2011 Annual Symposium

    " Leading Entrepreneurial and Innovative Projects "

Project Mangers and Innovation: A System Perspective.
Marvin L. Patterson, Dileab Group

Project managers play key roles in the business system that links investments in innovation to financial growth but, in most companies, key elements of this system and the principles that govern its operation remain obscure. Over the past 12 years a useful description of this system has evolved, and a quantitative model has been derived that illustrates key operating principles. 

About Speaker:

 Marv’s career in product innovation includes 20 years with Hewlett-Packard (HP) where he held various R&D positions from EE through R&D section manager. In 1985 he joined the firm’s Corporate Engineering group in Palo Alto where he eventually became the director of that department, and then Director of Worldwide R&D Operations. Under Marv’s leadership, Corporate Engineering transformed itself into a center of excellence responsible for improving HP’s worldwide R&D performance. Key areas of focus included development of project managers, computer-aided engineering tools, software quality and performance assessment, and improvement of HP’s overall software development capability. In 1993 Marv left HP to found Innovation Resultants International (IRI), a consulting firm dedicated to improving innovation performance in client companies. Over a thirteen-year period IRI helped dozens of firms in various industries, from office products to heavy equipment and telecommunications to semiconductors, improve the effectiveness of their new-product programs. Marv “retired” in 2006 and began recording this knowledge in his third book on managing innovation, Build an Industry Hot Rod (2008),that is used as the text for “Managing Innovation”, a course Marv currently teaches in the Stanford Continuing Studies program.