For twenty years, the CPG innovation failure rate has remained between 70% and 90%. During that same period, the industry adopted many frameworks – Design Thinking, Jobs To Be Done, Blue Ocean Strategy, and Horizon Mapping. Each framework was positioned as a way to make organizations more effective in translating consumer opportunity. Each was implemented with training, toolkits, and ceremony.
This month, Starbucks announced that its coffee delivery business is now a $1.0 billion business. Yes, that’s right, $1.0 billion. With a “B.” And, even more striking, in its most recent quarter, Starbucks also announced that said delivery business grew by almost 30%. Now, some out there might be thinking, “Okay, that’s interesting, but what’s the big deal?” Well, the big deal is that the implications of this statistic go far beyond just selling coffee.
Branding is a business strategy. It can justify higher margin because customers trust the brand based on their prior experience or because the brand is the best match for their preferences with respect to one or more product characteristics. The value of the brand to the firm is the price premium it commands.
In those times when maximum effort is not enough, and this happens to everyone and every enterprise, what heartens first is observing others — partners and competitors — who have endured the same condition and prevailed. In the cases where redemption eludes, the second point of heartening is the comfort found in venerating the one element that adheres to every vestige of an endeavor: values.
How do prehistoric oceans have anything to do with business in 2025? Because a story that played out there is repeating itself today. Here’s why:
