User talk:Stage-Gate Bob

Managing a conflict of interest
Hello, Stage-Gate Bob. We welcome your contributions, but if you have an external relationship with the people, places or things you have written about on Wikipedia, you may have a conflict of interest (COI). Editors with a conflict of interest may be unduly influenced by their connection to the topic. See the conflict of interest guideline and FAQ for organizations for more information. We ask that you:


 * avoid editing or creating articles about yourself, your family, friends, colleagues, company, organization, clients, or competitors;
 * propose changes on the talk pages of affected articles (you can use the request edit template);
 * disclose your conflict of interest when discussing affected articles (see Conflict of interest);
 * avoid linking to your organization's website in other articles (see Spam);
 * do your best to comply with Wikipedia's content policies.

In addition, you are required by the Wikimedia Foundation's terms of use to disclose your employer, client, and affiliation with respect to any contribution which forms all or part of work for which you receive, or expect to receive, compensation. See Paid-contribution disclosure.

Also, editing for the purpose of advertising, publicising, or promoting anyone or anything is not permitted. Thank you. MrOllie (talk) 21:27, 8 April 2023 (UTC)


 * Dear Mr Ollie
 * I am Dr. Robert G Cooper, creator of the stage-gate system. You can do an AI search to verify this.
 * Early articles in peer reviwed journals that I wrote include:
 * ...Cooper, R.G., “Stage-gate systems: a new tool for managing new products”, Business Horizons 33, 3, May-June, 1990, 44-54.
 * ....Cooper, R.G., “A process model for industrial new product development,” IEEE Trans. on Engineering Management EM-30, 1, Feb. 1983, 2-11.
 * The Wikipedia section on phase-gate has some errors, and I did try to fix it on Apr 8. But that was blocked as "spam from Cooper" -- a little frustrating as the auhtor of the Stage-Gate process to be blocked.
 * Some facts: There has been a "phased review" process since at least the 1960s, used by NASA and other tech organizations, but it was largely R&D oriented (a technical process). "Stage-Gate" was developed by me in the early 1980s based on research into what successful project teams in businesses did to move from idea-to-launch in their new-product projects. As a result, Stage-Gate is a business process, and includes many functions besides RD&E -- such as Marketing, Sales, Purchasing, and Operations. Phase-gate (not phased review) was an invented name by some companies who wished to avoid using the name Stage-Gate which I had trademarked.
 * Thus when you write about phase-gate, it is really Stage-Gate. (You can check that by doing an AI search on the origins of 'phase-gate process'). So please do not block my edits, as obviously as its inventor I am the world expert. My website is www.bobcooper.ca
 * if desired, I will set up a separate entry or section on Wikipedia on Stage-Gate. Please let me know.
 * Best regards
 * Dr Robert G Cooper
 * Professor Emeritus
 * McMaster University, ON Canada Stage-Gate Bob (talk) 07:47, 9 April 2023 (UTC)
 * As an editor with a COI, you should not be rewriting the article to emphasize your own contributions - that is not what Wikipedia is for. Please read the policy links above, and respect the standards of the community that builds and maintains this encyclopedia. MrOllie (talk) 11:57, 9 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the comment. But since I created Stage-Gate, and have written or co-authored most of the books and articles on it (I have over 140 publications) it is a difficult to describe stage-gate without referring to one's own work -- let credit fall where credit is due.
 * Regards, Robert Cooper Stage-Gate Bob (talk) 12:03, 9 April 2023 (UTC)
 * As you noted, the article is about a process that has existed in some form since the 1940s. That you created a version in the 1980s does not give you any special ownership of the article, and I do not agree that it should be rewritten to be about your version. MrOllie (talk) 12:10, 9 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Too bad, because as you saw from 2023 PDMA study I cited, Stage-Gate is now the most popular system used by industry. Additionally, and FYI, 'phase-gate' is no system at all -- it was a name "invented" by some firms to evade a trademark I owned on Stage-Gate. One large German firm even tried to trademark 'phase gate' in the EU but was turned down by the EU patent office as being too close to the name 'Stage-Gate'.
 * The term "Phased review" system is legit, however, and has indeed been around since the 1960s. But it's different than Stage-Gate. Should I prepare a separate article on Stage-Gate? I get tired of people steeling or ignoring my IP. Stage-Gate Bob (talk) 12:18, 9 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Look, your employees have spammed us before, and it escalated to the point that we had to add your web sites to Wikipedia's spam blacklist. Please learn the lesson now that you should have learned then - Wikipedia is not a venue to promote your process. Do not prepare a separate article on Stage-Gate. Given the history, it will be deleted almost immediately, and the situation will probably escalate further. MrOllie (talk) 12:19, 9 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Sorry to hear about that, Mr. Ollie, but I do not have any employees. I am a retired University Professor Emeritus.
 * You may be referring to the firm Stage-Gate International that I founded almost 25 years ago, but I have not had any relationship or connection to them for more than a decade. I don't even speak to them anymore. So I have no conflict of interest here; I'm just trying to protect what it rightfully mine.
 * Best regards
 * Robert G Cooper, Professor Emeritus, McMaster University Canada
 * ISBM Distinguished Research Fellow, Smeal College of Business, Penn State University, USA Stage-Gate Bob (talk) 12:29, 9 April 2023 (UTC)
 * I'm just trying to protect what it rightfully mine. - That is the conflict. MrOllie (talk) 12:32, 9 April 2023 (UTC)