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Five Keys for Innovation Process Execution and Adoption in Consumer Goods

Key Learnings from the Consumer Goods Innovation Exchange Series

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Key Learnings from the Consumer Goods Innovation Exchange Series

with PepsiCo, Kimberly-Clark, Land O’Lakes and J.M. Smucker Company

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Key Learnings from the Consumer Goods Innovation Exchange Series

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Five Keys for Innovation Process Execution and Adoption in Consumer Goods

Key Learnings from the Consumer Goods Innovation Exchange Series

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Consumer Goods

Leaders

Innovation Professionals

NPD Process Owners

Born from a Sopheon-Kalypso knowledge-sharing summit, stakeholders from both organizations shared a common insight that time and time again, firms across the consumer goods industry were echoing a number of similar innovation challenges. Every company we came in contact with – big or small, global or local – stumbled when it came to effective, consistent execution and adoption of innovation and new product development processes.

In partnership, we set forth to lead a discussion that could serve as an exchange of knowledge between peers. As a result, the Consumer Goods Innovation Exchange came to life. This virtual series of roundtable discussions features knowledge-sharing, storytelling and Q&A among a number of leading consumer firms – with direct input and questions from hundreds of registrants across over 20 countries shaping the direction of each discussion.

There were 3 events in the series covering different aspects of innovation processes and execution that featured innovation professionals from PepsiCo, Kimberly-Clark, Land O’Lakes and J.M. Smucker Company sharing their real-life innovation journeys – from challenges to successes, and everything in between. This eBook shares five practical steps you can leverage from their stories to start down the path to improving innovation execution within your own organization.

Authored by Bryan Seyfarth, Sopheon and Scott Siegel, Kalypso

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Key Learnings from the Consumer Goods Innovation Exchange Series

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One of the key insights in our first session came from Jim

Boucher, Senior Director of Supply Chain, Global

Integration and Innovation at PepsiCo.

In describing how they communicate the innovation

process, he illustrated how they proactively addressed

common misconceptions, helping people understand the

real benefits that would come with use of the process.

This includes identifying concerns that the process might

“slow us down” or “kill our entrepreneurial approach.” As

this unfolds, people begin to think through and realize the

tangible benefits that would come with the process, some

of which are highlighted on the right.

1

Minimize Work on Unattractive Projects

Define Realistic Schedules that Teams Can Deliver On

Consider All Dimensions of Feasibility Up-Front

Mutually Agree on an Acceptable Level of Risk

Help people answer “what’s in it for me?”

A critical effort to achieve buy-in and acceptance

of a new way of working.

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Key Learnings from the Consumer Goods Innovation Exchange Series

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A valuable insight came from Brian Vogt and Barbara Burns,

members of the Corporate Innovation Team at Kimberly-Clark.

Both described how they built buy-in by ensuring different

parts of their business could maintain a level of “local control”

over their process, even though “corporate” was requiring a

set of common standards, the innovation framework, across

the company.

They let local process owners participate in the definition

process, and provided local support for adoption by the

execution teams. By creating a global network to provide

support, you can help local process owners develop the skills

required to succeed.

2

Summary slide from Kimberly-Clark’s presentation highlighting the required

balance between their “corporate” and “local” process requirements.Provide local ownership and a degree of flexibility to

business units, allowing diverse parts of the business

to adapt and have ‘freedom within a framework.’

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During the second session, Tim Beattie, Director of R&D and Innovation Process at the J.M. Smucker Company,

shared his insight from being a part of an environment in which many companies had come together after several years

of brand acquisitions, each bringing with them their own version of a gated process.

Key to the strategy to drive standardization was to apply an automated solution to simplify the work and clearly

communicate standard work processes across the company.

In doing so, J.M. Smucker achieved alignment on the process and also discovered additional benefits along the way:

3

Visibility

Teams had a ‘roadmap’ to better see the work

ahead

Awareness

Contributors saw how their work affected functional

team members

Development

Through consistent gate reviews, team members

developed skills presenting to senior leaders

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During Kimberly-Clark’s presentation, they shared a powerful slide (shown at right) depicting the measurable benefits achieved year-over-year from their transformation and dedication to innovation execution.

Process execution often suffers as a result of data not being used in a meaningful manner by innovation teams – both to drive decision-making and to demonstrate results. There are several ways you can avoid letting incomplete and inaccurate data inhibit the effectiveness of teams:

Tally Forecasts – ensure roll-up of individual project metrics will meet organizational goals.

Conduct Portfolio Reviews – align pipeline efforts with strategy and make effective prioritization decisions.

Track & Report Milestones – share metrics, such as time to market or time between gates

Require Critical Data – do not approve projects at Gate meetings if they are missing critical data

4

To achieve the desired level of organic growth (above), successful

adoption depends on avoiding the “missing data” portfolio

problems faced by many consumer firms.

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In the consumer goods industry, branding and marketing

are key elements for successful innovation – often

contributing strongly to product launch success.

The same idea can be applied to launching a new NPD

process – it must be branded and positioned to key internal

customers in a manner that conveys the behaviors you

hope to drive.

This change management principle was something all of

our Innovation Exchange leaders agreed on – see some of

the specific tips they shared at right.

5

For illustrations of J.M. Smucker and Kimberly-

Clark’s graphical and/or branded innovation process,

see slides 16 and 27 of the presentation:

“Driving Innovation Process Effectiveness”

Name the process using verbs or acronyms aligned with innovation

Create a logo or graphic to differentiate this from other business processes

Incorporate creative images (i.e. J.M. Smuckers ‘Rocket’ for NPD launch)

Reinforce the ‘brand’ through messaging and senior leadership

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As illustrated in this eBook, process owners from across

the consumer goods industry often see many of the

same issues and challenges on a daily basis.

Whether you produce soft drinks, potato chips, peanut

butter, jelly or diapers – the fundamental innovation and

new product development process dynamics are the

same.

As your peers from PepsiCo, J.M. Smucker Company,

Land O’Lakes and Kimberly-Clark demonstrated, there is

much that consumer organizations can learn about

innovation by simply sharing common experiences.

We believe, and our customers of varying sizes in many

markets have proven, that these simple steps – from

‘selling’ the value of process to motivating people to drive

adoption, can be applied to the work of innovation

practitioners across the industry.

To learn more about key topics and guidance from innovation

professionals, the Consumer Goods Innovation Exchange

Series videos are available for on-demand viewing:

Driving Innovation Process Effectiveness – How to overcome

challenges in the execution & adoption of NPD processes

Session 1: Kimberly Clark and PepsiCo

Session 2: Kimberly Clark and J.M. Smucker Company

Making Innovation Global – How to Support Standard

Innovation and NPD Processes Across the Organization

Improving Decision-Making in Gate Meetings – The Right

Data, People and Processes to Deliver Value

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Key Learnings from the Consumer Goods Innovation Exchange Series

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Sopheon partners with customers to provide complete Enterprise Innovation Performance solutions including software, expertise, and best practices to achieve exceptional long-term revenue growth and profitability through sustainable innovation.

Sopheon’s Accolade® solution provides unique, fully-integrated processes for the entire innovation management and new product development lifecycle. For the first time, businesses can access a single source of the truth across:

Strategic Innovation Planning

Roadmapping

Idea and Concept Development

Process and Project Management

Portfolio Management and Optimization

Resource Planning

Sopheon’s solutions have been implemented by over 200 customers with over 60,000 users in over 50 countries.

Contact Sopheon for more information, feedback and comments.