12. Leading Innovation in Legacy Food Brands with Cherie Floyd

What does innovation really look like inside legacy food brands?

In this live episode of Women Who Make It, host Angela Dodd sits down with Cherie Floyd, Vice President of R&D for Sweet Baked Snacks at JM Smucker, to explore innovation, leadership, and career growth in today’s fast-changing food industry.

Recorded at Baking Tech in Chicago, this candid conversation covers everything from defining innovation and managing risk to navigating clean label pressure, AI in R&D, and leading cross-functional teams in complex organizations. Cherie also shares hard-earned career lessons, including why failure is part of the process and how sideways career moves can unlock unexpected growth.

Whether you’re a student, a technical leader, or a senior executive, this episode offers practical insight and honest perspective on what it takes to build resilient careers—and enduring brands—in food and beverage.

FULL SHOW NOTES 

Tune in for new episodes every other Thursday. 

If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe & leave a review!

Follow Females in Food on LinkedIn and Instagram

Follow The Women Who Make It Podcast on LinkedIn and Instagram

Subscribe to The Women Who Make It Podcast on YouTube 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Your career's like a jungle gym. Sometimes you gotta go sideways. And when you go sideways, you're gonna learn something really cool.

SPEAKER_02 0:07

Welcome to Women Who Make It. Real conversations with women in the food and beverage industry who are building careers, leading teams, and figuring it all out. After years of building females and food, I've had conversations with some of the most brilliant women in the industry. And they shared the real stuff. The pivots, the boundaries, the burnouts, and the moments of is this even working before it finally clicked? So I hit record, and now you get to hear it too. We're women who make it. So let's dig in. Welcome everybody. I am so, so excited to be here. Whether you're here with us live or listening in later, I'm Angela Dodd, the host of Women Who Make It. I'm also the founder of Females in Food, and I have been working in the B2B ingredient industry for the last 20 years, both as a food scientist and as a commercial sales leader now for IFF. And we are recording this episode live today from ASB's next stage at Baking Tech in Chicago, the premier annual event where baking professionals can come together, network, learn, and explore the latest innovations that are shaping the future of our industry. A very special thank you to ASB's next stage sponsor, J and K Ingredients, for supporting this conversation and allowing us to create spaces like this for technical and leadership dialogue at this conference. So if today's discussion sparks ideas, debate, I gotta move my chair over a little bit. I feel like I'm leaning, leaning too far. If today's discussion inspires debate or you guys want to continue the conversation, I know how good everybody is at multitasking. So take out your phones right now and click follow along on ASB and at Women Who Make It. We'd really love for you guys to uh join the conversation later and keep things going. And if you're already looking ahead till next year, you can start thinking about ASB's annual conference in Atlanta at the Hyatt Regency, February 21st through the 27th. Um, and of course, you can learn more about ASB at asbe.org and also women who make it at femalesandfood.community. So that was a very long introduction, but now let's get to why we're really, really here in our guest of our guest of honor. It brings me a tremendous amount of joy to bring this conversation to ASB. We're joined today by Sherry Floyd, who's a vice president of RD for sweet baked snacks at JM Smucker Company. And personally, I have known Sherry for the past 20 years. Um, on a personal level, I am so humbled that this is a full circle moment that I get to interview her. I met her as an intern, and I know we have a lot of students here at ASB. Um, and it's just want to take a minute to say how transformational those mentors and those first leaders that enter your career, how transformational and impactful they can be in your life. And Sherry is that to me. So really happy to have you here. I've had the great pleasure of getting to see her lead across multiple global organizations from Kellogg's to General Mills and now at JM Smucker. Complex portfolios with both technical depth and business clarity that they all require. And I'm genuinely excited to have this conversation. So, what are we gonna be talking about here today? We're gonna dive into what it means to lead innovation inside legacy brands. We're gonna be talking about how innovation is prioritized and executed within large established baking and snack portfolios and how teams balance that indulgence and familiarity with the evolving expectations that we all know about when it comes to BetterView and Clean Label. And then we're gonna get into some of the fun parts of Sherry's uh career journey and what she has experienced in building these iconic brands over the course of her career um across the globe. So, welcome Sherry to the conversation.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

Thank you very much. Um delighted to uh be here with you.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

And uh especially given our long relationship and friendship, this is just uh this is very touching, very heartwarming, and uh really exciting. So um, you know, sometimes the uh student becomes the teacher, and that's how I feel about my relationship with Angela. I've learned a great deal from her as she's matured in her career as well.

