Kraft Alters Approach to New Product Innovation

BOCA RATON, Fla. -- Stressing "this is not your father's Kraft," Tony Vernon, CEO of Kraft Foods Group Inc., reported that the food products company has undertaken many changes regarding innovation.

According to Forbes, Vernon's speech during the recent Consumer Analyst Group of New York Conference in Boca Raton, Fla. -- his first public address since Kraft's October spinoff of global snacking division Mondelez International Inc. -- alluded to many changes the provider of such brands as MiO beverage mixes, Maxwell House, Oscar Mayer and JELL-O has recently made in an effort to "innovate and contemporize."

One big change has been to focus on fewer, but higher product launches. Previously, Kraft Foods Group employed a "field of dreams" strategy of "if we launch it, they will come," Barry Calpino, Kraft's vice president, said at the conference.

Celebrating innovators as rock stars has been another corporate shift, added Calpino. In addition, the company encouraged employees to get angry and motivated enough to make changes rather than disengaging, the news outlet reported.

Thus far, the corporate shifts have worked, relayed Calpino.

Looking forward, Kraft is committed to learn and execute consistently. "It's just as easy to slip back to worst," he said. "Our innovation must be consistent."