Blog
Cillit Bang Boss Admits He Makes Some Stupid Products
14th February 2008
There is some tremendous business studies material in an article in the Guardian today. Bart Becht, the CEO of consumer product conglomerate Reckitt Benckiser, has admitted that no every product innovation by his business is a success. In fact, he admits that some of the group’s brand innovations are “very stupid”.
After revealing some strong sales figures yesterday, Becht emphasised the importance of product innovation. He has explained that more than £2bn of Reckitt’s £5.3bn annual revenues for 2007 came from products launched in the past three years. However, not every new product is a hit with household consumers. Around 20% of product innovations fail.
According to the article:
“Last year it [Beckitt] reinvested 12.4% of revenues into advertising for its leading products. It spends about 1.6% of revenue on its own in-house research and development of new products, though Becht insists the figure is much higher when outsourced research and development is included.”