SPEAKER_02 4:34

Oh well, this we're gonna have a lot of fun. And if there already um, we had a few questions submitted in advance. Uh, if there are any questions, though, we'd be happy to take them at the end as well. But we have a really fun discussion for you guys. Uh, let's start big picture, first of all. Because I I'm guessing if I asked every single person in this room what innovation means to each of you, I would get you know 50 different answers from each of you. So as you think about leading RD for the sweet baked um snacks category, but for a brand that has carried decades of equity and deep consumer loyalty, what does this mean to you? And I'm talking brands, hostess, cupcakes, donuts, like how do you think about innovation um inside your company today?

SPEAKER_01 5:19

So for me, innovation really has to have three things. First of all, it has to be new or novel, not necessarily new to the world, right? But new to the brand, new to the company. Um, innovation can be taking something from another industry and applying it. It can be taking something from another brand within your company and applying it, but it has to be new. Second thing, it has to create value. So it has to create value for the consumer or a retailer and the company. And um, and that that and is really important, right? So, um, but it has to have that. And the third thing is innovation has to be something you can bring to market. So I was reading a book about innovation, and they mentioned that the light bulb was a great invention. Innovation was figuring out how to mass produce it and how to get it attached to a reliable electricity grid. Because without an electricity grid, that light bulb wasn't worth anything, right? So I think that's kind of the difference. Now, I do think innovation has all different kinds of definitions, depending upon where you are, what company you work for. And those definitions can change over time. But for me, if you're bringing a new idea, a new technology, a new flavor to a product, a new capability to a product, that's innovation.

SPEAKER_02 6:43

Yeah. There is a lot of different ways to look at this. And I think about applying all those through different lenses. And when you think about a lay your legacy brand and what consumers expect when they go to the market and how you're shaping this within RD, how do you really think about it? Are from stretching the brand to protecting it to reinventing it. So often we think, is this renovation or is it innovation? And I'm wondering if you can expand on that a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

Yeah. So I mean, whether you're protecting or building, I think the answer is yes. Right. So I mean, sometimes all at the same time. And how you're doing it can be a variety of things. So when you're working on legacy brands, and I've had the pleasure of working on a lot of legacy brands, but when you're working on something that has a very long history, you've got to keep in mind what is the essence of that food? What is the essence of that brand? What's going to pull through to new generations? And then what are the things you got to let go? What are the things you've got to change? And I think keeping that all in mind is really important. Understanding a little bit about the brand history is important, but the most important thing is consumers. And if I say consumers once, I'll probably say it a million times during those 30 minutes, right? So consumer is the center of your world. So what does that consumer want? And not only what does your core consumer want, that consumer that is very loyal and a heavy user of your product, but also why did those consumers that bought you a couple of times and then stop buying you, why did they stop? Why did people that bought you for a while and then walked away, why did they stop? What about the consumers you need to catch up, capture in the future? What do they want from your product? And not only just the product characteristics, but how they're going to use it, how does it fit into their life? So I think you've got to take all of that into account. And, you know, sometimes you can take a product and and you can completely reinvent it, but you need to be careful about how many people that purchase it today are not going to purchase it after you've changed it versus how many people are going to buy it after you've changed it. So I think all of that is is really important to keep in mind. And always know that you're never going to get it perfectly right. Right. Um, so products evolve over time. And uh certainly our portfolio has, and most every brand I've ever worked on has.

