Strategic Innovation Management

It’s only during the last few years that I have heard Nordic companies talk about innovation from a more strategic and business growth oriented perspective. Maybe this shift to what I would call a more sophisticated approach to innovation is linked to the last few years of European recession where companies with a strong innovation pipeline have proven that growth is possible - despite the economic gloom. Or could it be the result of a new generation of senior management with the growing awareness that innovation doesn’t simply pop-up from nowhere but is rather a business growth discipline with opportunity to learn from the likes of the 3M’s and P&G’s of this world.

No matter what, it’s with great anticipation I see this growing awareness and first foundations to a more sophisticated innovation approach. I hear of companies that employ innovation leaders, build innovation teams and invest in tools and processes for how to manage innovation successfully. It’s early steps and a new discipline for many, but I believe that these early steps of approaching innovation as a business discipline may soon be compared to the quality movement of the 90’s.

When it comes to the HOW of innovation, I would like to raise the importance of top management leadership and ‘Strategic Innovation Management’. In my definition this relates to the importance of raising innovation to the higher management agenda, to act as a continuous steering tool with focus on identifying and managing the projects leading to organic business growth. Some of the important elements to consider in that respect would be to:

Establish a top management ‘Innovation management’ forum
oThis is a decision and steering forum for all innovation projects, where projects are established, gate decisions are taken, and particular steering is given on the request of the project lead or owner.

Identify future growth drivers or opportunity platforms
o Growth drivers or opportunity platforms are identified and promising innovation territories in a market. These are used to help focus innovation efforts in the direction that the business feels would be the most promising.

To actively manage and balance the Innovation Portfolio
o This is the classification and continuous analysis of innovation projects, to ensure that there are enough projects and project breadth in the innovation portfolio to secure future profit streams. With innovation project breadth I mean the mix of more easy wins, low risk and less groundbreaking initiatives VS projects that are truly big opportunities but also with a much higher risk profile.

An innovation process with direction, steering and clear decision points
The classical Innovation stage gate funnel is a commonly used approach that makes sense in my world but each company would of course have the opportunity to create its own process, and a process that is fit for the business and market environment. The key thing is that there is a framework for innovation with clarity on why projects are run, who gives direction, who makes decisions and when in time each of the previous points should be handled.

The above factors I would consider being core of the discipline of ‘Strategic Innovation Management’. And once those are in place a good foundation for promising innovation projects would be in place.

What's a trend anyway?

It was a few weeks back in time and it was just another morning on the tube. I was on the way to work, somewhat bored when I came across Metro. Browsing through the pages I spotted this article about the very cool fashion designer Mathew Williamsson. Unfortunately I'm not the proud owner of any of his garments but despite my relative ‘untrendyness’ I've still somehow grasped that he is übercool by the more eloquent fashionistas out there (the ones that somehow squeeze in thoughts about fashion into their lives = not me). Now, the thing that grabbed me with the article was not so much Mathew's sayings regarding fashion as such, but rather the things he said about trends. In his übercool way Mathew proclaimed that "trends are out" and he said something around 'modern women not buying into the idea of trends any longer since they rather focus on individuality and identifying their own style'. I don’t know how well these perspectives go down in the fashion industry, but his views somehow stayed with me over the last few weeks while I’ve had the opportunity to attend some trends seminars and read a few trend papers. Being updated on trends is part of the job of picking up 'new', fresh thoughts to guide and inspire innovation. And trends are also an important perspective to future-proof directions I already work on. But following Mathew W’s perspective and being fed all these 'trends' I'm trying to get my head around what I actually think about trends. So far I've come to the following conclusion: What we call trends are reflections of big shifts in human emotions linked to reality. And those emotions are in turn linked to shifts and changes in the world around us. In the higher steps of the hierarchy of needs our needs shifts little by little based on external stimulus. As needs shifts and people or companies witness this shift, we start to witness reactions. Some reactions are pure withdrawal ‘no it’s not happening’ or ‘no, it won’t affect my business’ or simply ‘it’s too frustrating to even think about it’. Others reactions are future focused and proactive. It’s those reactions that result in innovation – both breakthrough and incremental. So, to my view the so called trends that we so often refer to, are simply clusters of reflections of the innovations that are already occurring. And we are only able to create these clusters when the stream of innovation is so wide so it can actually be seen and synthesized. Which is actually when the trend and the change in people is already happening. Thus, my belief is that to fully understand trends and to understand how to capitalise on trends, one needs to start with mega shifts in the world and to start to extrapolate on those shifts to try to understand the impact they will have on human needs and human emotions both in the longer- and the shorter-term. Of course, it still makes a lot of sense to follow the ‘trend’ reflections synthesized in presenentations and power points, but be aware that they are ‘here and now’, already happening and soon in a store near you. So to be able to capitalize on them you need to act fast.

