Product Portfolio Management

Successful completion of all courses of the module Marketing and Sales.

• Establishment, maintenance and development of sustainable product and service portfolios
• Importance of service programme development for different sectors and market constellations
• Concept of the product life cycle and its application
• Elements of project planning for product development/reactivation, profitability considerations for development projects
• Diffusion theory, Crossing the Chasm
• Portfolio analyses for assessing the range of services (e.g. BCG, McKinsey)
• Product management in the organisation, tasks of product managers / product portfolio managers
• Methods of quality management
• Synergies and risks in the portfolio, portfolio sensitivity analysis
• Product and portfolio strategy, definition of lead and follow-on products, focus vs. diversification
• Basics of structured innovation processes
• Key performance indicators and portfolio control

The ongoing controlling and strategic development of a company's product or service portfolio is of great importance for long-term entrepreneurial success. The course Product Portfolio Management presents the methods and concepts for successful portfolio and product management in the company and provides in-depth knowledge not only for students of the specialisation Marketing and Sales.

Students can name the tasks of marketing for performance innovation and performance maintenance and list their contents, they know different processes of innovation management and their advantages and disadvantages. Students are familiar with analysis methods that can be used to determine the status quo of performance innovation and maintenance.

The students can explain the goals and tasks of product development and maintenance using life cycle theory, they understand the importance and working methods of internal quality management and they are able to apply various portfolio analyses to a concrete business situation and solve related issues.

The students can identify and process decisive dimensions of programme planning for a strategic business field in the context of different market situations (B2B, B2C, product, service) and they are familiar with the application of suitable profitability considerations for project legitimisation. They can also independently design market tests.

The students can select and compare suitable analysis methods for the assessment of the entire service portfolio and understand how to design and develop a business opportunity description as a project plan for a new product development. They can reflect on and evaluate short- and long-term measures of success for programme management, identify the interfaces to other business areas and assess conflicts of interest and objectives.

As a consequence, they can also argue the necessity of product management within performance management.

Interactive course with lecture, case studies, exercises in individual and group work, presentations and homework.

Pre-assignment, participation during the seminar in the form of contributions and short presentations (individual or group assignments), post-assignment, individual weighting as determined by the instructors, announcement at the beginning of the semester

None

Aumayr, Klaus (2019): Erfolgreiches Produktmanagement: Tool-Box für das professionelle Produktmanagement und Produktmarketing. Auflage: 3. Wiesbaden: Springer Gabler.

Cooper, Robert G. (2017). Winning at New Products: Creating Value Through Innovation. New York: Basic Books.

Cagan, Marty; Jones, Chris (2020). Empowered: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products. New Jersey: Wiley & Sons.

Pepels, Werner (2016): Produktmanagement. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot.

Classes with compulsory attendance