Dive Brief:
- "Adaptability, flexibility and creatively staying on-trend" are three key qualities that have helped startups and smaller companies, but also larger, more established manufacturers, keep up with the competition and consumers' changing needs and preferences, Distinctive Foods president and CEO Josh Harris said at a conference this week.
- While automation may be a necessary component of a large but efficient and profitable company, manufacturers may consider reducing or eliminating it in certain areas if they are trying to identify ways to be more nimble, flexible, and adaptable.
- Harris compared food to fashion, particularly in the way that consumers are fickle, which means demands for food and beverage products change regularly. "The kind of stuff I ate as a kid is nothing like what my kids eat now. I don’t think anyone would have conceived what direction the food industry would go in today," Harris said.
Dive Insight:
Large manufacturers often envy the nimbleness of startups that are not yet as wholly committed to sustaining profitability and appeasing shareholders, as bigger companies tend to be.
"Being a small company, we don’t have as many processes and procedures or capital investments, so we kind of 'bob and weave' in the market to stay on trend and continually introduce receptive products in the market," Harris said during the panel.
That ability to "bob and weave" eludes many companies once they grow to a certain size, file an IPO, or otherwise become beholden to major shareholders. Having so many competing interests at a larger company can stifle innovation by management turning down more exotic or unique ideas that a startup operation might immediately latch onto.
Startups are at the forefront of the latest trends. Ultimately, trends can be a guessing game for manufacturers. Not every pumpkin spice-flavored product is a big hit, but certain brands win big with consumers. Manufacturers large and small need to be aware of trends in the industry and be discriminating enough to discern for themselves which trends are worth the investment and which are worth passing on.