Thank you Babybjörn - the honest, innovative, life-saver brand

Yesterday I had one of the toughest days for a while now. Both kids are ill with colds and fever, and my little boy is also teething... A recipe for total disaster zone. But whilst I have been feeling extremely deprived of sleep I have actually managed reasonably well. And the reason for that is mainly attributed to my long-term friend the Babybjörn baby carrier. What would I do without it? Whilst carrying around my little grizzly boy in my Babybjörn I started to think about the Babybjörn brand and an article I read just the other day about its founder Björn Jakobson. After having read the article I understood that one of the reasons that Babybjörn continues to produce such fantastic products is because the brand is staying true to Björn and his wife Lillemors founding principles and values. Babybjörn is truly a family owned brand where the founder hasn't been tempted to sell out to investors or the stock-market, but instead decided to grow organically, steadily year by year, by staying true to what they believe in most, the power of a caring, safe, and loving environment for small babies. And to support an environment that encourages strong attachment between baby and parent.

I took a look at the Babybjörn website and came across this fantastic clip with Björn and Lillemor. In this clip one can truly feel the power of the brand at its core. And the core I believe is not its fantastic products but rather the strong brand values acting as a foundation for anything the company does going forwards. Those values also ensure that the company continously search for new insights to innovate and new products or current products better for both baby and parents. I hope that the values of Björn and Lillemor will continue to remain at the heart of the Babybjörn brand for many years to come. What a great brand and what an inspiring brand story.

Logosack - an opportunity to buy a new and professional looking logo in an instant

This is a great concept that I just need to share with you all. Lobby design in Stockholm has launched a company and website called Logosack where you can buy a logo by just using a few mouse clicks. I have tried this website and the logos look very professional. And for just 2000SEK per logo (approx. 200EUR or 280USD) I think they are a real bargain. The website exists only in Swedish today but will soon be available also in English.


Just during the past few months I've had several friends asking me for advice on how to create logos for their websites, small independant freelance consultancies and blogs. The cost of using a design agency to create a custom made logo is often simply too high for new founded small businesses or for bloggers, and I think this kind of service is a fantastic way to offer many more businesses and people nice looking logos for a very good price. Great idea, innovative thinking, and with a fabolous and simple execution. I might just have to buy a Logosack logo myself...

The 11 Most Innovative Online Retailers

I got a note today from Online MBA linking to an article on their blog about the 11 most innovative online retailers. Personally I find the future of online retailing absolutely fascinating. It is amazing how names like Amazon and Ebay have carved out their space in the retail world and such strong roles in their respective markets. Consumers and especially young consumers are becoming more and more used to buying their stuff online, and as this tendency increase the traditional retailers will see their sales falling while the ones with a strong online role will grow and grow. This will certainly take longer in certain categories, while the developments in other categories will boom. Yes, it may feel a bit strange buying your shoes online the first time you do it, but when you've tried it and it works you're likely to do it again, and again. Especially if the selection and prices are better than on the high-street.

So, enjoy the read. I had never heard of some of these names before but now I will need to start to google them asap to find out more about their innovative approach to retailing.

