In Search of Innovation
By Joseph M. Carbonara, Editor-in-Chief -- Foodservice Equipment & Supplies, 12/1/2006 12:00:00 AM
 Joseph Carbonara |
I bet if you were to ask 100 people planning to attend an exhibition such as The NAFEM Show or The National Restaurant Association’s annual event, if they would want to see new and innovative products, all of them would answer “yes.” It’s a no-brainer, right?
Despite the overwhelming desire to see items that fit the bill, the challenge of developing products that one can describe as being truly new and innovative is rather elusive in a mature industry such as foodservice. That’s because, according to the nice people at Merriam-Webster, an innovation is defined as the introduction of something new, specifically a new idea, method or device.
Unfortunately, in today’s foodservice industry the term innovation is often used when describing the next generations of existing technologies or applications cultivated by factories, independent manufacturers’ reps, service agents, dealers, consultants and operators. To find products and services that are truly innovative, one must wade through countless others that have something new to offer but don’t embrace the actual spirit of the term.
That’s because the concept of innovation is easier to understand than it is to execute. So said Maura Havenga, senior vice president for McDonald’s Corp., during her keynote address at Chain Leader Live, the third annual conference hosted by our sister publication aptly named Chain Leader.
| “But the successful players in the foodservice industry are the ones leveraging existing customer relationships to find out what their needs are today and, more importantly, tomorrow.” |
In her presentation, Havenga described innovation in the context of a three-legged stool. Knowledge serves as the first leg of the stool and is the prerequisite for innovation, she said. To be a true innovator you must understand your customer, your market and your capabilities.
The second leg of the stool is insight. This helps you identify unmet needs and wants before your customers realize they need them, Havenga said. The third and final leg of the stool is creativity. This allows you to meet customer needs in a profitable manner.
Before bringing an innovation to market, McDonald’s makes it jump through three hoops. First, the innovation must be something that customers want. Second, it must be affordable to implement. Finally it must be something that McDonald’s can roll out to all of its stores — both existing and future.
“It goes beyond invention because no new product or business is worth anything unless they can go to market,” Havenga added. “All of your innovation needs to have a bottom line.”
But then Havenga went on to make what I consider to be one of the most important and often misunderstood points about innovation. “Our innovation is about getting better and not just getting bigger,” she said.
Indeed the foodservice industry is littered with stories about operators, dealers or manufacturers who stumbled after trying to innovate just for the sake of growing. When this happens, greed forces organizations to lose sight of what really made them relevant in today’s business world: providing the combination of a product and an experience that created value in the eyes of their customers and the marketplace.
Much like innovation, it is easier to understand the need to maintain this balance than it is to actually achieve it. But the successful players in the foodservice industry are the ones leveraging existing customer relationships to find out what their needs are today and, more importantly, tomorrow. Cultivating this knowledge helps generate the insight that unleashes the creativity to generate the true innovations of tomorrow.
On a closing note, congratulations go out to Publisher Ray Herrmann, Editor Mary Chapman and their entire team for a successful third edition of Chain Leader Live.
Joseph M. Carbonara, Editor in Chief
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