Innovation is at the
heart of Unilever’s ambition to grow sustainability. All of new innovations at
Unilever are based on key insight into what consumers want and need. They aim
to develop new products that attractive to customers so they will keep choosing
them again and again. The innovation process at Unilever goes through three
main stages of R&D. The first stage is research. Unilever has six laboratories
in the US, UK, Netherlands, India and China. These laboratories work on the
science and technologies that can be applied to Unilever product development
process. The research is aimed to bring together the best thinking and ideas
from wherever they exist. The research is not only from the best scientific
expertise from within Unilever, but they also work closely with universities and
specialist companies. The second stage is development. In this stage, the product
design teams take the breakthroughs in science and technology one step further,
turning unique insights into the products that consumers need. Development and
testing on the technology takes place until it fits the product description. The
last stage of innovation is launching new product. The R&D Deploy teams
draw on a deep understanding of local knowledge as they ready for a product to launch
into a new market. They work closely with colleagues in marketing and supply
chain to make sure the new product can be manufactured efficiently and meets
the needs of consumers.