Ice-cream creation - Cold Stone Creamery is living its vision

I wonder what it is in the North American gene or environment that makes so many Americans creative and unafraid of challenging the norm. This time this thought of mine awoke when I spotted how something old and simple was reinvented into something new and awesome. And it was all related to one of my favourite foods - ice-cream and the great ice-cream experience of Cold Stone Creamery.

I enjoyed this experience during my recent holiday in Dubai. One of the many lavish hotel experiences was the Atlantis hotel where I had the privilege of having lunch and then experiencing one of their ice-cream creations for dessert. Believe me, for anyone who likes a decent ice-cream this is the business!

The Cold Stone ice-cream is not just ice-cream. It is an ice-cream experience where fun and entertainment is joining force with incredibly tasting ice-cream flavours and creations. And the ice-cream is not just ice-cream anymore but instead it becomes the carrier of a broad variety of fantastic fillings, and it's all crushed, created and customised on a granite stone. All to meet your individual ice-cream desires. Mmmm....  what a treat! On their website they say: "Ever since we opened our first store back in 1988, we’ve been serving up what we refer to as Creations" And what I've seen and tasted is certainly delivering on this brand promise.


I love the fact that Cold Stone Creamery have created a real ice-cream experience, that both adults and children can enjoy. All details are carefully organised to deliver your kind of ice-cream creation.

How do you find out if you work for an organisation that embrace and encourage innovation?

We often here about well-known and leading edge innovative organisations like Google, Amazon and Apple. Those companies are very open about their relentless focus on innovation and on how to encourage idea generation and development from within.

But then there are all those other companies. The ones who talk a great deal about innovation and about how important it is, but somehow never do anything about innovation apart from designing some long winding innovation processes that will either kill all ideas that come into sight or, if the organisation have got the money, execute all ideas that come into sight - even if those ideas are sure to fail...

Personally I belive that a truly innovative organisation benefits from an innovation agenda and an innovation focus that has been set and communicated top-down, encouraged by top-level openeness to creative thinking. Without this innovation focus at CEO or leadership level an organisation can never become truly innovative and creative.

So, if innovation is important to you and you want to find out if you work for an organisation that's already innovative or at least on the path to becoming innovative, how do you find out? Well, based on my belief in top-management commitment I would suggest that you try to find out what your top-management have got to say about innovation. Do they believe in innovation as a future profit generator? Do they encourage innovative thinking? Do they understand what innovation is all about in your business? Do they know how to drive innovation processes forward in your line of business?

Those are just some of the fundamental questions that you can utilise to understand if your organisation already is or if it is likely to become ahead in the innovation game. Good luck!

Steve Jobs on Innovation

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Steve Jobs said: “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”

"Innovation has no limits. The only limit is your imagination. It’s time for you to begin thinking out of the box. If you are involved in a growing industry, think of ways to become more efficient; more customer friendly; and easier to do business with. If you are involved in a shrinking industry – get out of it quick and change before you become obsolete; out of work; or out of business. And remember that procrastination is not an option here. Start innovating now!"

I read the above text on a website today and being a firm believer in the power of innovation I just had to put it on my blog. Enjoy!

Proctor & Gamble launches E-store for online sales of consumer products

Today P&G launches an E-store to U.S. Consumers featuring P&G brands. It's called the eStore, and it is an online shopping site owned and operated by PFSweb featuring the breadth of P&G brands including Tide, Pampers, Olay, CoverGirl, Swiffer and Febreze. The eStore has been created with shopper insights to provide a premier online retail site with the goal of offering new and better ways to shop online for household, beauty and grooming products. More brands will be added to the eStore over the next year. The store also gives shoppers a forum to share feedback on their eStore shopping experiences and provide ideas to improve the site. Shoppers can also post ratings and reviews for P&G products and share tips and tricks for taking care of their family and home at the eStore.

Is this the first bold step by a consumer goods producer to try to bypass the big retail chains. Bold move that I'll follow!