SPEAKER_02 9:05

Yeah. That's I couldn't agree with that more. And I think about I think about what so many RD and brand strategists are up against right now, and especially in the industry when I mean you and I have been around for a hot minute, and it's interesting to see the different trends that have impacted our industry, right? And things that have started in science and pulled forward to the consumer versus the consumer kind of pulling our industry along, similar to like GLP1 right now. And are we ready to respond as an industry? And as you think about, you know, keeping that customer center and balancing how do we prioritize what gets moved forward? Where do you like to lean in most heavily, whether it's consumer insight, brand strategy, margin, but also this is it feasible in manufacturing to still move this forward? And I know this is a lot to unpack. Like this is no easy, simple uh conversation when we think about it. But I do think that's what so much of us are feeling in the industry right now is as we think about innovation, how should we look at prioritization and what should we be listening to for the for the right metrics of like how are we gonna win?

SPEAKER_01 10:18

Yeah, I, you know, it's it this is the most interesting time I've ever had in my career. And this is my 30th year in the industry. That's a little hard to say out loud, but I did the math and it's right, you know. Then I looked in the mirror and went, yep, that's true. Um so I think when you ask about what you have to listen to, the answer is everything. And that's that's a little overwhelming, right? So for me, when we think about some of these things that are going on around the conversation around food in the public domain, right? Uh, good ingredients, bad ingredients, good foods, bad foods. Uh eat this, don't eat this. This is gonna kill you, this is gonna save you. So when you're looking at all of that, for me, the first thing is let's ground ourselves in the science, because I'm a scientist and I like science. So, what is the science? What do we know? What do we not know? You're not gonna get that from TikTok, but let's understand what's in the science. Then you do need to go to TikTok and you need to hear what they're saying. And you need to read the books by the people that are gonna make your blood pressure rise, right? You need to read and understand what all of the views are. And then you need to try to figure out like, where is your brand? Where is your business? What is your business trying to do? Context matters when it comes to innovation and what you prioritize. There are times in my career when the business has been ready to take on um risks. And innovation is risky. Make no bones about it. Most innovation will fail. I have launched and had delisted more innovation than I could probably list in this 30 minutes. And I've had a couple that have lasted for a pretty long time. I've got one that's been on the market for 25 years, and I have a lot that are in between, right? But most of it's gonna fail. And that failure is a risk to the business. So sometimes I've been in cases where we're willing to take those risks and we're really willing to reach and stretch the brand, stretch the business, stretch the opportunity, stretch the category. There's other times when you're not really quite ready to do that. There's times when the business needs for you to stay a little closer to home. The one thing I will say about innovation and your innovation portfolio is it needs to be a blend. It's got to be a blend of short term, needs to be a little bit of medium term, and you need to have a couple of things out there for the long term. The other thing I will say about innovation portfolios is never, ever, ever stop working on your pipeline. Never. I don't care where the business is. If the business says, I only want to do flavor extensions for the next three years, keep pushing on a couple of ideas that are a little farther out because it takes a long time to build them. And when they need them, you're not going to be able to just pull a rabbit out of the hat. So I think you really have to find the balance between what the business needs today, what it's going to need tomorrow. And of course, the consumer has to be at the center. But unfortunately, that takes a little bit of crystal ball, right? So when Angela and I, we were laughing when we first worked together at Kellogg, it was all about 100 calorie packs. Wow, that's interesting. You remember those memory packs? Right? I've lived through 100 calorie packs, I've lived through low fat, I've lived through trans fat, uh, taking trans fat out. Um, I've lived through high protein, keto diet, low sugar, good sugar, bad sugar, uh, you know, so these things come and go. And you do have to have a little bit of a crystal ball to help your brand skate to where it needs to be.

