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Innovators tear down walls while planning ahead

Here are some tips to help jump-start—or rejuvenate—your leadership in managing a new package innovation.

Graphics and structural design were developed in concert for Ansell Ltd.’s new packaging that arouses curiosity and conveys a sense of trust with a sensitive and sophisticated touch of sensuality.
Graphics and structural design were developed in concert for Ansell Ltd.’s new packaging that arouses curiosity and conveys a sense of trust with a sensitive and sophisticated touch of sensuality.

It’s easy for companies to waver in their commitment to innovation in lean economic times by scaling back resources, downsizing departments, and red-lighting projects. But these short-term cuts can—and usually will—hurt companies in the long term. Packaging improvements that hit the market today can take two or three years to reveal their profitability and unleash the power of a new or a newly differentiated product.

Here are some tips to help jump-start—or rejuvenate—your leadership in managing a new package innovation.

1. Break down walls. You don’t need X-ray spectacles to see that information shouldn’t be hidden behind departmental barriers or organizational “walls.” It’s important to share consumer insights with all personnel and teams that can drive improvements in packaging platforms and formats. Here are a few ideas to make it happen.

2. Work hard to work together. It’s especially critical to ensure that marketing and technical teams work together to prevent tensions from arising. Engineers and technical R&D professionals may suspect that marketing doesn’t understand what is or isn’t possible, while marketing pros may feel that tech teams are stuck in the proverbial mud.

3. Define the common goal. The key is for all departments to understand that each has a role to play in packaging improvements, and that everyone has the same end-goal. Packaging innovation design doesn’t happen in a vacuum.

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