1. 10 PILLARS OF FOOD
INNOVATION WORKSHOP
March 16-18, 2015
Hilton Garden Inn
1050 Plaza Drive
Highlands Ranch (Denver), CO 80129
Dr. Darrel Suderman, President
WWW.FOODBEVBIZ.COM

2. COURSE DESCRIPTION
Thiscourse teaches the 10core pillars(principles) requiredforsuccessfulnewproductinnovation and
commercialization that have a proven track record among nonfood Fortune 100 companies on an
internationalbasis. Itisadocumentedfactthatcompaniesthatinnovategrow shareholder value and
deepen profitsfasterthanthose that don’t – Apple,Microsoft,and Facebookare a few examplesof
‘progressiveanddisruptiveinnovation’.Thisinteractiveworkshopwillexplainthe core businessvalue
of the following pillars of education:
1. Beginning of Food Innovation is Creativity & Ideation
2. Brand Marketing Strategy is Core to Food Innovation
3. How to Recognizing Innovation Opportunities & Supporting Them
4. To Start Innovation Is To Gain A Foothold
5. Test The Business Potential
6. Reverse Innovation: A Global Perspective
7. The CEO Drives the Innovation Process
8. A Dedicated Innovation Team
9. Performance Engine – Shared Resources Business Model
10. Innovation Success Metrics & Benchmarking
WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
The course is designed for anyone in the food and beverage industry responsible for new product
innovation and commercialization – including senior C-level executives, marketing and operations
executives,directorsandmanagers, researchchefs,andfood scientistswhoare currentlyaccountable for
new product innovation, or expect to become involved in developing and marketing new innovative
products.
COURSE INSTRUCTOR
The course is taught by Dr. Darrel Suderman, who has worked in new product development and
commercialization for twelve (15) major QSR chains over 20 years. He has taught and refined these core
principlestoaspiringnewchefsat Johnson& WalesCulinaryUniversity(JWCU) as an adjunctprofessorof
New Product Development and Commercialization - and incorporated these principles into the coaching
processof the JohnsonandWalesstudentculinary competitionteamsponsoredby the U.S. ResearchChef
Association competition. The coursehasalsobeentaughttolargefoodcompanyrepresentatives nationally,
and to the entire executive team of the largest QSR chain in Colombia South America. The innovation
principleswere alsousedto evaluate 30 QSR/Fast Casual brand evaluationinAustralia. However,histrue
inspiration came when he realized how many food companies loosely use the term Food Innovation on
business cards and corporate R&D Centers – but had little true innovative products to show for it. This is
contrary to many nonfood companies that have been continuously successful at new product innovation
like Apple.
Dr. Suderman is recognized internationally as a food innovation guru. He has written 85+ food thought
provoking innovation blogs for the leading restaurant websites www.QSRweb.com and
www.FastCasual.com. He spoke about food innovation in May, 2013 to the Korean Food Industry
Association and the Asian Food Forum, In addition, he spent two weeks in Turkey helping the leading
breading manufacturer developing innovative new products. He is co-inventor of Popcorn Chicken,
consideredtohave $1B yearlysalesinternationally. Asaninventor,he holdstwoUSFoodProductpatents.

3. A brief overview of each food innovation pillar:
1. Beginning of Food Innovation is Creativity & Ideation
This session discusses the three primary components of human creativity, the role and application of
creativity to new food product innovation, and debunk the most common creativity myths. It also
reviews how management can encourage idea generation, select and apply the top four idea-
generating ideation techniques, and the top three brainstorming techniques. While it discusses and
practices ideation techniques,this workshop will NOT spend an extended period of time practicing
ideation practices common to the industry.
2. Brand Marketing Strategy is Core to Food Innovation
This session discusses the strategic role of brand strategy in new product innovation. The reference
book for the session What Great Brands Do, written by Denise Lee Yohn who is a recognized
international expert in brand marketing. The four primary segments of this session will be Brand as
Strategy, Marketing as Strategy, Technology as Strategy, And the Concept of Strategate™.
3. How to Recognizing Innovation Opportunities & Supporting Them
Thissessiondiscusseshowtorecognizeinnovationopportunities,assignvalueto them, andbringthem
to a successful marketplace reality:
 How to Screen Ideas
 How to Fit Into Marketing Strategy
 How to Assign Valuation to Ideas
 How to Gain Peer & Corporate Support
 How to Begin the Commercialization Process
4. To Start Innovation Is To Gain A Foothold
This session discusses the steps required to begin building the internal sales support process for
innovative newproducts – beginningwith the “IdeaChampion”,and otherinnovationteam members
in building broader recognition and support within a department, division, company, or processing
plant.
 The importance of timing in gaining recognition and support
 How to build a business case for the innovative idea
 Overcoming resistance, and maintaining momentum
5. Test The Business Potential
This session discuses innovative product value and what are appropriate valuation techniques?
Value is what a willing buyer and seller have agreed upon as the basis for the exchange of
property, or in our case, intellectual property (IP) rights.
Simplyput, valuationisthe processof estimatingamutuallyagreeduponvalue for a productor
an intellectual property that will enable its transfer from seller to buyer. A perfect valuation
scenario is one where both the buyer and seller walk away each thinking it got the best deal.
Session 10 will also provide insight on how performance metrics can clarify the product’s
valuation.

4. 6. Reverse Innovation: A Global Perspective
Since the food and beverage industry represents a global marketplace, this session discusses
reverse innovation. The reverse innovation processwasfirst adoptedinthe developingworld.
Reverse innovationassumesthe innovative new productsare both affordable &effective.One
example wewill studyisGatorade.Ithelpedpeople recoverwhowere sufferingseverediarrhea
caused by cholera. Giving people carbohydrate and sugar in the solution with salt, enabled a
quicker nutrient uptake that helped patients rehydrate faster. The solution proved to be
feasible, affordable, easy to apply or implement, and effective.
7. The CEO Drives the Innovation Process
The ultimate business goal for a CEO is get the innovative ideas consumers want and need
executed, commercialized, and introduced into the marketplace. This session studies the
behavioral characteristics and governing responsibilities of successful CEOs at innovative
leading companies. A successful innovative process begins with an engaged CEO. A company
mission statement without “innovation” will certainly never attain innovative products.
8. A Dedicated Innovation Team
This session studies the 6 steps used to build a dedicated food and beverage innovation team,
beginningwiththe CEOassemblingtheteam, andinforminghisexecutive teamof hisactions.The
CEO then defines the team’s mission, objectives, and skill sets required for hiring team
members. A budget, reporting channels, and organizational model are defined and
communicatedacrossthe organization – so that realistic success can be expected and realized.
9. Performance Engine – Shared Resources Business Model
This session will review the sharing of company resources between the Dedicated Innovation
Team and the shared staff of the Performance Engine – which represents the current building,
office,andintellectual resources.A highlysuccessful dedicatedintellectual teamneverrepresent
an island unto itself. Even though it has a high calling to the company’s future success, it still
dependsonsharedresourcesof theestablishedcompany.Google’s“NoBoss”teammanagement
approach will be discussed for its application.
10. Innovation Success Metrics & Benchmarking
No successful innovation is complete without measurement tools. In this final session, we will
studybenchmarkingandperformance metricsanddefinethe differencesbetweenboth.We will
discuss howKPIsorKeyPerformance Indicatormetricscanbe appliedtomeasure the innovation
processand endproducts.And we will identifyspecific“InnovationKPIs”like IPS(orInnovation
Pipeline Strength) and ROI2 which is (Return on Innovation Investment).