Choice Drives Innovation

14.12.15

The famous, or infamous, Trabant was the people’s car of former East Germany. It was produced virtually unchanged for more than 30 years and more than 3 million were built. How is it possible that one car model could be sold unchanged over that length of time? The answer is that East German citizens had no choice. The only available car was the Trabant, and there was no competition to innovate, to lower prices or to improve quality.

Choice always drives excellence, value for money and innovation.

In the field of aseptic food packaging, the dominant roll-fed carton supplier has made the case that innovation creates value.

We wholeheartedly agree.

However, the majority of the “innovations” being promoted by the dominant supplier and now publicised on a new website created in response to choicecreatesvalue.com, just so happen to exclude choice in packaging material suppliers. This actually suppresses future drive to innovate. Without choice, there is little competition to introduce new ideas, features or materials.

The result is innovation that is slow, gradual and often trivial.

Features that tie the packaging material to the filling machine slow future innovation.

Features that retain open supply of packaging material stimulate it.

Still unconvinced? If we think of information technology, which is transforming our lives at a breathtaking pace, there is an enormous difference in the rate of innovation of two adjacent products: smartphones and PC operating systems. A purchaser of a smartphone today has a vast choice in manufacturers, features, operating systems and price. As a result the pace of innovation is extremely rapid and new features are often highly novel.

A PC, in contrast, arrives pre-loaded with an operating system and with no choice for the purchaser. Innovation is leisurely, gradual and relaxed.

Choice drives innovation.