The salty snacks aisle might be one of the most competitive spaces in the supermarket.
So when a brand finds a genuinely different way to stand out, it’s worth paying attention.
This bag of chips is a small but interesting lesson in how mature categories evolve.

Most line extensions weaken brands.
Tabasco shows how they can do the opposite; grow usage, grow occasions and lift the value of the whole category.
A small lesson in line extensions done properly.

I had never had someone unexpectedly break into tears in my office before, so when one of our innovators, only a few months into the role, came in and broke down, I was genuinely caught off guard.

He was clearly frustrated and had been bottling it up for a while. When I gently asked what was going on, he said, “Taking this innovation role was a big mistake….”

Developing and launching great innovation can feel so sweet and satisfying. But it also reminds me of Groundhog Day. New keen people coming through the business, full of enthusiasm, but lacking the hard-earned knowledge. Or even with highly experienced teams we sometimes missed something obvious that became a real pain in the proverbial to fix down the track.

I am passionate about innovation. What’s not to love about developing and launching new things that make people's lives better and easier in some small or occasionally big ways. It’s exciting for the organization, it gives Sales good things to talk to buyers about, compelling presentations to the Board and shareholders, it gets everyone feeling like we’re doing things to win.

But unfortunately like a lot of things in life, there was a hidden cost….

My first encounter with a zombie project arrived around the time zombies were filling films and video games. This one was less bloody but still haunted the business, chewing through time, money and energy. At first, I didn't even recognise what I was looking at.

This week I had the pleasure of talking with Mike Dickson from AXR, who is wonderfully in touch with many companies across consumer goods. We were comparing notes on what we're both hearing from the market, and the same refrain kept coming up: companies are worried about uncertainty.

I've sat in dozens of boardrooms where MDs admit they've got innovation theatre instead of innovation results. Projects everywhere, movement on everything, but somehow nothing actually ships.

Here's what I've learned: the problem isn't your team's desire or market timing. It's almost always one of five structural issues that compound that choke your innovation engine.

We were working on a household cleaner brand where the fragrance was clearly the hero. Consumers told us they loved it. But we couldn't figure out why it mattered so much, or where to take the product next.

Focus groups weren't helping as people were being very rational…

Picture this. Colgate’s Latin American Innovation team had grown to over 45 people. We were bursting at the seams in decrepit offices in a 1950’s factory in Mexico City. Conditions and morale were sinking fast.  

The call came in from the Division President. We’re moving offices. Here's an opportunity to create the best Innovation Center in the world. Oh, you’ve got 30% less space per person and must be within Corporate expenditure levels (think generic furniture…)

When people find out I’ve worked in innovation for a while, they often ask what makes the difference between ideas that work and ones that don’t. Honestly, I could talk about this for hours. There’s the technical disciplines, the curiosity mindset, rapid testing, customer engagement, lots of plain hard work and so on.

But I’ve noticed four recurring questions that tend to be pretty reliable predictors of whether something is going to work.

It’s harder than ever to profitably grow. Traditional consumer goods companies are under intense attack at three core levels. So what’s happening…