I am in awe at how much the innovation landscape has changed over the past 10 years. The cycle norm even from a few years ago by today’s standards would be considered slow motion. Now many companies seek hyper-speed acceleration between a new fresh idea to finished product just to stay relevant and hold on to their competitive market share.

Just this past year I presented a concept. It was an idea I had made for a cocktail party and thought I’d show this concept to a chef as part of an exploratory meeting. The chef and culinary team liked the product so much it went from tasting to steering committee in the same week. In a mere twenty-four days it was presented at their national convention to all of the franchisees. We then scaled up to a manufacturing format, produced small batch samples, and put it into a test market. And it is currently rolling out, this month, nationally.

It seems that working with most major food manufacturers always entails a multitude of stage gates before anything new even sees the light of day. Truly, I had never experienced anything like this before in my career. On the other hand, as a developer it was the ultimate dream come true. Every step we took never sat on a shelf to get stale, so to speak. I must note that one of the predominate factors in the case cited above is the tier level. Recently, more flexible companies are driving some of this quick demand in the industry. Size also matters, smaller to mid-sized companies, generally speaking, with employee numbers between 50 and 249 come to mind first. Based on their sear size, they seem to have less upper management barriers to bring a product to fruition.

I have often pondered why we have had this accelerated transition. Were new products vetted differently in the past? Or is today's competition so much more intense that companies are willing to roll the dice on “could-be-a-winner ideas”? I certainly acknowledge that technology, demand for the latest food craze and certainly communication speed has played a part in this increased speed. I do, however, believe there is more to it than just that.

This week’s query to you all is: Given your professional field of interest what drives innovation and speed to market?

Live well always…

Innovation acceleration

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