Welcome back to this new edition of Agri Business Review !!!✖
agribusinessreview.comFEBRUARY 202319By Ruth Muller, RD&I Director, Frucor SuntoryHave you ever walked down the supermarket isle and seen a product you developed? A product consumers want to buy one that's in their repertoire, and still there 10 years later. I love that feeling!My background is personal care. I moved to Foods 10 years ago expecting to return, but I got here and realized I'd never go back! Why? Opportunities and passion. Food is life we put it into our bodies and there's an emotional and societal connection, as well as functional. Food has the ability to give people little moments of joy - think about your first coffee of the day, or grandma's pudding.Contributing to those moments of joy in people's lives is a privilege and responsibility. Developing food and beverage products isn't solving world peace but it matters!Consumers are faced with so much choice and there is no magic bullet for innovation. No formula to make it work. So what are the "ingredients" that make innovation more likely to be loved and to deliver for your business?Here are some pointers based my observations over the past 20 years:1. Consumer must be at the heartAs product developers we can be fixated on what we think tastes good, or design a landing place for some clever technology. However, a "cool product" isn't cool if no one wants to buy it!All too often we make assumptions about our consumers and what they would like based on our own filters. If we are representative of the design target, we may be right but that's often not the case.We must actively raise our awareness and avoid biases when developing. How? Talk to consumers. Read what they read, immerse ourselves in their lives. Understand not just how they interact with your product, know their worlds, their hopes and dreams, their concerns, their consumption at the adjacencies. You need this to help make the creative leap.2. Leadership and culture that supports innovation It's been said that "culture eats strategy for breakfast". 3M used to be known as an innovative company. A change of leadership put focus The "Ingredients" of Innovation insightscXoRuth Muller < Page 9 | Page 11 >