Episode Summary

A few weeks back an email out of the blue came our way. Would we would be a part of Ferrara Candy Company’s internal innovation event? By now you know we love talking about innovation, so the answer was YES!

Today you’ll hear Josh interview Greg Guidotti, the General Manager at Ferrara, about what it takes to be an innovation high striker. How do you innovate in a company like Ferrara? We visit the age old question, “What is innovation?” and talk about insights, foresights, and candy!

We reference other interviews in this episode:

How To Leverage Insights for Innovation (with Ferrara’s Andy Renaud)
Innovation Through Incremental Change
How To Create an Innovation Framework

About Ferrara

Ferrara, a company related to The Ferrero Group, is an emerging powerhouse in the North American confections and sweet snacking categories. A passionate team of more than 6,000 employees works together to share delight in every bite through leading brands that have shaped the industry for more than 100 years. Our diverse portfolio of nearly 35 brands includes SweeTARTS®, Trolli®, BRACH’S®, Black Forest® and NERDS®, along with iconic favorites like Lemonhead®, Red Hots® and Now and Later®. Ferrara also manages the Keebler® and Famous Amos® businesses for The Ferrero Group.  Headquartered in Chicago, Ferrara has an operational network of 20 locations in North America that includes manufacturing, distribution and R&D facilities. Learn more at www.ferrarausa.com.

Timestamps

What is the innovation secret sauce? – 1:48
Insights & Foresights? – 02:05
What is the opportunity for innovators?– 05:12
Small as an advantage – 08:53
Qualities of Successful, Innovative Companies– 10:09
Let Eagles Soar – 12:48
Difference Between a Great Brand & Innovative One – 13:51
Innovation Led– 16:42
Innovation is a Mindset –18:37
Cultivating Great Innovators –21:56

Full Podcast Transcript

Greg Guidotti: [00:01:04 ] Josh, before I started asking you questions, you just  want to introduce yourself, let everybody a little bit about you and the work that you do.

Josh Barker: [00:01:09 ] Sure absolutely. First I want to preface this with the reason I’m here is I was promised a suitcase full of candy. So that’s primarily why I’m just kidding. It’s true. It is true. Exactly. Yeah, I’m really excited to be here. Background is all in innovation. I was a Director of Innovation at KPMG. I was a CTO out in Silicon Valley doing a lot of cool things with Google ventures . So my career has led me from the digital side, doing a lot of digital innovation with apps and building the right thing.  I’ve been able to, and privileged to be able to interview  hundreds of people all over the last couple of years.

 It’s just a complete privilege to be here and being able to talk about my experiences.

Innovation Secret Sauce

Greg Guidotti: [00:01:48 ] So Josh  let’s do kick it off. And I mean, what, in your perspective defines an innovative company. So is it just the ability to turn launches year on year or like what’s the secret sauce of an innovative company?

Josh Barker: [00:01:59 ] It’s a good question. What’s interesting is I was just telling you about all the different people I’ve interviewed on this. And the funny thing is this is the first question we ask a lot of people on the podcast. So we ask what defines an innovative company?

What does the word innovation mean?  And what’s interesting is how many people started out defining what it’s not. And that’s what I find really fascinating. The second thing you mentioned is, is it the ability to turn out launches year over year over year?

I think we all here could say that’s not necessarily what makes an innovative company. If the launches aren’t effective at driving to a bottom line, then it really isn’t innovation. What are you doing when your litmus test is launches?

Insights & Foresights

It’s more than that. If you take a look at what it actually is it’s really about  foresight. So, if you think about innovative companies think about ones that are so relentlessly in the shoes of their customer. They’re so customer focused that they have this foresight to see what the customer wants without them telling what they want. So great examples here are like Apple, right? You take a look at Apple. Everyone knows Apple. I think when you hear Apple, you immediately go to Steve Jobs and you think of innovation, it’s like, what is it? The three, five levels to Kevin Bacon. It’s kind of the same thing when you hear innovation to Steve jobs.

 When you look at that, what’s interesting is, no one asked for the iPhone.  No one asked for the iPhone. You look at Henry Ford and I think everyone’s heard his old phrase of, if we were talking about how to increase transportation speed, everyone would just say they want faster horses.

They’re not going to say they want an automobile. So this is where my word foresight comes in of being able to be relentlessly in the shoes of your customer. To know them well enough to understand what they want before they’re asking for it.

Greg Guidotti: [00:03:39 ] Yeah, Josh, I’m gonna ask you one more question on companies that have foresight

I think Apple is a great one in a well-known one. What would be a company that you would know that some of the people on this call would not know? How did they represent this is why they’re really innovative and this is the foresight that they’ve driven. Do you have a thought there?

Josh Barker: [00:03:54 ] Yeah. I mean, what’s interesting is a prerequisite to foresight is insight. Right. So if you look at companies that have insight. What does insight mean? If we’re going back to the concept of being relentlessly in the shoes of your customer, insight is being able to see and watch their habits. Watch them as they’re interacting with your product. As they’re interacting with their world around them. There’s a lot out in Silicon Valley that have gotten really, really good at being able to see this insight. Which helps them project the foresight. So like Airbnb, that’s another well-known brand that everyone knows,

The reason why they’re so successful isn’t because they built this online platform. It’s because they actually started out with insight and they started out saying, how can I rent my own apartment? How can I recruit my friends to rent their apartments? There was all managed by spreadsheets up until I think it was property, a hundred or 200.

They were focused on insights and relentlessly focusing on their customers. So. That’s it. That’s another example I would use.

A question I’ve got for you, Greg, is I know when you and I were talking a couple of days ago is you’ve worked with tons of brands.

The funny thing is , you showed me a brand page. I was like, all the brands my kids love! Like P&G, Kraft Heinz, now you’re at Ferrara. What’s the opportunity for innovators here at Ferrara?

What is the opportunity for innovators?

Greg Guidotti: [00:05:12 ]  I appreciate the question. It’s funny because when we were talking through it and when I was reflecting on the discussion we had, when I think about my history across, whether it be Kraft, then Gillette became P&G, back to Kra