Food Industry Needs a New Approach to Innovation

CHICAGO - March 12, 2019 - PRLog -- To accelerate growth, food industry chief executives should elevate innovation to a profession inside their organizations.

That's the recommendation from Blueberry Business Group Ltd., a leading food industry advisory firm.

"CEOs and executive teams struggle to describe innovation while declaring it central to their company's growth objectives," said Debra Bachar, Blueberry President. "Folded under other functional umbrellas, innovation is confined to a percent of time and guided by old playbooks, formalities and red tape."

"Done correctly and as a dedicated competency reduces costs and risks while meeting important value thresholds," she said.

Blueberry refers to innovation as new value that consumers or channel customers are willing to pay for, or new business models and growth engines that generate value for the organization itself.

They say the scope of innovation required to tackle complex consumer markets is underestimated. "Even great new products fail to optimize when developed within expiring business model frameworks."

The food industry is emerging from a long period of acquisitions and zero-based budgeting that has weakened innovation muscle.

"These 'fountains of youth' have made growth problems worse in the long run," Bill Pierrakeas, Blueberry Senior Advisor. "CEOs are discovering that the value logic of innovation surpasses that of acquisitions or cost-cutting."

But the process remains gnarly and dysfunctional. Blueberry describes as outdated practices such as analyzing heaps of common research data, stage gate debates, meetings after meetings, retro-fitting value propositions, walking-dead projects, and imprecise terminology not found in the innovation vernacular.

Elevating innovation to its proper standing as a profession drives energy, authority, and resources towards a CEO and board-sponsored place in the organization. The position becomes singularly focused on foresight, exploration, prototyping and testing new growth engines and business models that deliver growth and ensures the organization's place in the future of the industry.

"A powerful purpose should not be addressed with dinosaur tactics or supplemental to other functions or time," says Debra.

Practitioners of Alex Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur's award-winning Strategyzer methodologies, visual modeling tools and canvases, Blueberry Business Group facilitates a holistic approach to innovation as a game-changer to anemic growth plaguing many food and beverage companies.

To learn more about Blueberry, visit http://blueberrybusinessgroup.com