SPEAKER_02 13:39

Yeah, I love that. One of the first, as you were talking, one of the first lessons you taught me, fail fast, fail fast in innovation. And remember the first project you handed me as an intern. Um, and it ended up getting canceled. And I was like, it was like halfway through my six-month internship, and we were doing advanced, and it's three to five years out stuff, and I was so like into it. I was really, really excited about this project, and it got cut. And I remember you coming to me and you're like, this is this is a good thing, though. Like we're we're failing fast, and we got our answers, and but you said something important. You take something from each of those product projects and carry them forward. And um, so I couldn't I couldn't agree more in that, in that space. So we couldn't talk about innovation without talking about AI. Yep. Tell us what is happening on your desk, in your Teams, in your company as it relates to AI, and where are you finding success? Where are there kind of gaps or risk?

SPEAKER_01 14:40

AI is fascinating, right? And I think a lot of people, especially um for those of you listening to this, I'm in my mid-50s, right? So people in their mid-50s are like, ooh, I don't know like quite what to do with that. And um it's a great tool. And that's what it is, is it's a tool. So I think we all need to figure out how to use it. And the only way you can do that is play with it. Whether you're doing that at work, whether you're doing that in your personal life, learn to play with it. The greatest advice that I got is if you're gonna use AI, pretend that it is a brand new employee coming in or an intern, right? And treat it that way. You've got to give it context. So you can't just go in and say, um, write my five-year RD strategy for me. It can't help you that way. But if you give it context and you say, hey, look through all of these files and go out there and research what other companies are doing for RD strategies, write me a high-level deck as a VP of RD for what my strategy might look like for the next five years. It will give you thought starters. And that's really what you can use it for, I think. Now, I think the great thing about it is it is a large, large language model. And so trying to go through large amounts of data like uh consumer insights, consumer contacts, um, reviews that are online for your products or for a competitor or for a whole category, those are things that it can do really well. It can distill that down into some very solid points for you to look at and to think about and to take to jump from. Where I haven't had as much success, um, and I think it's getting there, is more around data analysis. It's starting to get there, but it's just a little trickier. And you have to uh, you've got to make sure you've got your data in the right format. The most important thing though, before you start messing with it at work, um make sure that you understand your IT guidelines and rules. Don't start uploading your confidential formulas into public AI, all right? Not a good idea because it's learning, so not a good idea. So make sure you understand um what your what your IT rules of the road are. But I do encourage people to use it. I've found a lot of value and a lot of things where it's taking time from tasks, and sometimes there are tasks that I just really don't like to do, right? Budget analysis. As an RD person, I hate doing my budgets. I hope my CFO is not listening to this podcast right now, but I hate doing budgets, right? But I but by using AI, I can analyze my spending a lot faster. I can get through it. What used to take me two hours now takes me about 15 minutes. So, uh, and I need that 45 minutes of my day, and I'm sure you do too. So play with it, use it. It's gonna be a part of our life. Um, and I think it's a tool that we should embrace and figure out how to use it to our advantage.

SPEAKER_02 17:38

Yeah, I definitely didn't get into RD to evaluate budgets, that's for sure. Um the the other uh interesting part of this, right, because we've talked about AI can just also be a very self-fulfilling prophecy of whatever you're feeding it, it just is very agreeable and and wants to tell you what you want to hear. Um, but I think what's on the forefront of this is being able to get live consumer information so much quicker to drive insights. Yeah. Are you seeing some so beyond like the job optimization, are you seeing, are you seeing the benefits when it comes to consumer insights and what it's capable of?

SPEAKER_01 18:14

Yeah, I think so. And you know, it's even some simple things. I can remember, you know, we go to focus groups and you're all sitting in the back of the room in the old days, and we're all eating MMs and you're looking through the two-way mirror, and then they were online. But still, what you take is from your perspective. And so, you know, with AI now, you can record all those, you can transcribe them, and you can get another opinion for what it looks like. I think it's gonna change the way we do consumer testing. I think it's gonna change the way that we write concepts. I think there's a lot of things that's gonna change. I do think we have to figure out what are the right places to use it, and also realize that there is still human intervention required. If you start working with AI, and I've noticed if I give it prompt after prompt after prompt on kind of the same subject, occasionally it freaks out and starts making stuff up. So you gotta go back and you gotta check it and make sure that its assumptions are correct. But um, but I do think, particularly in the front end of projects, it's gonna be very valuable. And also on some of the back end things that we have to do. Um, you know, we we handle a lot of scientific data, we handle a lot of specifications, we handle a lot of that stuff. Are there ways we can automate some of that so that those people can do higher level work? And that's where I think uh it could be very valuable.

