Content about Innovation

CAMDEN, N.J. — Campbell Soup outlined a three-prong growth strategy, which includes new product introductions, in a meeting with investors held on Tuesday.

NEW YORK — A federal judge has ruled in favor of pharmacy technology manufacturer Innovation Associates in a 6-year-old case brought by ScriptPro concerning a component of one of Innovation's dispensing robots, the companies said.

NEW YORK — Everybody talks about “Health & Wellness” and “Product Innovation.” But what do those words actually mean to the consumer?

NEW YORK — Ken Finnegan, Walgreens divisional VP healthcare new business development, will assume leadership of the corporate innovation team, Drug Store News has learned.

Finnegan succeeds Colin Watts, corporate VP and chief innovation officer, who is departing Walgreens for Weight Watchers in January. In that capacity, Finnegan will pick up on Watts' efforts to transform the retail pharmacy retail format into more of a destination center for all issues regarding health and wellness.

CINCINNATI — Procter & Gamble chairman, president and CEO Bob McDonald acknowledged during the company's annual meeting on Tuesday that P&G has “work left to do to deliver the growth” shareholders expect but stressed that the company is making solid progress in fiscal year 2011 despite business and economic challenges.

JOHNSON CITY, N.Y. — A new agreement between Innovation and RxSafe allows Innovation to distribute RxSafe's line of automated, high-density robotic storage and retrieval systems for pharmacies, the two companies said.

Innovation makes the PharmASSIST line of pharmacy automation products, while RxSafe makes the RxSafe and RxVault systems.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Nielsen unveiled this week at its Consumer 360 conference its new approach to product development, which is said to improve companies' chances of success when bringing new products to market.

CHICAGO — U.S. consumers that opted to become more thrifty during the recession will face rising food costs with ease as they've mastered ways to stretch their money, according to new research by NPD.

The research group's Economy Tracker found that nearly 3-out-of-4 consumers (74%) strongly agreed that they expect coupons and special deals will be much more important in deciding what to buy, while 67% said that they would shop less in general and 53% said that they would be buying in bulk.

PARSIPPANY, N.J. — Attention personal care product marketers and manufacturers: Consumers' attitude toward innovation is not what conventional wisdom has been dictating, and there are differences between their current perception of the industry and desired reality. That's according to the findings of Kline & Co.'s new report that leverages a unique form of emerging research methodology.

CINCINNATI "Innovation that truly improves people's lives is more important than ever," Procter & Gamble's chairman, president and CEO Bob McDonald said to company shareholders at its annual meeting.

Commenting on its "purpose-inspired" growth strategy, McDonald said that while significant opportunties for improvement lay ahead, P&G continues to see growth; organic sales grew 3%, core earnings per share rose 6% and adjusted free cash flow was 125% of net earnings for the last fiscal year ended June 30.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT Just goes to show that you need to spend a dollar to make a dollar because that other overused adage, “a penny saved is a penny earned,” might only earn you a penny profit even as you miss that dollar opportunity. Throw these learnings against the wall of SKU rationalization, and what sticks is that the bunker mentality has to end; you can’t grow the market without the tried and true catalyst of a new growth engine powered by innovation.