Replete with case studies from companies such as Microsoft and Merck, Peter Cohan's presentation will explore how America's most successful technology companies earn superior returns on innovation by applying Disciplined Resource Allocation -- a process for shifting capital and insight towards development projects with the greatest profit potential. He will outline practical solutions to burning issues such as:

• how to determine what your people are actually working on
• how to develop processes to effectively allocate your resources to the right projects
• how to better match your company's development capacity to demand

To achieve this end, Cohan will show how technology leaders use disciplined resource allocation techniques to spread organizational learning, screen projects using portfolio grids, build project timelines for the most attractive projects that incorporate exit ramps, estimate success probabilities and incremental net cash flows between decision nodes, and systematically reallocate resources to projects with the highest expected value.

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. His firm provides strategy consulting services helping managers identify, evaluate, and profit from opportunities created by changing technology. He works with telecommunications, pharmaceutical, chemical, and consumer products firms on matters of corporate strategy, product development portfolio management, and innovation management.

Cohan teaches customized programs to senior managers on topics such as Managing Innovation, Winning in the Digital Economy, and Value Leadership. Clients have included IBM, Nokia, Ericsson, Oracle, Compaq, BMC Software, and Cadence with co-sponsors such as Fortune, Business Week, and the Economist. He has taught at Stanford University's Industry Thought Leaders program, Columbia University's Senior Executive Program, and the University of Hong Kong. Cohan is an executive in residence at Babson College in Wellesley, MA.

Cohan has written seven books including "The Technology Leaders: How America's Most Profitable High Tech Companies Innovate Their Way to Success" (Jossey-Bass, 1997) which was selected as one of the 10 best management books of 1997 by Management General; the forthcoming "Value Leadership: Seven Principles That Define Corporate Value in Any Economy" (Jossey-Bass, 2003); and "Net Profit: How to Invest and Compete in the Wild World of Internet Business" (Wiley, 2001) which the Washington Post called "a savvy, discriminating guide to Internet business."

Cohan earned an MBA from The Wharton School, did graduate work in computer science at MIT and earned a BS in Electrical Engineering from Swarthmore College.

New product development is a team effort: marketing, engineering, design, manufacturing, and other personnel are intimately involved throughout the new products process while other functional areas play ad hoc roles. Integration across these functional areas, however, is not always smooth. Prof. Di Benedetto discusses how some of the leading product innovating firms overcome cross-functional barriers and get new product team members on the same page for the development of products and, more importantly, product lines.

1. develop a product protocol, or blueprint for cross-functional action on product and product portfolio decision-making
2. make team projectization decisions – i.e. How focused should your cross-functional team be to the project as opposed to their functional area? Which employees would you not want to get too projectized?
3. garner decision support for portfolio fit at the project selection phase

Di Benedetto is Professor of Marketing at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA. He holds a Ph. D. degree in Administration, an M.B.A., and a B. Sc. degree in Chemistry, all from McGill University, Montreal, Canada. He taught at the Universite du Quebec a Montreal and the University of Kentucky before moving to Philadelphia in 1990. Since arriving at Temple he has taught predominantly in the night M.B.A. program and also in Temple's Executive M.B.A. and International M.B.A. programs. He has taught Marketing in Temple's International Business Summer Program at the Temple Rome campus in Italy since 1992. He is a recipient of Temple University's Great Teacher Award, the Lindback Award for teaching excellence, a Department of Marketing teaching award, and the Lynne A. Cronfeld Research Award/Grant.

Prof. Di Benedetto has been published in the Journal of Product Innovation Management, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Journal of Business Research, Columbia Journal of World Business, Industrial Marketing Management, Interfaces, Journal of Advertising Research, and elsewhere, primarily in the areas of new product development and industrial marketing management and strategy. He has been named to the Dean's Research Honor Roll of the School of Business and Management.

Prof. Di Benedetto is co-author with Merle Crawford on New Products Management, published by Irwin/McGraw-Hill. He has also co-authored a book on industrial product innovation and a computer-supported casebook in new product development. As a freelance consultant, he has carried out marketing and economics studies for private companies and government agencies in the Montreal, Lexington (Kentucky) and Philadelphia areas.

Prof. Di Benedetto is a certified New Product Development Professional (NPDP). He has served as Vice-President of Publications for the Product Development & Management Association (PDMA), as Editor of Visions, the national newsletter of the PDMA, and as Treasurer of the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Marketing Association. He currently serves as Abstracts Editor of the Journal of Product Innovation Management and on the Board of Directors of the Product Development & Management Association. Prof. Di Benedetto is listed in Marquis Who's Who in the World and Marquis Who's Who in America.