p Aid Org

Posts Tagged ‘approaches’

R&D is a key driver of sales growth in the CPG industry, but returns from investments in R&D and innovation have been falling. This has led to further cuts to R&D budgets, making breakthrough innovations (which typically have higher returns than incremental innovations) even less likely, leading to lower returns still.
This downward spiral in R&D investment is not the only problem. A rigid adherence to orthodox approaches towards innovation, which once served the industry well, are now holding back innovation as they lead to large numbers of undifferentiated innovations hitting the shelves of retailers.
However, major changes are afoot. The advent of open innovation seems to offer a magic bullet solution; it can both improve innovation and simultaneously reduce costs. Certainly the larger, global, players have been quickest of the mark in adopting open innovation approaches, and smaller companies risk being left behind. But open innovation itself is only part of the puzzle – it needs to fit in with a coherent set of innovation strategies and approaches in order for it to work in the long term. Read the rest of this entry »