In this paper, we are going to report on the results of an exploratory piece
of research about the typical front-end-related activities in 28 innovation projects
carried out by 14 German and 13 Japanese companies to reduce project uncertainty. In
all cases we observed a range of activities to reduce project specific risks and revealed
differences in the practice of innovation management in both the German and
Japanese companies. We interviewed managers of 13 Japanese and 14 German
enterprises concerning 14 Japanese and 14 German New Product Development
projects. The focus of our research was the so called “fuzzy front end”, activities and
typical deliverables in the innovation process which might be affected by front end
management practice.
Overall, in the case of the German as well as the Japanese projects, the uncertainties
affected by the market or technology could successfully be reduced during the “fuzzy
front end” and the majority of projects achieved their objectives and efficiency
targets. Nevertheless, our study revealed differences in the way such uncertainties
were reduced by the companies in Japan and Germany. Generally speaking, the 14
Japanese projects relied on a thorough planning, delegation of front end activities and
strict controlling mechanisms to minimize deviations from front end specifications
later in the innovation process and hence, achieved efficiency. In contrast, in the
majority of the 14 German projects we could neither observe such a formal planning
nor such an intensive controlling procedure supported by methods and tools as in the
case of the Japanese projects. Instead, the companies in our German sample integrated
relevant functions like R&D, marketing, sales, production or customer service from
the beginning of the innovation process, usually already during the idea generation
phase, to ensure that all critical information and perspectives were taken into
consideration right from the beginning, to reduce uncertainties and later deviations as
well as enhancing efficiency. Responsibilities were assigned during the fuzzy front
end and rarely changed during the implementation of the project.