Wellington
The guys who presented some newwool innovation ideas last week in Christchurch and Auckland are an interesting bunch, with anextremely interesting business model. (More, generally, about some of these wool ideas in anotherblog - all participants have signed a non-disclosure-agreement).
Fahrenheit 212 , formed by New Zealander Geoff Vuletafive years ago in New York, is the only company of its kind in the world he reckons. Sure, there'smany product development firms, coming up with new ideas for corporate clients.
Where F212 is different according to the Timaru-raised, ex Saatchi man, is its commercial andpre-market focus - plus the fact that a large proportion of its commission fee is embedded with anddependent on the commercial success of the ideas they explore and eventually pitch to theirclients.
These clients are, at the moment, mostly large USA entities. So far, so what's different?
Vuleta's business model somewhat turns traditional thinking on its head when it comes to newproduct development. It's not that consumers aren't important. But, consumers are relatively easy toconvince of a new product's attributes and ability to enhance their lives.
The 'trick', and given a large percentage of F212's fee is based on successful market adoption,is to convince the myriad internal components and people of a corporate, that a new product (and notjust a line extension or variation) is worth pursuing.
Two thirds of F212's staff (last year it received over 3000 applications from people wanting towork there) are loosely what could be called deal-put-togetherers. (sticK's description, notVuleta's). These are people such as investment bankers or commercial strategists who put togetherand develop the argument(s) that what are often quite risk-adverse companies should have a go atwhat is effectively a new enterprise.
Vuleta must be doing something right.
Vuleta says the realisation of the need to internally persuade companies of new productdevelopment has been the fundamental change to what has become a hugely ramped up expansion of thebusiness - with a European office recently being opened.
The job he is carrying out for a government/industry consortium Wool Industry Research Ltd,(WRinc), is an interesting challenge for Vuleta, who retains much of the advertising exec confidenceand charm inherent in the profession.
Part of the role is to help stitch together the deals and players needed to pull off what isexpected to be a model similar to that of Goretex. That is, other manufacturers to use and marketproducts with the branded mostly coarse wool products.
The pulling together of participants will be, to put it mildly, a challenge. The wool industryisn't particularly cash rich, and those in it have historically been more combatants thancollaborators.
In a sense, internally persuading a corporate that a new product is a great idea may besimpler.
However, Vuleta and his team do have one advantage.
In spite of wool's current price surge, no one is under any illusion that the price to farmers orfor those in its value chain are anything like what is needed to maintain a thriving industry.
There's still a backs to the wall aspect to the fibre, and this initiative may come just in thenick of time.
So, good luck to F212 and the wider NZ wool industry.
If nothing else, the exercise has the great potential to reposition coarse wool as somethingother than something you walk on. The ideas presented are anything but a flooring material; andrepresent wool as a natural enhancement to peoples' lives.
Success would also be a tick for bravery on the consortium's part on attempting an exercise thathas never been tried before.