SPEAKER_02 19:31

Yeah. You and I were talking about this. I'm gaming for ingredient qualifications to be done in three days and not three months.

unknown 19:40

Um.

SPEAKER_02 19:44

So the other hot topic to think about um or to talk about right now, not to think about, uh, is the changing regulatory landscape, indulgence better for you. You know, clearly we're talking about baked sweet snacks, indulgence. Talk to me about what you're seeing with the increased pressure around clean label, functional ingredients, better for you positioning. How are you navigating this balance, both from, you know, your leader, from your from your seat as being a leader in RD, but also personally and what that means for our teams and how they're navigating that change within the industry?

SPEAKER_01 20:24

Yeah. So I think for now, like one of the most important things always has been, but for now it really is resiliency. It's a little hard sometimes to hear people talking about an industry that you love, about products that you put your heart and soul into, and they, and uh, and they're talking about ultra-processed foods and again, good foods and bad foods and those types of things. So um, one thing I got great advice on feedback one time early in my career was listen with your ears, not with your heart. So um listen with your ears and understand what they're saying, understand their point of view. Again, go back to the science. I spend a lot of time internally trying to bring people back to the science. So we really understand what is at the heart from a science perspective. Now, what I will say is science doesn't matter when it becomes emotive. And we've seen many things in our industry become emotive. So once a consumer, a big enough consumer base decides that doesn't need to be in your food, well, it doesn't need to be in your food. So it doesn't matter what the science is. And so again, you have to keep consumers at the heart. You have to understand what trade-offs they're willing to make, because there are trade-offs. It can be in taste, it can be in texture, it can be in shelf life. What trade-offs are the is the organization willing to make? Making some of these changes completely changes the cost structure of your product. Can you as a company do that? Or can you do it all at once? Or maybe you should step your way into it. And then, you know, I think something that's really important is this an inner Innovation opportunity, or is it a renovation opportunity? And sometimes that comes down to what trade-offs are being made, especially in indulgent products. So if by adding this feature, taking out this ingredient, all of a sudden the product doesn't deliver from a taste perspective, and your entire positioning is indulgence, then you really have to look at it and say, should I really do this to my base product? Or maybe I should do a line instrument, line extension instead. So I think those are all things we have to look at. But for me, in thinking about it as an industry, number one is let's listen to all the voices. And number two, let's also speak up, right? So let's let's be a part of this conversation. It is chaotic and sometimes it can be a little daunting, but I do think it will make us stronger as an industry. So we just have to keep moving forward.

SPEAKER_02 22:53

Yeah, I agree. From from my seat, like I personally feel the ground very unstable in our industry at the minute. You know, we talked about over the last 20 years, we may see one thing, one new dynamic come into our industry and we respond to that dynamic. And now it feels like we get one new dynamic and it changes 15 other things. And it's gonna require a lot of resiliency by everybody in the industry as we as we move forward. Um, and and talking about the complexity of our industry. Like I want to move us into these last minutes and to get into more of your career journey. But as we think about large matrix organizations getting anything done, right? You've been a part of some MAs, global organizations. We're thinking about innovation. Recently I had a conversation about with a supply chain leader talking about how it's a roundtable discussion and not a relay race. What have you learned about managing through very large, complex um supply chains, organizations to get things done? And how has your leadership evolved over time in that process?

