THE OUTSIDE FOOD CONSULTING AND MANAGEMENT ADVANTAGE

New food and beverage product development is often one of the least repetitive, lowest-volume processes in most companies or business units. The typical frequency of performing this process ranges from one to 100 projects per year in the vast majority of companies or business units.

As a result, management frequently looks at new product development more of an art than a defined business process. In house costs involved can be quite elevated, involving highly paid workers that do not have a well-defined business process. The result is the effort required to characterize and improve in house product development is just not worth it. One of the many reasons the consultant industry is growing is because companies now leave the development process up to outside consultants and concentrate about other cost saving strategies in house to maximize their bottom line.

In addition, the typical duration of new food and beverage product development projects ranges anywhere from three months to three years. As a result, development personnel do not have the opportunity to learn from and to refine the development process through repeated use on an individual basis. Long term relationships with an outside food consultant can ensure that new employees in company structure stay educated and up on every process.

With the rapid pace of food and beverage technology, the hiring of many young engineers in some industries causes high turn-over rates. It is not unusual to see product development personnel with key roles in a development project, not complete a full development cycle on a prior project within their companies. In short, many development personnel have little understanding of or practical experience with any standard new product development process in their companies. Fact is, the whole process can become extremely expensive to maintain and is another reason why outside food consultants are cheaper to utilize and more beneficial in the long run.

INNOVATIVE FOOD DEVELOPMENT GENERATED BY CREATIVE FREE THINKING

When people think about creativity, they think about artistic work -- unbridled, unguided effort that leads to that home run product that spearheads the business to grand profitability. But if you look deeper, you'll find that some of the most exciting and profitable products were developed with very little constraints. Many reasons for this is because creativity triumphed over the "rules."

Unfortunately when running a large company, internal constraints and rules are needed. The downside is that they can damper creativity and cause multiple challenges for employees to overcome. Distractions from co workers and internal politics are some of the many reasons big companies become the titanic in slow moving waters. So much red tape bogs down the creativity / product development process and it takes forever to turn the big boat.

One of the biggest problems facing many companies today is that management has a difficult time with the perspective required to continually lead. This is one of the reasons that the average CEO position lasts just 10 years. By living in the "bubble", thought processes become stale and companies hit the bump. If there is not enough outside influence to create another perspective, profitability will most certainly drop.

Many companies are now choosing outside food consultants like ptm consulting to create that perspective missing in their business structure. Just the initial collaboration of thoughts and ideas with us can come up with simple exciting solutions that can generate quick profitability and can breathe new life into your company structure.