Culinology - March 2018 - 51

PETITS fours

com, an online publishing platform. "And
while many companies talk about innovating,
few actually do... And though Nestle has been
able to thrive for a century and a half because
of our innovation, we've never before seen the
kinds of dramatic shifts in the market - from
consumer habits, behavior, and engagement
with brands to how goods are purchased
- that we've witnessed in the past 10 to 15
years."

Coca-Cola changing its culture
At Coca-Cola, management realizes that
changing the company's approach to innovation will require a change in culture as
well. Future leaders in research and development will need to demonstrate curiosity and
empowerment.
"The culture we want is one in which the
values of curiosity, experimentation, learning
and excuse-less delivery are the values that
are rewarded," Mr. Benítez said.
Mr. Quincey added, "If we're not curious
about how the consumer is changing, if we're
not curious about the customer's strategy
on how they create value, we're not going to
come up with the right ideas. It's no point just
being curious on your own. If you're not bringing in divergent ideas, if you're not looking out
across the broad world of Coke, where something is probably already being done that you
need, then you're missing a chance. We also
need to underline empowered.
"In a large institution, a successful large institution, sometimes, people in the field think
there are more rules than there actually are.
They have just assumed that they can't do
things. Now we need to turn it around.
"If we can't become faster, more experimental, cycle faster through ideas, experiments, insights, learnings onto the next iteration, we won't be able to expand not just
across the categories but across the number
of countries we need to succeed in."

A modern twist to traditional brands
To tap into today's consumer trends, Nestle
is reviving its classic brands with modern innovation. For example, the food and beverage
company is launching Coffee-mate Natural
Bliss plant-based coffee creamers in four varieties, including hazelnut almond milk, caramel
almond milk, vanilla almond milk and sweet
creme coconut milk. Other new products

include Stouffer's organic frozen meals and
Häagen-Dazs non-dairy desserts.
Mr. Barbas said the company has also
adopted an entrepreneurial approach to innovation to quickly meet evolving consumer
needs. The company has launched "internal
start-ups" to rapidly develop new product
lines with lean designs, fast prototyping.
"What once was a multiyear process can
now happen in just a few months," he said.
In the past year, Nestle acquired plantbased food maker Sweet Earth and premium coffee brands Blue Bottle Coffee and
Chameleon Cold-Brew. The company also
bought a minority interest in Freshly, a directto-consumer meal delivery company.
These businesses "already have strong
products, a culture of innovation and a deep
understanding of these growing markets," Mr.
Barbas said.
The company also has revamped operations across the organization, "from how we
recruit talent to how we use data analytics to
drive strategies and optimize our supply chain
to how we deploy flexible manufacturing solutions," Mr. Barbas said.
"Today, innovation is everyone's job," he
added, "and that empowers our entire workforce to find new ways to serve our consumers and customers."

Nestle is reviving its
classic brands with
modern innovation.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Culinology - March 2018