Thinking “inside the box” is usually safe and not particularly controversial.
However, reputations are built and often the greatest financial rewards occur, when someone thinks “outside the box” to develop creative solutions for customers. Examples on the new products front include the teams who won our 2003 Spirit of Innovation Awards: Schwan's with a single-serve, microwaveable, stuffed pizza slice and Wells' Dairy with an inverted, “pop out,” packaged sundae with a topping that melts first. (See PF October 2003.)