Seven Paths to Advantage

How can companies break the cycle of low-risk, low-reward copycat innovation? Through a group of interrelated changes in strategy and execution. Successful consumer packaged goods (CPG) innovators, those whose new products establish and maintain dominance in the marketplace, tend to focus on seven areas. None of them represents a “silver bullet” on its own, and many of them are common sense, but together they make innovation more difficult to copy and lead to greater returns and higher growth. Our analysis shows that mature companies consistently neglect these areas. This is a pity, because they represent a powerful way to turbocharge an innovation engine.