In Ohio's historic manufacturing industry, savvy leaders are increasingly turning to innovation to grow their businesses.
Hello New Products, which is headquartered in Cincinnati, helps established small- and mid-sized manufacturers develop and get new products to market.
"A lot of our clients come to us just frustrated out of their minds," says Chuck Libourel, Hello New Products' director of business services. "We usually meet with a CEO or board of directors that just can't make things happen. We help them get the right tools in place and execute a plan to get new products to market."
Hello New Products works with some startups, but it generally works with established companies that already have manufacturing experience.
"One thing most of our clients have in common is they lack the business process to bring new products to market," Libourel says. "They're doing it all in marketing and engineering. We do that, plus engage all the business elements of getting a product to market."
Often these companies have outdated products that need a refresh, have brought unsuccessful products to market or are having trouble innovating quickly.
Many manufacturing companies are running lean and mean, and today many don't have the in-house resources to quickly bring new products to market, Libourel says. That's where Hello New Products steps in.
"We advocate for American small- to mid-sized companies that don't have the resources, and have to compete with bigger companies," Libourel says.
They do this by helping companies:
• Improve their market position by introducing new products
• Increase both revenue and profitability from new products
• Reduce product development costs
• Accelerate product development timing
Hello New Products tailors its New Product Development system to individual manufacturers several ways, including sharpening product definitions, focusing on business metrics, building customer needs into products and creating clearly defined tasks and processes for development.
By Feoshia H. Davis
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