Executive Insights: Roles of R&D and Manufacturing in Global Marketing Management

Abstract

In today's world of global competition and high-speed product development, linkage among R&D, manufacturing, and marketing is more vital to successful business than ever before. Delivering a competitive product to the market at the right time, with the right specifications and feature benefits, all at a manufacturing cost that allows for profit, is one tough assignment. Add to this the global complexity of marketing, R&D, and manufacturing not being located in the same place, along with competing in an environment where world-class product development time is under 50 weeks, and you have a challenge that few companies are dealing with appropriately today. International marketing executives can no longer have the luxury of time to consider R&D and manufacturing as activities remotely related and remotely relevant to them. They have to deal with all of this complexity and be fully aware that without adequate understanding of the linkages necessary among marketing, R&D, and manufacturing, their businesses run a very high risk of failure ( Kotabe 1992 ). Based on my executive experience at three different companies, I have seen the same lingering problems. In this article, I will explore the essence of these problems and solutions based on my own experiences.