After a year of buying boring staples in bulk, everything is about to change—and brands need to be ready to innovate
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When the pandemic hit, most businesses recalibrated quickly. In many industries, this meant a lot of retrenching: cutting back on services, or for retailers, focusing on basic staples. So while there was plenty of innovation in terms of how companies served customers, there was a lull in the development of new products.
This trend is reaching its limit, according to Paul Earle. Earle, an adjunct lecturer of innovation and entrepreneurship at the Kellogg School with deep experience in new brand and business development, believes the year ahead holds a lot of promise for companies looking to innovate—thanks to a confluence of new needs, new habits, and a sense of relief and openness.
“ People face a lot of problems right now, which will lead to a lot of solutions.”
— Paul Earle
[This article has been republished, with permission, from Kellogg Insight, the faculty research & ideas magazine of Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University]