Therefore, it is necessary that companies conduct thorough research on such needs, and generate ideas and solutions that can best satisfy them.

The more innovative the new product development projects, the greater the need to integrate marketing and R&D functions within the company.

However, although the need for integration has been widely recognized, the levels of integration of R&D and marketing in practice vary across companies and industries. It is undeniable that until now there are companies that closely hold the principle that an innovative product will succeed in finding its place in the market. The late Apple co-founder Steve Job once said; “It isn’t the consumer’s job to know what they want.” That was Apple’s job.

Decades ago, the secret of several Japanese corporations’ success was their skill in sequencing the improvement of functional competence.

In the 1950s and early 1960s, many of them made heavy investments in both money and talent in manufacturing, and together with the advantage in labor costs they enjoyed at that time, it constituted their principal source of strength.

Kenichi Ohmae, in The Mind of The Strategist, gave a classic example of this. It was the case of watch and pocket calculator manufacturer Casio against its competitors. Most of its competitors were organized around the traditional functions of engineering, manufacturing and distribution and had gone in heavily for vertical integration.

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