Strategic Decision Making - Assignment Example

age in innovation process which covers the period from the idea generation or opportunity search to the approval of firm for its development or termination (Postma, Broekhuizen, and Bosh, 2012: 643). The activities of the front-end phase case can include the following: idea generation, product strategy formulation, early executive reviews, project planning, etc. The front-end phase is also recognized to be the most important and more difficult to manage compared to the other two phases of NPD as it has higher uncertainty level.

The quality of management front-end phase is highly correlated with the final outcome of the project (success or failure). Some of the potential problems with which firms face during the front-end phase include two categories: management of ideas and management of attention (Postma, Broekhuizen, and Bosh, 2012: 643). Management of ideas is an important process as it involves the way the ideas are generated, shared, communicated, and viewed by different stakeholders. Uncertainty about outcomes, shortage of adequate ideas, and short-term problem orientation are some of the possible pitfalls the firms face during front-end NPD phase.

Management of attention is another significant aspect during the initial stages of the NPD process as human factor and limited human capacity to maintain attention can serve as a limiting factor in idea generation process. Limitations of organizations and group is another type of management attention issues and refers to the problem of group thinking, and organizational structures and systems undermining creativity and innovation (Postma, Broekhuizen, and Bosh, 2012). Postma, Broekhuizen, and Bosh (2012) tried to address the above mentioned issues and problems and to make the front-end phase more effective and productive by offering a scenario analysis method as a creativity and innovation enhancing tool.

Scenario analysis is a tool which enables management and other team members to define various uncertainties