There are now a number of innovations that have passed the initial screening against the company's aims and then had their relationships with the product, marketing and technology strategies assessed. These need to be brought together into the final innovation strategy as shown in Fig. 2.8.

Fig. 2.8 Building the final innovation strategy.

Whatever direction its innovation strategy may take, a company needs the knowledge and techniques to create, design and develop the innovation, as well as the resources and implementation skills to bring it to fulfilment. There are many innovation strategies, and they can be combined in various ways, but they need to be analysed on their predicted outcomes before they are accepted into the company. So there is a need in building an innovation strategy firstly to study the total system and the company's situation in it and then to predict the changes that may occur in the system, and to state the optimal situation for the company in the future. In developing innovation strategies, a food company will consider its raw materials, technology, markets, targeted consumers and their wants and needs, but need also to set out clearly:

     the company's place in the food system;

     the company's means of achieving the innovation aims;

     the company's organisation and resources for innovation.