Vincent Ferry was formerly European Packaging Innovation Manager at MARS (Petfood Division) and is currently Packaging Development Manager at DANONE Research. Having developed numerous breakthrough innovations for various international branded goods companies, he is a frequent speaker at packaging conferences and has written about successful packaging innovation in his book “How to create Soul Packaging”.

His strategy? To anticipate solutions based on real consumer needs, convince decision-makers of the potential of the proposed solution, and synergize  the energy between the worlds of creation and industry.

In the  innovation process, there is a certain “ Je ne sais quoi” which pushes you to dare to do things differently, to undertake, seduce, reveal,  invent, transgress, surpass oneself…

Just as with love, finally, with the difference that here the challenge is to conquer EVERYONE!  The human aspect remains at the heart of the success of such an undertaking. 

The first step is the desire to come up with a really good idea. How can you recognize such an idea?  Extremely simple! The idea takes you by surprise by its audacity: “Why has no one ever thought about this before?”

Do we have to generate a lot of ideas to be able to capture a good one? Not necessarily… rather search for a few, but then brilliant ones! Except if you are a creative and visionary genius, the complexity of everything that has to be implemented to succeed will make an analytical approach necessary: A problem well posed is half solved!

Firstly, concentrate on the collection of relevant information wherever it can be found, from upstream to downstream.

Observe, listen, ask questions, provoke, confront, compare and then organise, categorise, link, map out…to find the key substance…

To find “the idea”, one has to look for “the” problem!

Then comes an incubation phase , at the end of which the concept emerges. No matter which method, place, moment, techniques and  means…Impregnated with the objective to reach, absorbed by the elements of the puzzle, obsessed by the benefits it has to deliver, challenged by the commentaries and reactions, the “creative flash” imposes itself, as if it was magic.

But the journey has only just begun. The concept appears to be brilliant to a handful of supporters…but not yet to a majority of “decision-makers”! Logical, it’s a question of reference frame, of temporal shift: the company dreams of “fast” innovation without fundamentally calling into question their ways of doing and thinking…

The concept must evolve, find its way, grow, mature, combine the vivid and passive forces of the company, reconcile diverse interests, trigger enthusiasm, convince the sceptical, sublimate the numerous constraints to finally become a major, consensual, transversal and …viable project!

It needs to intrinsically have a certain POTENTIAL which has to be revealed… and therefore, one has to take the time to communicate appropriately.

Let’s assume that this stage has been reached (!). The budget and  resources have been partially allocated. The timing is then often tight. 

What should have been done serenely must now very often be developed rapidly.

Everything goes well, the construction of the building can now be technically accelerated by injecting additional resources and by getting appropriate help.

But, beware! Excellence of execution must remain the objective!

The building is now complete. The architects and tradesmen are proud to have built, by starting from the past, and projecting into the future, a more than perfect present.

The future will confirm the potential of the work: simple fuse or brilliant fireworks, the passion of a few has led to an extraordinary adventure.

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