SPEAKER_01 23:58

Yeah, so I think one thing that you you have to learn particularly about innovation, but it's a team sport. Nobody does it by themselves, no team does it by themselves. Um, one of the things that I probably am better at doing now than I did when I first started is listing for things that could trip up other parts of the organization. Because at the end of the day, we all have to get this product to the market. So if we're talking about an innovation and there's an ingredient that I know the supply chain is a little tricky, I need to make sure and bring that up. And I need to make sure then and bring procurement into the loop so that we're all having that conversation. If we're talking about something that I know supply chain is really going to struggle with, then I need to speak up and I need to bring supply chain into the conversation. So there are natural tensions in organizations, I always say, right? So RD operations sometimes there's a little bit of rub there. Um RD wants to do things completely different, operations doesn't. But at the end of the day, we're all we're all there to grow the company, we're all there to please the consumer. So I want to make sure that I'm taking care of them just as much as I'm watching out for myself. I do think the other thing though, we all have to understand. I there's something I talk about with my team that's called organizational empathy. You need to understand your perspective, but you also need to understand other people's perspective. I may want to get in and run two shifts of a plant trial for a new product. Operations needs to get orders out, right? And so I need to understand their perspective. And then we need to figure out what's the right thing to do for both operations and RD, and more importantly, for the entire company. So I think that's how I've evolved. I think when I first started off, it was all about, well, what about me? What about my team? What about RD? And now I'm much more cognizant that it isn't all about me.

SPEAKER_02 25:48

Yeah. And as you looked at that step up you made in your career, and as people are listening here, maybe they're thinking, how do I go from that maybe a technical individual contributor, middle manager, and I want to step up into enterprise leadership? What's some of the biggest gaps that you're seeing and skill sets that need to that need to be acquired to make that step?

SPEAKER_01 26:11

I think when you make that step, you need to realize that you're no longer a technical leader, you're a business leader. And I will tell you, I am not a financial genius, right? I do not know everything there is to know about finance. Never have, never will. If I ever walk into your company and I'm gonna be the CFO, you should probably go find something else to do with your life. But I made it a goal at a certain point in time in my career. I said, I know that this is the weakest link that I have. And I'm gonna figure out how I learn more about it so that I am at least understand what I don't know, right? And and I found a mentor to do that. Um, I sat next to the C, I was on a business leadership team. I sat next to our CFO at every meeting that I could so I could ask him questions. So I think that's the biggest thing is understand like where are your gaps and what do you need to do to go up. I think the other thing too is to make a conscious decision, and this is really hard. You've built a good team, you've got a good team under you, they can handle the day-to-day. You need to be the strategic leader and you need to be the one uh working with your peers on the business team to figure out where we're going next. And that's really hard, mainly because we all like to get down and work on all of that other stuff. Right. Um, but you've got to be really careful to keep yourself at the right altitude.

SPEAKER_02 27:36

Yeah, I think that's such wise advice. And as we continue down that journey, um, you know, one of the questions we had submitted was if you were just coming into the industry, so speaking to those students in the room, if you're just coming into the industry, what advice would you give them? And I I was reflecting on this. I don't even know what advice I would give because I'm like the industry has changed so much since I was a student in the early 2000s. And so as you think about our next generation of leaders, what advice would you give them?

SPEAKER_01 28:07

First of all, I would say if you're new to the industry, if you just got your first job, congratulations. So you're in a really fun industry and it's going to be a really great place. But first of all, soak everything up. Whatever you can do. If you're a scientist or an engineer, get in the lab with other people, get in the plant with other people, get in the pilot plant with other people, help them out, ask questions. Second thing, if you don't know something, don't be afraid to ask. This was probably the biggest mistake that I made in my career early on. I felt like I needed to know everything. So you don't go ask people. Third thing, ask for feedback. Now, don't ask for it every day, don't ask for it every week. You're not gonna get it every month. But every three to four months, you should set up 15 minutes with your manager and say, Hey, what am I doing well? Where do I need to improve? What tips and tricks can you give me? And not just from your manager, but also from peers, from other people that are working with you, from cross-functional leaders, and really take that in. Understand that your career it's a journey. You know, I always tell people when they are new parents that the days are long, but the years are short. And it's the same thing with a career, you know, it's a long journey. So some people expect when they come in that it's just gonna be like uh a ladder. You're gonna go straight up. And that's not really the way it works. Your career is like a jungle gym. Sometimes you got to go sideways. And when you go sideways, you're gonna learn something really cool, right? The best career move I ever made, I did an expat assignment in Australia.

