success in innovation is driven by a passion to bring technology into the service of humanity in a meaningfully differentiated way.

Registration and networking will begin at 5:00pm and the presentation will start at 6:00pm.  The cost is $25 for members and $35 for non-members. Register Early. Seating is very limited!

To learn more and to register, log on to www.pdma.org > Community > US Chapters > Pittsburgh > Events

The Fall Programming Schedule is being finalized and will be communicated soon. If you have any recommended topics or speakers, please email your suggestions to David Charlton, Vice President of PDMA Programming, at david@david-charlton.com.

A Message from the PDMA Pittsburgh Chapter President

Welcome to the Pittsburgh PDMA! I am honored to serve as Chapter President for 2013-2014. As I stepped into this role, the Chapter was recognized as a Top Tier Chapter in the Nation! This is a testament to the response and support of our members and guests, the tremendous talent and dedication of our Board and the leadership and vision of our past Presidents – Jeff Thompson and Mark Adkins. I am excited and proud to be part of this growing and vibrant community of practitioners, academics and service providers engaged in the principles, practices and processes of effective product innovation.

This is one of the most dynamic times in history for innovation and product development. Bill Gates suggests in Bloomberg Businessweek: “We’ve had more progress in the last decade than ever before.” For innovators, product developers, designers and engineers, advancements in technology (real and virtual) have created a vast body of knowledge and resources including the advent of some of the most creative and unique product development platforms in history—crowd sourcing, open innovation, rapid manufacturing and the maker movement, just to name a few. There has never been a more exciting time for innovation and product development yet organizations, regardless of size, openly admit to ongoing struggles with sustainable growth through their product portfolios and pipelines. We continue to hear of the high number of new product failures and the lament over incremental product improvement.

The mission of our Chapter is to impact the success of product development by growing and unifying the knowledge, talent and resources in our region. With the connection to the international PDMA organization, we also enable wider access to global resources. This coming together of professionals from different perspectives, disciplines and backgrounds, creates a valuable forum for genuine dialogue about current best practices, methods, challenges, opportunities and new thinking.

I encourage you and your colleagues to become part of the innovation conversation and join the Pittsburgh PDMA community. Whether through membership, sponsorship, event participation or volunteerism, there are many ways PDMA can fit your schedule and interests.

See you at the next PDMA Innovation Forum on September 16th!

Randy Rossi
President, PDMA Pittsburgh
President, Bally Design

Why Aren’t We Doing Big Ideas Anymore? A Call to Arms for New Product Development Professionals

Join the Pittsburgh Chapter next Monday, September 16th, for an engaging Innovation Forum presented by Chris Miller, Ph.D., NPDP: 

Why Aren’t We Doing Big Ideas Anymore?: A Call to Arms for New Product Development Professionals

Where:  Catalyst Connection, 2000 Technology Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15219
When: 6:00 - 7:00 pm; September 16, 2013

In a world full of problems, why are we so focused on redoing what has already been done?  Can we really say that the world is better off because of our work?  Could we do better work, more important work?

As innovation professionals, we have a special responsibility to lead, to show the way, to make a difference.  It’s not about process, though process is important; it’s not about voice of the customer, though those who choose to ignore the customer do so at their own peril; it is not about technology mapping, or open innovation, culture or cross-functional teams, as important as these things are.  Success in innovation is driven by a passion to bring technology into the service of humanity in a meaningfully differentiated way.

Registration and networking will begin at 5:00 pm.  The cost is $25 for members and $35 for non-members.  Seating is limited, so be sure to register early.  

REGISTER NOW

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Often called a cheerleader for innovation, a prolific author, Chris Miller deals with everything that helps us to bring technology into the service of humanity, from how we explore for ideas and the mental processes involved in innovation, to success blockers that get in the way of discovery engineering.  Miller calls on his audiences to step up to the challenges of innovation by engaging in rigorous repeatable processes many of which are fundamental to how people have worked together to bring about change for hundreds of years.

Miller is a past President of the Product Development and Management Association, on the Board of Trustees of the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, formerly on the Board of Trustees for the Lancaster General Health Innovations Corporation, and an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award winner.

He is also an avid supporter of bicycle commuting, and of creating bicycle and pedestrian friendly communities.