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In many companies, product managers are under increasing time pressure. They are generalists in a marketing world that is increasingly specialized and complex. There are more tasks to perform, more specialist skills to acquire, more fires to fight, and less time for thinking and strategic planning. If their general management skills are to be used effectively, product managers must be able to focus their time on the tasks that exploit these skills and help their businesses to grow. The product management audit surveys product managers on how they actually spend their time and how they would ideally spend it to really build their businesses. Data from the audit can help to establish time allocation priorities for product managers and uncover potential time allocation problems before they become critical. We will first review the changes in the marketing environment that are putting pressure on the product management system. Second, we will show how any consumer, industrial, or service company can conduct a product management audit to find out how product management personnel are spending their time and why, and how satisfied they are with their jobs, the support provided, and rewards they are receiving. Third, we will illustrate the type of data that the audit can generate and present key findings from responses to audit surveys by over 300 product management personnel from 20 strategic business units in six Fortune 500 consumer goods companies. Finally, we will explain how one multidivision packaged goods company used an audit to identify problems within its product management organization and determine the actions needed to correct them.

One of the most important developments in banking is the increased emphasis on marketing a wide array of financial services. This emphasis has led to the adoption of the product management system in one form or another by many large, full‐service commercial banks. The transition to a product management system has required banks to change how they organize and manage their operations. Examines several of the major challenges and issues faced by product managers in the banking environment, namely, the identification of the product managers’ task responsibilities; the role of organizational support in facilitating product management; the influence of organizational culture; and the impact of power and conflict on product managers and the product management system. Also examines how product managers assess their job performance, work satisfaction, and the performance of the overall product management system in their bank. Develops directions for future research as well as several managerial recommendations to improve product management performance in banking.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of product management as a set of organizational capabilities. It aims to investigate product management as a set of boundary spanning capabilities, by empirically relating these to firm performance.

A measurement instrument is developed and validated based on the extant product management literature. Using a heterogeneous sample of 63 Atlantic Canadian SMEs in the manufacturing and professional/technical services sectors, data are collected to test the survey instrument and establish preliminary construct validity.

Both firm performance and product management measures demonstrate internal consistency. Several product management sub‐constructs demonstrated reliability and in some cases validity, substantiating the product management literature. These included product pricing, sales support and forecasting.

This research builds upon the literature and indicates that a relationship exists between product management capability and firm performance. This leads to the conclusion that product management, as a set of boundary spanning firm capabilities, warrants future research with a larger more homogeneous population. Limitations include geographic bias, treating the population as homogeneous and lack of relationship to established firm orientations.

This research may have practical significance and managerial implications, based on the relationship between product management capabilities and firm performance. This could lead to an increased understanding of how to allocate scarce resources in order to improve performance.

The paper introduces the concept of boundary spanning, product management capabilities and their relationship to firm performance, by providing preliminarily validation of a measurement scale for product management capabilities of small to medium‐sized enterprises.

Reports on a survey of how product managers, experiencing increased time pressure, would like to spend their time compared with how they actually spend it. Reviews the changes in the marketing environment currently exerting pressure on the product management system. Explains the implementation of a product management audit. Presents findings from actual audit surveys and shows how one company used an audit to identify and solve problems within its product management organization. Concludes that the product management audit is an excellent tool for producing hard data which may be missed by management by walking around.

Few companies derive the potential benefits from product management. This is because insufficient foundational work is devoted to integrate the product management system into an organisational framework where the functions may work effectively. Four companies are examined and steps to ease the difficulties frequently encountered are proposed.

Reports an investigation of some of the factors that influence product management decisions in consumer goods companies. Looks at a product manager's role in the whole organization, particularly the decision‐taking and participatory activity as a response to pressures from the working environment, which depends on perceptions of risk and the company's allocation of rewards. Further develops behavioural hypotheses from theoretical and pragmatic areas – testing them among 34 product managers operating within four large fast‐moving consumer goods firms. Concludes that identification of the product manager with his brand is the most crucial factor in favour of the product management system.

Over the last five years, the once vaulted system known as product management has been under attack. Challenged by a variety of mega‐trends, including rising consumer expectations and expertise, revolutionary changes in technology, and shifting power in channels of distribution, product managers now face an environment much more demanding than that of the past. Examines the role of product managers of consumer goods in this new environment, within the context of a conceptual model developed to understand better the dynamics underlying their job performance and satisfaction. The model highlights the interactions among boundary spanning, information power and interfunctional coordination, and incorporates the concepts of strategic orientation, role conflict and role ambiguity. In all, 17 propositions are advanced for future empirical testing.

There has been overwhelming discussion about the death of the product management system. Focusses on how the product management system is changing, and how firms can best anticipate and manage this change. Claims organizational change is inevitable and that marketing organizations must anticipate and prepare for it. Concludes that product management is not dead – merely evolving and at a rapid pace, and that punctuated equilibrium provides a useful model for product management for the next “equilibrium” period.

The article suggests that product management techniques commonly employed for markets in developed countries are inappropriate for markets in less‐developed countries (LDCs). To market successfully in LDCs, a firm must re‐examine both its product offerings and its product management philosophy.

Examines the types and characteristics of the new forms of the brand management system in marketing organizations as identified in previous research and previous existing research on performance appraisal systems. Draws linkages between the two systems to provide a framework for maximizing individual product manager’s performance, thereby maximizing overall organizational performance. Sets out a number of managerial implications and suggests areas for future research.