Product Development

New products and services are the lifeblood of businesses supporting the calf industry.

A well designed product/service pipeline is essential to remain relevant in today’s hyper-competitive business environment to ensure a constant supply of well-designed products that will mee the needs of producers in the years to come. Planning your NPSS (New Products, Services, and Solutions) pipeline was a part of Dr. Quigley’s career. As Director of Research and Product Development for several U.S. based companies in the calf nutrition industry, Jim was involved in both developing the Product Development Program, but also on the specifics of individual products.

Product development is many things, identifying the needs of the consumer for the product or service being developed; properly translating those needs into a solution that is feasible and cost effective; and the proper support for the product (marketing, communication, technical support, sales, pricing, etc.) to make it successful. Failures in any aspect of the process can doom an otherwise excellent product to failure. Here is an example of such a failure.

In the late 1990’s, Dr. Quigley developed a product containing antibody technology to be fed to calves during periods of diarrhea. Antibodies fed to calves and other animals during periods of stress and diarrhea have been shown to increase rate of healing of the gut, reduce duration and severity of diarrhea, and improve survival. The product was formulated as an oral rehydration solution, containing an alkalinizing agent, electrolytes, sugar, and amino acids. The marketing decision was to call the product an “Electrolyte”.

It was a disaster.

Electrolytes are generally inexpensive with little “added technology” and especially not with the advanced technology in this product. The product was about three times more expensive than competitive “electrolytes” and sales never took off.

Moral of the story – positioning, marketing, and communications are critical to the success of a product. Or, in our case, its failure!

With many years of product experience, Dr. Quigley can be a great resource to your product development pipeline.

Click the link below to discuss your product development needs

“When the wind blows, some people build walls, others build windmills.”
– Chinese proverb

The NPSS process is not only for physical products. Software and predictive models are critical to calf management and recent developments with models such as the NASEM Nutrient Requirements for Dairy Cattle will change how we prepare and feed diets for young calves. And with constantly changing knowledge, these predictive models will be essential to understanding how calves respond to the diets we prepare.

If you are interested in improving your company’s software and technical offerings, there are few in the industry better prepared to support your efforts than Dr. Quigley. His resume in model development in the area of young calves and heifers is unrivaled. He can assist with other technical offerings such as on-farm tools you can use to support products on the farm.

Click the link below for more information.

“At the end of the day, your job isn’t to get the requirements right — your job is to change the world.”
— Jeff Patton