There's a line of thinking that successful people are those who are willing to fail – and not just once, but as many times as it takes to reach their goals.
And the importance of failure was a key focus of some of the talks given at the AIP Conference in Queensland last week.
McCormick & Co head of global innovation Jacqui Wilson-Smith shared her personal story of obstacle after obstacle on the road to sales success, starting with the slowing sales of Gourmet Garden herb tubes.
In response to this product hiccup, Wilson-Smith's strategy was to throw herself into getting to know the brand's end consumers by visiting their homes and talking about their buying habits.
This process enabled her team to switch from focusing on how to sell more tubes, and tap into what shoppers really felt in the herb section of the supermarket.
“When the consumer would go to the fixture in the herbs and spices section they would see a wall of green, and this was overwhelming – and when they didn't use those herbs at home, they experienced what we called 'wilt guilt',” she said.
A series of ideation sessions followed as Gourmet Garden collaborated with suppliers and continued to visit consumers’ homes in order to help develop new prototypes.
“For consumers, tube food was weird – squishing up basil and coriander and so on – so we tackled this consumer-led problem of a herb and spice that was closer to fresh, but would last,” Wilson-Smith said.
So they came up with a range of lightly dried herb pots which went on to win awards and met consumers right where they were at.
Wilson-Smith says companies need to "look for failure" in a constructive way, with a willingness to “adapt and pivot quickly”.
From dark to light
Steve Chapman, who co-founded “smart drinks” company Shine+ with Zambrero food chain entrepreneur Sam Prince, says his road to success has also been lined with unexpected turns.
Always the “start-up kid”, Chapman sold his car wash services from his back-yard and carved out an inevitable path towards investment banking.
However, realising he was “more entrepreneur than accountant”, he came up with an idea to sell an app, called FaceBuy, for a billion dollars.
The next thing he knew, Facebook's legal team sent him a cease and desist letter for trademark violations, and deleted the 8000-follower Facebook page Chapman had built.
It was a humbling time, with Chapman taking on a job working as a PA for Zambrero food chain founder Sam Prince for three years, taking notes and making burritos.
“The road back was tough, and I had to shed my old skin,” Chapman said.
Even the Shine+ launch was met with challenges. The natural nootropic drink sold out straight away, finding its way into 2000 stores in 18 months.
But 90 per cent of the bottles they shipped broke – which led Chapman and Prince to a packaging team which helped them with a custom display holder which would ensure it wouldn't happen again.
They went on to devise a new 400ml range to roll out nationally – but it too was met with challenges, with the matt black painted bottle chipping and flaking during delivery from China.
“We then had to create shrink wraps and depalletise, and apply new shrink wrap over the label,” he says.
“We’re always on the journey of reinvention – and we know we will continue to feel the chaos of the unknown.
“But we will continue to believe that anything is possible.”
