“Okay,” I said. “Here’s the scenario: we all work for a substantial food and beverage firm. I am your CEO, and I’ve grown skeptical of what passes for innovation in our company. I think that those of our employees who could be innovative have to slog past ten supervisors who can say, ‘No’ before they reach someone who can say, ‘Yes.’ What finally reaches me is bland, homogenized, and not the kind of innovation that will drive economic growth.
“So I’ve hand-picked a few people that I think can genuinely innovate – that would be those of you on this call – and I’m dividing you into teams of 5-6 people. For the duration of this project, you will report directly to me. By the way, I can say, ‘Yes.’ And I will pay your team a fat bonus if your innovation succeeds in the marketplace.
“I’m assigning each team a project area where I think there’s market demand. Two examples are ‘stress relief’ and ‘better immune systems.’ You’ve got an hour. At the end of the hour, give a five minute report to all of us. Bring me something that breaks through the clutter.”
That was the message I gave earlier in July to a risky session during the annual meeting of the Institute of Food Technology. The IFT had never done a session like this, and I’m grateful to their leadership team for taking the chance. We expected 50-100 people, and we got 388. They came from all over the world: South Africa, Italy, and many other geographies. Yes, the Zoom techs were hysterical, and we had to make a lot of on-the-fly adjustments to accommodate so many extra people. But they pulled it off. And by the way, leading a meeting like this with 388 people via Zoom kept me on my toes, as well
The energy was astonishing! It felt like a jail break. The biggest problem that the team leaders had was in containing the team’s offerings and focusing those ideas into something that looked vaguely like a product.
Before I gave them the assignment, I walked them through a few slides about innovation, commercialization, and the importance of capturing the value that you’ve created. And of course, everyone forgot everything I said within ten minutes of their breakout session. I watched one of the sessions, and it was just classic: they looked at everything through the lens of their own skill set. If they knew about ingredients, then they’d throw in ten ingredients when three would do. Never mind the cost. If they were specialists in formulating gummies, then take a wild guess what product format they assumed their team would use. But many of them had never really interacted with anyone who genuinely spoke with the Voice of the Customer. Still, I loved listening to them turn the wheels, and the enthusiasm would have lit up a block in Manhattan.
My job, of course, was to gently beat up every team. For example, “If we incorporate all ten of those ingredients, how much would our product cost us? And how much would we have to charge for it? And how many customers would pay that astronomical price? Your idea has merit and you’re off to a promising start. But your first draft will collapse under its own weight. Take another crack at it.”
But I think they absorbed a lesson or two that otherwise would have merely skipped off the surface. And it was an incredible experience. Thanks again to the IFT leadership for rolling the dice with me. I’d love to do it again.