"As families prepare to send their kids off to school this fall, they need a laptop with reliability and performance, " said Sam Burd, vice president and general manager of product development for Dell.

ENGADGET: Dell unveils Inspiron 14z Ultrabook, multimedia-friendly Inspiron 15R and 17R

"Most of the industry is located in California so I actually need to travel to California, " says Mr. Fernandes, who is the owner and general manager of Bio2, a product-development company based in Brazil.

WSJ: Traveling the Globe -- Just to Get to Class

We had spent a considerable amount of time researching the development of an emerging or minority manager-of-managers product, including reviewing the registrations and compliance histories of approximately 100 emerging and minority money managers.

FORBES: The Politics of Minority or Emerging Manager Programs (August 2, 2004 )

He has held a variety of positions in the publishing industry including product development manager, editor-in-chief and most recently associate publisher at O'Reilly Media.

FORBES: O'Reilly Insights

But at Ford, new product development marketing manager Lew Echlin says the company plans to shrink the number of free-floating options available on its Focus compact car lineup for the 2013 model year because the numbers say it makes sense.

WSJ: Dodge Offers �� la Carte Menu to Lure Buyers to the New Dart