The International Foodservice Manufacturers Association (IFMA) represents the world’s most prestigious food, equipment and supply manufacturers in the $600 billion foodservice industry, accounting for about half of the consumer’s food dollar.  

 

IFMA’s vision is to “provide our member community and industry partners the opportunity to enhance the consumer’s enjoyment of the foodservice choice.” Thus, it is critical that we deliver the best practices and tools companies need to collaborate effectively to create winning solutions and increase consumer satisfaction.

 

It was in this spirit that IFMA, with their partner Stage-Gate International, embarked on creating the Center of Innovation Excellence (CIE), with the goal of building standards in foodservice innovation which would reduce complexity, increase efficiency, and provide a method for operators and manufacturers to collaborate more successfully.  We have just finished another phase of research work and have released a whitepaper with the learnings, titled “New Product Development: Best Practices in Foodservice.” 

 

The whitepaper includes four ready-to-use tools that can be employed in your organization with a focus on four key areas of interest: New Product Development (NPD) Selection; NPD Strategy; NPD Collaboration; and Learning from NPD Successes and Failures.

 

The CIE, IFMA and Stage-Gate International are proud to provide a preview of two of the four tools developed through this work in the following article. If you are interested in purchasing the complete whitepaper, visit ifmaworld.com for more information. 

 

Much success to you!

Larry Oberkfell

President and CEO

IFMA

 

 

 

The tools and information was developed and supported by the following innovative companies:

Along with them, the following operators also contributed to the most recent work: Dunkin’ Brands, Starbucks Coffee Company and Wendy’s.