4.) Top management tends to manage where the money is and only monitor the new product function. The result is they spend most of their time and attention managing the existing business and monitoring the new product efforts, rather than directing and leading the effort they call the "lifeblood" of the corporation.

5.) Companies don't tap all the corporate resources in new product development until the race is ready to begin. Corporate disciplines like R& D, production and distribution are not intimately involved in new products to the degree they should be, and participation in the new product process becomes secondary to their primary mission.

6.) Companies typically defend "what is" rather than "what will be" by putting their best people on their biggest brands, rather than on new product development. Look