While we’re sure you have the most creative, inventive, brilliant minds working on your product development and marketing teams, odds are that they are lacking clairvoyant abilities and can not accurately predict how your customers will react to new product features, branding or messaging.  And since your amazing team isn’t made up of a bunch of psychics, you must gather actual customer feedback prior to launching a new initiative or trust your gut. With budgets as tight as they are right now, do you really want to take your gut’s word for it?

The last few years have unquestionably tested our dependency on a commercial goods supply chain constantly in motion. From pandemics and severe weather to canal blockages and labor strikes, even the most successful companies are currently feeling the effects of the currently clogged chain, regardless of industry. In the wake of the Covid-19 shut down, factories closed or slowed production and the re-opening of the economy has been anything but seamless. There just isn’t enough – people (longshoremen, drivers, and postal workers), places (warehouse space), or things (lumber, computer chips, paint, etc) – to fill the demand for many of the goods that consumers need and want today.

Short answer – pretty important!  Sustainability is no longer the buzzword it once was at the turn of the century – it’s now a ‘must-have’ instead of a ‘nice-to-have’ when it comes to consumer purchasing behaviors and if your company isn’t committed to reducing their environmental footprint, you might find yourself falling behind the competition.

When you observe the trajectory of successful organizations, whether Microsoft, Apple or upstarts like the Dollar Shave Club, and Warby Parker, it’s clear that innovation sets them apart from the competition.