343: Shooting for the stars - the secrets to successful product innovation
The food industry is arguably one of the most innovative sectors in the world, but what are the strategies and ideas that underpin successful product innovation? Innovation is big business in the food and drink industry. On the Food Matters Live podcast, we are often meeting people with great new ideas or tapping into growth trends, whether that is wellness, nutrition, plant based, ag-tech, or a whole host more. In this episode, made in partnership with Sopheon, we dig deep into the art and science of innovation, and ask: Are there certain practices that support most, if not all, successful product innovation projects? Which approaches can drive product innovation forwards? And what are the key questions innovators should be asking themselves? The modern world is ultra-connected, things are manufactured and assembled in multiple countries, team members work in different time zones, products are sold in different places. That creates plenty of opportunity for innovation, but it can throw up challenges too. So, what does an ultra-connected world mean for innovation leaders? We delve into the potential opportunities provided by the Metaverse, and how innovators are looking at exploiting that brand new environment. What about smaller companies looking to innovate? Are the challenges different compared to larger businesses? Sopheon is a company with a long history of considering these ideas and applying them through its innovation management software and services. Our guest on this episode is Paul Heller, Sopheon's Chief Evangelist. Paul has led technology strategy and product development for Sopheon for nearly 25 years and is just the man to provide an informed perspective on how to go about your product innovation project. Sopheon Enriched by experience with hundreds of longstanding, blue-chip customers, Sopheon provides the ability to control and manage innovation and new product development programs and pipelines more effectively and efficiently. Sopheon solutions deliver an innovation decision command centre that gives companies complete visibility, smarter decision-making, and better time to value. Sopheon offers a flexible and scalable single innovation system that integrates with any system or innovation process, is straightforward to deploy and use, and which is based on deep industry best practices and powerful decision support and data visualization capabilities. Sopheon clients enjoy superior strategy-to-execution performance and growth because they can consistently innovate, define, and develop a successful portfolio of products, and achieve faster time to market. Paul Heller, Chief Evangelist, Sopheon Paul Heller has led technology strategy and product development for Sopheon since 1999. Today, his leadership helps Sopheon’s blue-chip client portfolio achieve high levels of success from their investments in innovation. Paul navigates the technology landscape for both Sopheon and its customers and identifies the business values linked to investments in innovation management systems and processes. He also advises executives on how to be more successful in innovation and regularly speaks and writes about innovation to business audiences.