Traditionally, the manufacturing industry has been concerned with product design. The manufacturing industry may be at the centre of this process, but the design of its products is influenced by many other considerations and activities. What all these influences have in common is the extent to which they add value to the product and thus contribute to its gross margin performance. In fact, product design might be described as "designing for gross margin by extractive manufacturing, distribution, and retailing."

Products are added to the product portfolios of firms in a variety of ways. Many types of strategies—innovative and imitative, offensive and defensive, entrepreneurial and bureaucratic—internal development and external acquisition—are used to add new products and adjust existing ones. These strategic decisions have to be made in a turbulent and risky environment. Offsetting the uncertainty and risks are the rewards of good strategy: products, market dominance, customer loyalty, and invulnerability to outside forces. This in turn increases revenue and returns; it preempts sources of risk such as competitive actions and regulatory constraints.