FMCG concept development - part 2. Concept crafting

In my little piece on Concept Development - part 1 I wrote about the importance of concept development. I also mentioned that concept development isn't as simple and straightforward as many believe. No, I would claim that good concept development is a skill that needs to be honed by hours of practice. And, in order to be a good concept developer, a marketeer needs to understand a great deal about the consumer or customer, have an idea to conceptualise, and be able to put that idea and the benefit it offers into words and imagery. Those words and the imagery need to carefully crafted so that the concept is crystal clear and can be truly comprehended by the target group (without empty words of marketing bullshit!). For me concept writing is important. And it is NOT about simply explaining an idea in words or some creative rhetorics. No, concept writing is a marketing skill. And a marketing skill that too few marketeers master really well. I've seen too many poor concepts die in qual or quant research - not because of a bad conceptual idea but simply because that idea has been poorly crafted into a concept.

The key building bricks of a good concept? Well, Ï believe those to be the following three:
Consumer Insight: your concept need to rely on a foundation of insight. What's the thing that you know about the consumer that makes your idea relevant? Ideally you've already researched the relevance of your insight.
Idea presentation: This is the opportunity to explain your offer. This should be presented in an appealing way but do work hard on steering away from choosing 'sales' language here! The one thing that one needs to work very hard on is the uniqueness of the idea in the market - is it something new or different that's really relevant to your target group. If it's not I'm not sure whether you should bother writing a concept at all!
Benefit: concept benefits need to link to the idea presentation. What are the key benefits that your concept offers to the intended target? This is where many concepts really fail. They try to claim too many things, they sometimes claim non relevant benefits or they claim just poor, undifferentiated me-too benefits that no one cares about.

I find the above to be the basics of the actual 'concept crafting' exercise - But to that comes the topic of concept stimulus, not to mention the hard work of researching and honing concepts through different development and screening stages. To that comes the development of moodboards, illustrations, packaging shots or whatever other stimulus you chose to bring your concept to life. I'll get back to these topics at some later stage. Meanwhile, good luck with your concept development!

Converse - insightful innovation in the shoe world

I only have one pair of Converse - a gold leather pair that I bought in London last year. After a long and cold winter they were finally rescued from the darkest corner of the closet last weekend. I wore them again - and they felt so fine! How come a pair of shoes can mean so much? Simply by being different (gold coloured leather) I feel like I've made a fairly cool and slightly individualistic choice. Or is it really an individualistic choice that makes a certain statement? How can it be individualistic when 80% of swedish women, men and kids wear Converse during the summer months? If you really want to look like everyone else you choose the white coloured version...
It's fairly pathetic - but Converse does it again. By simply adding a few new lines of colour, a few interesting new styles (that no one every buys?), liasing themselves with a few cool people (like Ozzy Osbourne who gets his own special and very unique versions) they add some new magic to their brand and become relevant again. Clever! I love my gold leather Converse...

Living Labs - consumer co-creation in the digital age

I recently heard about 'Living Labs' - a consumer co-creation methodology supported and promoted by Opinion, the rather quirky norwegian research agency. I love the name 'Living Labs' so of course I had to read more about it. And over the last few days I've explored the idea. The concept of consumer or customer co-creation appeals to me. Being a consumer centric professional it is certainly something that I encourage. I'm aware of the power of insights from these activities. And the idea of a web-based, digital community is also very interesting to explore when it comes to FMCG and service innovation. Just imagine how interesting and effective it could be to test a new food service concept in this kind of setting. Especially if you can create an environment that brings consumers into a real 'service reality' online. Community members could help you to evaluate the strenght of various food service concepts in a setting that becomes as close to 'real life' as possible. If anyone out there have got some experiences of 'Living Labs' - let me know, I would love to know more.

Is this the stove of the future?

I like to see innovative thinking - this time it comes from Swedish kitchen appliance manufacturer Electrolux. Is this the stove of the future?

What do you think?

