antss said:
[member=57769]TylerC[/member] - will you comment on how Festool goes about deciding on new offerings ?
Does senior management simply decide this is what we need to sell ? Is there open mic nite where employees can pitch their ideas ? Do you broadly survey registered owners for what they'd like to see ?
That's a great question. It's probably one where I should see about getting a better answer from HQ — as that's where these decisions are primarily made.
For a handful of reasons, we're usually pretty careful and protective about what we will publicly discuss about our business operations. I'll try to can get an answer that protects our interests while offering you a worthwhile behind-the-scenes look.
I actually have a meeting scheduled for the week after next about how we communicate about things like this. How about this? Instead of answering on this thread, I'll speak with HQ and have that meeting in two weeks. Then — if I have anything valuable to contribute — I'll answer in a new thread.
It sounds like there are actually two parts to this question:
1. How are ideas generated?
2. How are the final decisions made about what will move into production?
I do know that the answer is not "senior management simply decide this is what we need to sell". Several departments are involved before final decisions are made on these sorts of things.
My understanding is that the initial ideas and feedback can come from a variety of places sometimes including end customers and employees at every level. Clearly, not everything that initially seems like a good idea is actually one that makes sense for us — at least not at that moment. There's a large amount of effort required (market research, financial projections, manufacturing requirements, etc.) before an idea can get greenlit to see the light of day. I'll see what additional insight I can offer.
