Challenge : 

 I work for a Consumer Goods- Foods company in India with over a 7bn INR in market cap . Needless to   say a large organization ( in the Indian context ) such as this follows a strict process of “ how things are   done ” . While I was initially hired to manage a brand that was growing at a steady pace , a year later I was   given the opportunity to revive one of our most profitable yet slow growing brand . 

 The brand operated in the Sugar - substitute category and though we had 94 % market share in the   category ( it was basically us and some fringe players ) there was very little growth we were seeing year   on year . The reason was that though we were gaining new consumers we were losing 60 % of our base   every year 

 When we conducted consumer research to understand this further , we realized that the consumers   have a very transactional relationship with the brand . They come into the category based on a particular   trigger , ( usually on a dietician or doctors ’ advice ) and then soon drop out after a couple of rounds of   purchase , going back to using regular sugar instead of sugar - substitute . 

 A deeper reason for this behavior was found in the articulation that , consumers saw the brand a short   term solution provider but not as something to be used regularly as food . This was also because the   product format itself was n’t like regular crystal sugar but in the form of pellets which made it look like a   tablet and hence medicinal . 

 Hence we defined our brand objective to positon the brand a regular heathy food product and not as   solution to avoid sugar consumption . 

 To achieve this we deiced to enter into a range of food categories , with the same benefit of being sugar   free , which were identified through a combination of secondary research and ethnographic research . 

 Now the challenge at hand was to : 

 a ) Decide the most suitable food categories to enter into    b ) Galvanize the cross - functional teams to support and drive the new initiative 

 Selection : The tool selected to overcome the above challenge was mind mapping . 

 Mind mapping is an exercise to generate new ideas , at the “ What if ” stage of the design thinking process   for innovation . It helps identify patterns and insights in the abstract and often disjointed data that is   gathered from various sources . ( For more details on the tool please refer to the Week 3 lecture by   Marian moore on Mind mapping in the design thinking for innovation course . ) 

 The reasons for picking this tool were 

 a ) We had large amounts of disjointed data due to our many years of operations on our core 

 product portfolio and from recent consumer research . Mind mapping helps identify patterns in   such data 

 b ) It is natural for an organization to focus on its highest revenue contributing business . While we 

 were looking to launch new categories under the brand it was important for us to align all stake- holders towards ensuring that the success of this new portfolio , especially in the initial years   when the revenue contribution would not be significant . 

 Application : 

 Step 1 : We gathered a cross - functional team of critical stake holders and took them out to resort away   from the city , which we had booked for a full - day conference including some informal activities . 

 Step 2 : We presented the overall challenge faced by the brand and the need for the brand to enter into   new categories 

 Step 3 : We presented the facts from the secondary research on new categories , ethnographic research   on sweetness and the years of quantitative data we had gathered on sweetness as a need state . 

 Step 4 : We then presented the 4 categories in which we could possibly operate and our reasons to do   so . 

 Step 5 : We divided the gathering into 8 groups and asked them to come up with product concepts based   on the data they had seen for all the categories . 

 Step 6 : We asked the groups to present their product concepts to the gathering , followed by a Q&A. 

 Step 7 : We had the concept cards pinned to a board and asked the gathering to individually vote on   each of the concepts . 

 Step 8 : we then asked the gathering to cluster the top product concepts across categories based on their   similarity to other concepts by using sticky notes on which they were written 

 Step9 : We divided the product concepts into separate insight clusters 

 Insight : 

 We were able to arrive at the design criteria based on the insight that ,    “ Avoiding sweetness across product categories drove a wedge among relationships . Its common place   in India to indulge in sweets with friends and family during festivals . Consumers wanted to avoid sugar   and hence ended up not sharing a special moment with their loved ones . Instead of avoid just sugar ,   they were avoiding sweetness itself . ” 

 We were pleasantly surprised at how simple yet effective the process was . It was a lot of great work   accomplished but it did n’t see stressful as an activity . We were also much more confident of our way   forward since it had been ratified by every critical stakeholder within the organization . 

