Hershey's Arrested Development

The chocolate maker's innovation cupboard is bare. Some wonder about what might happen to the company when consumers tire of the same old standbys

BusinessWeek, October 14, 2009 — Buried within Hershey's (HSY) Web site is a section that invites consumers to pitch their own ideas for new products. "We are seeking innovative concepts," it reads. "What's your big idea?"

Hershey could certainly use the help. The innovation cupboard at the $5.1 billion chocolate maker has grown bare.

It’s Brand New, but Make It Sound Familiar

New York Times, October 5, 2009 — Humans instinctively sort and classify things. It’s how we make sense of a complex world.

So when companies develop innovative products and services that don’t obviously fit into established categories, managers need to help people understand what comparison to make.

How GE Is Disrupting Itself†

For decades, GE has sold modified Western products to emerging markets. Now, to preempt the emerging giants, it’s trying the reverse.

Harvard Business Review, October 1, 2009 — In May 2009, General Electric announced that over the next six years it would spend $3 billion to create at least 100 health-care innovations that would substantially lower costs, increase access, and improve quality. Two products it highlighted at the time—a $1,000 handheld electrocardiogram device and a portable, PC-based ultrasound machine that sells for as little as $15,000—are revolutionary, and not just because of their small size and low price. They’re also extraordinary because they originally were developed for markets in emerging economies (the ECG device for rural India and the ultrasound machine for rural China) and are now being sold in the United States, where they’re pioneering new uses for such machines.

We call the process used... continue reading

Pop Artist

Meet the man with a nearly uncontainable design challenge: making Coke even bigger (and staying ahead of Pepsi).

Fast Company, October 1, 2009 — The image on the Webcam is grainy but unmistakable: a blond woman, likely in her thirties, steps up to a shiny silver soda-fountain machine at a fast-food restaurant in Atlanta and plants a fat kiss on its side. The moment is unscripted and, as far as the woman knows, unwitnessed by anyone except a girl who appears to be her daughter, busily filling her cup. If great design is all about creating a bond between your product and your customer, this is clearly some kind of mechanized Cyrano de Bergerac, brokering the ardor between a consumer and her Diet Cherry Coke.

The reason for this public display of affection? It might be the fountain's astounding array of choices, more than 100 different Coca-Cola variants, including exotic hybrids such as Minute Maid... continue reading

A Jar of Vegemite, a Window on Kraft†

Wall Street Journal, September 30, 2009 — The recipe for Vegemite, a salty brown yeast spread famous in Australia, remained unchanged for more than 80 years. Then Irene Rosenfeld became chief executive of Kraft Foods Inc.

This summer, a milder version of Vegemite appeared on store shelves across Australia. Ms. Rosenfeld had almost nothing to do with the reformulated taste, its new packaging or its rollout — which says a lot about how she has tried to transform Kraft since taking over as the food giant's CEO in 2006.

How Do Innovators Think?†

Harvard Business Review, September 28, 2009 — What makes visionary entrepreneurs such as Apple's Steve Jobs, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Ebay's Pierre Omidyar and Meg Whitman, and P&G's A.G. Lafley tick? In a question-and-answer session with HBR contributing editor Bronwyn Fryer, Professors Jeff Dyer of Brigham Young University and Hal Gregersen of Insead explain how the "Innovators' DNA" works

Change By Design

In his new book, the CEO of design shop IDEO shows how even hospitals can transform the way they work by tapping frontline staff to engineer change

BusinessWeek, September 24, 2009 — As the center of economic activity in the developed world shifts inexorably from industrial manufacturing to knowledge creation and service delivery, innovation has become nothing less than a survival strategy. It is, moreover, no longer limited to new physical products but includes new sorts of processes, services, interactions, entertainment forms, and ways of communicating and collaborating.

No Recession at OXO

OXO's housewares have been selling well during the downturn. Now, the company is moving into office supplies and products for babies and toddlers

BusinessWeek, September 21, 2009 — OXO's kitchen and household products are winners with consumers, from its rubber-gripped potato peelers to its no-leak travel cups. The eye-catching designs have been featured in museum exhibitions and, despite premium prices, have continued selling well during the recession. OXO's parent company, Helen of Troy (HELE), reported an 11% bump in revenue from housewares in its spring quarter.

Having exhausted much of its original market, OXO is now branching out to office supplies, medical devices, and baby products.

How Starbucks lost its 'fidelity'

Exclusive book excerpt: In the trade-off between quality and convenience, the coffee juggernaut fell into the trap of becoming too familiar.

FORTUNE, September 16, 2009 — In this adaptation from his new book, Trade-Off: Why Some Things Catch On, and Others Don't (Broadway Books), author Kevin Maney explains the tension between two key qualities and how a great brand got caught in a no-man's-land between them.

We constantly, in our everyday lives, make trade-offs between fidelity and convenience.

Those trade-offs, and how they affect business, help explain why Starbucks (SBUX, Fortune 500) hit a wall in 2007 — and why CEO Howard Schultz is still struggling to get his company's mojo back.

Zipcar - The best new idea in business

Zipcar has already persuaded young urbanites to share wheels. Now the movement is going mainstream - and players like Hertz and Ford want in.

FORTUNE, September 14, 2009 — Scott Griffith enters the parking lot outside his office in Cambridge, Mass., pulls out his iPhone, and taps a button on the screen. Suddenly a yellow Mini Cooper starts honking like a crazed goose.

Griffith approaches the vehicle and taps the screen again. The doors magically unlock, and under the steering wheel the key dangles from a cord. He starts up the car — nicknamed "Meneus" — and drives away at a rate of $11.25 an hour.

Griffith is the 50-year-old CEO of the car-sharing service Zipcar, but he's also just one of the 325,000 members who rely on the company's handy, gassed-up cars to get around