Influence of Polyvalence Professionals on Product Development Process Efficiency

Original scientific paper Product development is one of a company’s key processes for meeting customer demands, providing long-term market share growth, revenues and company value. The main question we are addressing in this paper is how the professionals with more and better developed competencies (polyvalence professionals) increase efficiency of the product development process. We presume that the efficiency of the product development process is significantly influenced by the matching rate between the competencies of professionals and the task requirements of the process. The hypothesis was tested in an international study in which five footwear companies from three European countries participated. By analysing variances and using correlation and regression analyses, we prove the influence of polyvalence professionals on the product development process efficiency. We also prove that polyvalence professionals are the strategic resources who provide a company’s long-term competitive advantage, allowing efficient development of new products thus having high response rate to customer demands.