 Approach : 

 As a future approach I would probably involve the team a lot more earlier into the process , probably   even in the “ what is ” stage . We also brought them in when we had narrowed our option down to 4   categories . While we avoided discussions outside of these categories , some ideas had merit in them to   be considered . This made us think that bringing in the team together even earlier into the process would   probably have been more helpful . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: 
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: Challenge : 

 I work for a Consumer Goods- Foods company in India with over a 7bn INR in market cap . Needless to   say a large organization ( in the Indian context ) such as this follows a strict process of “ how things are   done ” . While I was initially hired to manage a brand that was growing at a steady pace , a year later I was   given the opportunity to revive one of our most profitable yet slow growing brand . 

 The brand operated in the Sugar - substitute category and though we had 94 % market share in the   category ( it was basically us and some fringe players ) there was very little growth we were seeing year   on year . The reason was that though we were gaining new consumers we were losing 60 % of our base   every year 

 When we conducted consumer research to understand this further , we realized that the consumers   have a very transactional relationship with the brand . They come into the category based on a particular   trigger , ( usually on a dietician or doctors ’ advice ) and then soon drop out after a couple of rounds of   purchase , going back to using regular sugar instead of sugar - substitute . 

 A deeper reason for this behavior was found in the articulation that , consumers saw the brand a short   term solution provider but not as something to be used regularly as food . This was also because the   product format itself was n’t like regular crystal sugar but in the form of pellets which made it look like a   tablet and hence medicinal . 

 Hence we defined our brand objective to positon the brand a regular heathy food product and not as   solution to avoid sugar consumption . 

 To achieve this we deiced to enter into a range of food categories , with the same benefit of being sugar   free , which were identified through a combination of secondary research and ethnographic research . 

 Now the challenge at hand was to : 

 a ) Decide the most suitable food categories to enter into    b ) Galvanize the cross - functional teams to support and drive the new initiative 

 Selection : The tool selected to overcome the above challenge was mind mapping . 

 Mind mapping is an exercise to generate new ideas , at the “ What if ” stage of the design thinking process   for innovation . It helps identify patterns and insights in the abstract and often disjointed data that is   gathered from various sources . ( For more details on the tool please refer to the Week 3 lecture by   Marian moore on Mind mapping in the design thinking for innovation course . ) 

 The reasons for picking this tool were 

 a ) We had large amounts of disjointed data due to our many years of operations on our core 

 product portfolio and from recent consumer research . Mind mapping helps identify patterns in   such data 

 b ) It is natural for an organization to focus on its highest revenue contributing business . While we 

 were looking to launch new categories under the brand it was important for us to align all stake- holders towards ensuring that the success of this new portfolio , especially in the initial years   when the revenue contribution would not be significant . 

 Application : 

 Step 1 : We gathered a cross - functional team of critical stake holders and took them out to resort away   from the city , which we had booked for a full - day conference including some informal activities . 

 Step 2 : We presented the overall challenge faced by the brand and the need for the brand to enter into   new categories 

 Step 3 : We presented the facts from the secondary research on new categories , ethnographic research   on sweetness and the years of quantitative data we had gathered on sweetness as a need state . 

 Step 4 : We then presented the 4 categories in which we could possibly operate and our reasons to do   so . 

 Step 5 : We divided the gathering into 8 groups and asked them to come up with product concepts based   on the data they had seen for all the categories . 

 Step 6 : We asked the groups to present their product concepts to the gathering , followed by a Q&A. 

 Step 7 : We had the concept cards pinned to a board and asked the gathering to individually vote on   each of the concepts . 

 Step 8 : we then asked the gathering to cluster the top product concepts across categories based on their   similarity to other concepts by using sticky notes on which they were written 

 Step9 : We divided the product concepts into separate insight clusters 

 Insight : 

 We were able to arrive at the design criteria based on the insight that ,    “ Avoiding sweetness across product categories drove a wedge among relationships . Its common place   in India to indulge in sweets with friends and family during festivals . Consumers wanted to avoid sugar   and hence ended up not sharing a special moment with their loved ones . Instead of avoid just sugar ,   they were avoiding sweetness itself . ” 

 We were pleasantly surprised at how simple yet effective the process was . It was a lot of great work   accomplished but it did n’t see stressful as an activity . We were also much more confident of our way   forward since it had been ratified by every critical stakeholder within the organization . 

 Approach : 

 As a future approach I would probably involve the team a lot more earlier into the process , probably   even in the “ what is ” stage . We also brought them in when we had narrowed our option down to 4   categories . While we avoided discussions outside of these categories , some ideas had merit in them to   be considered . This made us think that bringing in the team together even earlier into the process would   probably have been more helpful .
### Output: 