Premium crispbread by Leksands Knäcke

I spotted these three new crispbread products the other day and got attracted by the wholesome, earthy packaging design. I still haven't tried the products but I'm actually tempted to buy some crispbread... just because it did look rather mouthwatering and attractive. I do wonder if the product would actually deliver against my rather high expectations. Anyway, the new Leksand crispbreads are three premium line products with either Cardamom, Oats or Linseeds. And the on-pack storyline is that different crispbread bakers at the Leksand bakery have baked different breads based on recipes of their own personal liking. I do wonder if that is a bit of marketing bu...it though...? What do you think? Haven't they just stolen the idea from Göteborgs Kex and their Bageriets Bästa and applied it to crispbread? Not very original - but the products do look yummy. I think it is a perfect example of steal with pride and apply other companies great ideas to your own products if you think it will work! Just try to do the job really well!

Internal assessment of concepts and ideas

About a week ago I wrote about external assessment or consumer screening of concepts at an early stage of concept development. Today I want to add a few thoughts regarding the internal assessment of concepts i.e. the assessment of which concepts can actually be most profitable for the company in a short- and long-term perspective given internal capabilities and resources. I’ve added a shortlist of assessment criteria that I use but simply see these criteria as a suggestion, and have a think about if there are different criteria that you need to add given your companies specific circumstances. The criteria I often use are:
Strategic Assessment Criteria
- Is the concept in line with the vision / strategy of the company?
- Does the concept meet a large opportunity area or gap in the market?
- Is the concept strong or competitive enough to beat off the competition?
Capabilities Assessment Criteria
- Can the concept be developed given our technological platform, purchasing, production and packaging capabilities?
- Can the concept be developed given time to market demands and estimates?
- Cost of developing concept?
- Can the concept be brought to market successfully given sales and marketing capabilities?
Launch Assessment Criteria
- Is the concept strong and differentiated enough to get listed? (fmcg concept)
- Level of marketing and sales support investment?
- Estimated time before ROI?

These are just a few of the assessment criteria I would consider using. But as I mentioned above, the criteria that you use need to be discussed and finalised internally with your colleagues and with the managers who control internal resources. And there are surely specific assessment criteria that your company need to add given your market objectives and circumstances. Good luck!

Nice new organic coffee and grocery shop concept by swedish retailer Coop

Well, is it new or not? I claim that it is new simply because I cannot find any information about it on the Coop website or anywhere else... Isn't that a bit strange? Well, it might be a little less secret now when I write about it...  I spotted this organic concept store in Gothenburg this weekend and the idea and execution was so nice so I had to write about it.

The swedish retailer Coop has been positioning itself as the most organic and fair trade retailer in the market for a long time. And this positioning could indeed be very appealing for consumers. This concept store is one step on the way... a very positive step! I want to know more about Coops plans for this concept!

Innovation and how to assess concepts - part 1

Companies spend a lot of energy and investments on bringing new concepts and products to market. But still, most of those concepts or products fail within a year after launch… Research findings vary, but I’ve seen articles that claim that as many as 90% of innovations don’t contribute to company goals i.e. they fail. The monies involved may not be linked to massive investments in production facilities or marcom. But the employee and project resource that’s required to bring a new product to market are enough to make a failure very expensive.


I’ve seen first hand how companies ignore taking the precautions necessary to ensure that they get a return on innovation investment. Human factors like ignorance, incompetence or fear of failure are often at fault. So, if you don’t want your concept to fail (and if you’re responsible and competent) - what steps do you need to take in order to assess that your concept or innovation has got the power to last? Well, the least one can do is to ensure that the concept has been thoroughly assessed based on both external and internal success criteria. External criteria are related to market and consumer factors and internal criteria are related to company capabilities.


Well, I need to try to follow the KISS principle and keep things short and simple. So, today I’ll deal only with the external assessment factors at the early stages of idea or concept assessment. And if time permits I’ll focus on the latter stages of concept screening later on this week. I will also get back to the internal assessment criteria in more detail.  


