Top of the Post 📥 

Hello, entrepreneurs!

It’s been an action-packed week 🙌 

• Podcast: Mental Health for Professional Success

• Biz Hack: Tackling Innovation Scaries

• Biz Essentials: A 30-Second Masterclass on Mental Strength

• Save the Date: Networking Events Worth the Hype

But first, a tour of the headlines…

Weekly Catchups

News | Industry Insights | Trends

• 💰️ Deal Sealed

  Tesla shareholders unanimously voted to reinstate the CEO Elon Musk’s $55 billion compensation package, which was okayed in 2018 but struck down by a Delaware judge in January. Musk had earlier threatened to leave the company and develop important tech like AI elsewhere if it was not re-upped.

• 📊 Digital Twin At Work

  Zoom’s CEO and founder Eric Yuan laid out a vision for workplaces populated by AI avatars that attend meetings, send emails, and even make business decisions on your behalf. He predicts that, within five or six years, workers will be able to scale down their workdays to three to four days a week and attend just 10% of the meetings they do today. 

• 🔢 85%

  The share of companies with zero profit or negative net income that sought capital under a regulatory shortcut that allows risky startups to raise billions from rookie investors. Regulation A, designed to help smaller companies, lets businesses raise as much as $75 million annually while complying with lighter-touch rules than a traditional IPO.

Biz Hacks

Strategies | Tools | Marketing Tips

Dodge These Common Innovation Traps

Ever feel like you need to come up with the next big thing constantly, but the world seems saturated with options? That's the struggle facing Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies today. They're under pressure to keep innovating, but store shelf space is shrinking. Sound familiar? As entrepreneurs, we all face the challenge of bringing fresh ideas to market.

Take a deep dive into the innovation traps CPG companies fall into, and explore strategies to help you navigate the innovation landscape and stand out, even in a crowded marketplace.

STAGE 1: IDEATION 🧠

❌ Trap: Chasing New News

Retailers reinforce CPG companies’ addiction to innovation, scrounging for “new news” that will excite consumers, drive traffic to stores, and provide incremental sales. The result? A vicious innovation cycle drains organisational resources. 

✅ Solutions: If you find yourself approaching this trap: 

• Resort To Other Growth Levers: Innovation isn’t the ONLY route to growth. Other tools such as price adjustment or distributions can be cost-effective approaches. 

• Review Your Portfolio: Avoid investment in new product launches for low-growth brands in stagnant categories. Invest in medium-growth brands in growing categories. 

STAGE 2: DEVELOPMENT 🔨

❌ Trap: One Process Fits All

R&D leaders often believe their company should develop a new product line in the same way as it would a major line extension or packaging change. This mindset can encumber simpler projects. 

✅ Solutions: If you find yourself approaching this trap: 

• Evaluate Project Complexity: Take account of products’ complexity drivers such as the need for new ingredients, new suppliers, or products making new claims. 

• Creating a Tailored Process: As an example, a change to graphics on packaging through a streamlined approval process drastically reduces time-to-market. 

• Operate Boldly: Trust new processes, timelines and requirements. 

STAGE 3: POST-LAUNCH 🚀

❌ Trap: Innovation Fatigue 

Unfortunately, marketers who lead the charge on innovation are incentivised for short-term innovation performance and do not create systems to monitor product performance over the long run. 

✅ Solutions: If you find yourself approaching this trap: 

• Create Holistic Launch Plans: Design launch plans, including distribution, advertising, marketing, supply chain, and inventory forecasts to ensure that resources are in place to support the initiative post-launch. 

• Employ Long-Term Tracking: Track innovation metrics (both financial and non-financial) closely for at least two to three years post-launch. Tie incentives to meeting or exceeding these metrics for enhanced accountability. 

Biz Essentials

Hand-picked resources to keep you inspired

• It’s Viral 📣Roger Federer’s commencement address at Dartmouth College. Federer acknowledged that many perceived his success as ‘effortless’ but he stated that was far from the truth. “Most of the time it’s not about having a gift. It’s about having grit,” the Tennis legend said. 

• Engage 🗣️ Elon Musk fired 80% of Twitter (6500 people) and everyone thought that the social media platform was doomed. It’s the management masterclass of the decade and every entrepreneur must understand why it worked. 

• Pocket-Worthy Reads 📚 Six Verbs That Make You Sound Weak (No Matter Your Job Title)

• Productivity ✏️The Best Way To Organize Your Life, Based On Your Myers Briggs Type

Don’t Miss It!

Networking | Business Development | Entrepreneurship

Feedback, please!