A Case Study: What Impacts the Fuzzy Front End?

Abstract

Research show that it is early in the innovation process that organizations have the largest possibility to have an impact on the idea, and this impact is the least expensive during the early phase of the innovation process. Even though it is here the organizations have the largest opportunity to have an impact on the potential idea, this phase is often not prioritized by organizations. SCA has decided to not be one of these firms; it has developed and is planning on implementing a process for the Fuzzy Front End (FFE) phase. However, this structured approach is developed in a general way and not tailor made for each unit of the company. Hence, Global Hygiene Category Away From Home Professional Hygiene wants to know how to apply this developed model to their organization, how to use the different tools, and to know what is important when using the different tools among other factors. With employee interviews at the researched unit as the foundation, four factors were considered important to research. The theoretical results show that the main benefits to achieve during ideation workshops are knowledge sharing and gaining additional idea development. Moreover, the identified potential improvement generally is regarding how to manage the four identified factors to be able to obtain the identified benefits. The recommendations argue how SCA could manage each of these four factors in order to obtain the best possible FFE phase.