Innovative Minds Meet at the Product Innovation and Engineering Summit

Product development executives from around the globe gathered in San Francisco, CA last week to attend the annual Product Innovation Executive (PIE) Summit hosted by Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS). Attending executives networked with industry thought leaders who shared their product innovation experiences in one of four distinct categories:

--  Fostering and commercializing innovation repeatedly
--  Empowering engineers to design more innovative products
--  Coordinating product development across as well as outside the
    enterprise
--  Manage successful design efforts through outsourced design and supply
    chain partners
    

The PIE Summit is part of the acclaimed Aberdeen Summit Series. These seminars bring corporate executives and industry thought leaders together to share information and provide actionable recommendations for organizational improvement. Summit participation is limited to 250 executive level participants.

Executive-led discussions identified the critical components of product innovation including breakthroughs in developing profitable products. Participants are now one step ahead of their competitors with the help of the insights of Best-in-Class product innovators, which can be immediately adopted to improve product development and engineering performance.

Summit participant Eric Bostrom, Engineering Manager of AUTOMOTION, INC., had this to say about the recent summit: "Thank you for hosting PIE Summit! The speakers were excellent and they presented many great ideas that I am taking back to my organization. I expect the concepts presented at the PIE Summit will have a positive affect on my company for years to come."

Summit presenters included:

--  Karl Ulrich, CIBC Professor and Chair at the Wharton School, Univ of
    Penn
--  Captain Dennis O'Donoghue, VP of Test & Validation, Boeing Commercial
    Airplanes
--  Jeff Weedman, VP of External Development, Procter & Gamble
--  Kiho Sohn, Chief Knowledge Officer, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne
--  Gary Yezbick, VP of Operational and Technological Services, Masco
    Corp.
--  Nan Mattai, SVP of Engineering and Technology, Rockwell Collins
--  Chris Weiss, VP of Engineering, The Knapheide Manufacturing Company
--  Julianne Claybaugh, Corporate Practice Leader Operational Excellence,
    Intel Corporation
--  Gary DeGregario, Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff, Motorola
--  David Prawel, Founder, Longview Advisors
--  David Maltz, Director of Device Technology, Nektar Therapeutics
--  Dr. Michael Menke, Former Chief Portfolio Advocate and Business
    Strategist, Strategic Planning and Modeling (SPaM), Hewlett Packard
--  David Disberger, Director of Engineering, AGCO Corporation
    

"I was really impressed with the breadth and quality of speakers and the level of resulting discussion. I learned a tremendous amount and felt fortunate to have the opportunity to talk through the issues I face in common with my peers -- it really was an effective learning environment. The Aberdeen team did a great job ensuring that the various speakers complemented one another -- there were themes, and little overlap in terms of key takeaways," stated David Maltz, Director of Device Technology, Nektar Therapeutics, PIE Summit Presenter.

"This summit followed in the footsteps of the 2007 PIE Summit and successfully brought together industry executives and Best-in-Class product innovation practitioners, to share success stories and provide actionable recommendations for improving product development and engineering performance," said Jim Brown, Senior Vice President of Product Innovation Research at Aberdeen. "It is exciting to see that this conference is viewed as a staple in the planning process of so many organizations that look to Aberdeen's research findings to aid in the transformation of product innovation processes."

During the proceedings Aberdeen recognized five Best-in-Class organizations with a 2008 Aberdeen Achievement Award for their accomplishments in product innovation. The recipients included:

--  John Deere, who received the Process Excellence Award for
    demonstrating process ingenuity, agility, flexibility and scalability in
    addressing changing business requirements

--  GE Healthcare, who received the Performance Excellence Award for
    harnessing the performance impacts of value chain activities and mastering
    methodologies for financial, operational, and customer-centric performance
    excellence

--  Seagate Technology, who received the Executive Stewardship Award for
    achieving performance heights due to the direct involvement and leadership
    of executive management

--  Phillips Plastics, who received the Business Evolution Award for
    managing information flow across internal functional practices to achieve
    measurable business growth

--  Bose, who received the Innovation in Technology Award for maximizing
    technology solutions in order to solve pressing product development issues
    and positively impact company performance