Early stage concept assessment – Assessment criteria

To make a good job out of this assessment you need to involve qual research with your target consumer or customer. Focus groups, in depth interviews…, mini groups – there are different methodologies to chose from.

I would normally include the following assessment criteria at this stage:

• Insight relevance – does the insight that the concept is based upon correlate to a prevailing consumer need? Is this needstate large enough to be of importance? And do consumers recognise themselves in this needstate and in this situation? How often? When? Where?

• Uniqueness – Do consumers perceive the concept to be different to what they’ve seen in the market? Does this difference or uniqueness stand out and is it appreciated as a positive factor?

• Impact on brand – This is a relevant assessment factor if you plan to add the concept to a branded family where it may have a positive or negative impact on the mother brand and/or other brands in the portfolio. Ask consumers if this concept is something that feels natural or awkward within the branded family.

• Clarity – is the concept clear and easy to understand? Can you simplify it even further to make it more compelling and easy to grasp?

• Benefit relevance – Do consumers really appreciate the benefits that this concept offers? Are the relevant and interesting enough for consumers? Are they worth paying for?

• Price – Since this is an early stage assessment I would only add a couple of short questions to check if the project teams ambitions regarding price point and margin correspond to consumer price expectations.

• Total market potential – Based on the response to the above criteria I would then make a total summary of the concept potential.

Huh, I’ve done a serious amount of writing now. Have you fallen asleep? I hope this was helpful anyway and as promised, I will get back to the issue of later stage concept assessment as well as internal assessment. Bye!

Interesting initiative by Volkswagen - The Fun Factor Theory

Innovative communication initiatives are certainly interesting and this one is a very clever initiative by Volkswagen Group. It's called The Fun Factor Theory and is a unusual campaign to promote Volkswagens environmentally friendly car programme Blue Motion. The Fun Factor Theory is based on three different ads where it is proved that you can easily change the pattern of behaviour by making ordinary, and perhaps a bit boring things a bit more fun.

The campaign has been a success so far by being the most spread and talked about campaign on social media. Personally I think it is an incredibly clever and interesting innovative by Volkswagen. It also proves that Volkswagen understands the power of social media when it comes to building awareness and brand stature.

For those english speakers out there. The film that I've added to this post is just one of the three films. It's called the Pianostairs. The films shows the transformation of a staircase at a Stockholm tube stop - from boring, ordinary staircase to fun pianostairs. And the text says: Can you get people to walk the stairs by making it more fun? Then you see the transformation in people as they walk the new stairs. This is followed by text: 66% more people chose to walk the stairs. Fun can change behaviour - we call it the Fun Factor Theory.

Create your own watch! Great idea based on need for customised goods!

Yesterday my husband told me about this fantastic idea developed by a Swedish company and brand called Few. Few has developed a 'design your own' wristwatch concept that seems really interesting. It's a simple concept (see their website)and very clever. On the Few site you can design your own watch and choose from different appealing features to make it your own, very unique piece. And the surprising thing is that it is all fairly affordable too. In a few minutes I designed my own watch due to cost only £262. That is a great price given the fact that Few appears to offer not only a customised product but a high quality product too.
I am intrigued and... very tempted to splash out on another wristwatch. However, there's one more thing that I would love to see from Few before I customise and buy my own watch. At this stage Few appears to concentrate on primarily men as their target group. This is fine but I would sure love to see a more feminine version of the Few offer! When that is in place I might just need to design my own Few wristwatch very soon.

And the winner is...

So, Nielsen has announced the winner of 'Food Product of the Year 2009' and the winner is.... Procordia with Ekström Fruit Crumble!!!!
The motivation is: "Of all the new FMCG products that were launched last year Ekströms Fruit Crumble was the most successful. It is not only convenient but it also gives the consumer a sense that it's wholesomeness and honest food product. The product has fast established itself in the frozen fixture and it has created further growth to the category as a whole.
As I've said before - great work Procordia!!! You've got your consumer insights sorted with that one and I'm certainly a keen user.