Product Management - Early History, Impact Of The Internet

Product management has played an important role in business strategy since the early 1930s. A product manager's job description can vary from organization to organization, but it typically includes overseeing many aspects of a product's life cycle, ranging from product creation and development to marketing and selling of the product. The advent of e-business during the 1990s added yet another facet to product management, as the Web created a new, global marketing and selling channel for both consumer retailers and business-to-business (B2B) enterprises. Traditional retailers including Levi Strauss & Co. and cataloger Lands' End Inc., along with technology-based firms like IBM Corp. were forced to change their product management strategies in order to compete in the changing marketplace. Dot.com start-ups like Amazon.com Inc. and Datek Online Brokerage Services LLC also placed strong emphasis on product management in order to stake their claim in the online arena.