SPEAKER_02 29:50

We haven't even got to that part yet.

SPEAKER_01 29:51

It is so cool. It was a it was uh a lateral move, but it was the biggest source of growth in my entire career. And I think that thinking about not necessarily how can I get the next promotion, how can I make more money. I mean, money's important, trust me. I have a still have a kid in college. Um, but thinking about how can I get the next experience that's gonna keep me engaged, it's gonna keep me energized, and that's gonna help prepare me best for my career. That's what I would encourage you to do.

SPEAKER_02 30:23

Yeah, such good advice. And I hope we can keep this conversation going. I I know that everybody is sitting here uh listening intently. And I I personally feel fortunate that over the years, like getting these nuggets of wisdom on a regular basis from you has been such a treat. Um, they're gonna kick us off the stage here soon. So I'm gonna get in my rapid fire questions um and end us on time. Uh, but some fun rapid fire to end our session. Favorite hostess product.

SPEAKER_01 30:52

It's like asking me to pick between my children. Um, it's really hard. However, I will say for those of you that remember Suzy Q, Suzy Q is back, and she's better than ever. Um, and it's the same recipe we used before. So um really delighted to bring that forward and bring that back to consumers. Our social media pages were completely flooded. No matter what we posted, people were um bring back Suzy Q. So we were finally able to do it. So I think that's really exciting.

SPEAKER_02 31:25

I love it. And it's our miss that we don't have them as parting gifts. Uh next next time. Okay, next question. Uh, what baking trend are you watching closely right now? Um, mashups, right?

SPEAKER_01 31:36

So mashups of different products, cultural mashups. It's so exciting to see new ingredients, new things, cutting edge things that are out there, and just watching some of the trends coming up, um, ingredients and flavors from Africa, from Asia. I that is really exciting to me. And then unexpected things. I was in a little donut shop the other day. Yes, I get to go to bakeries for work. Isn't that cool? Um, and they had these savory donuts. And it was just mind-blowing, right? So um, so that's the kind of thing that I that really excites me. Oh, that sounds really good.

SPEAKER_02 32:15

I like, I like a good mashup for sure. Unexpected flavors.

SPEAKER_01 32:18

Um, one innovation myth that you'd love to bust that it happens in a straight line, because it doesn't. It may start and then stop and then take a U-turn and then it gets put on the shelf and then it comes back. It doesn't happen in a linear fashion. And that's okay. And the one thing, like I told Angela when her project got canceled, good things always come out of it. It's amazing the number of things that have come out of projects that never launched that we put into something else, or things that you found. Like uh during at the end of COVID, we were having an ingredient issue and it went into one of our fillings. And um we found an ingredient that made the filling completely, totally, and unlike what we wanted, but it was perfect for an innovation that we were working on, right? So you never know when you'll find something that you'll carry on someplace else.

SPEAKER_02 33:11

It's like the failed glue that turned into the postage. Exactly. I love that. One capability future RD leaders must build right now. Resiliency. It's a crazy world out there. Love it.

SPEAKER_01 33:22

One thing you wish commercial teams better understood about RD. What comes out of your mouth is not nearly as easy as you think to actually make into real life food for as fast as we need to make it and get it out in packages. But we'll figure it out together.

SPEAKER_02 33:39

Amen. I love that. Coming from uh a food scientist. I I love that uh that perspective. Well, Sherry, I am so, so grateful for this conversation. Thank you for being on Women Who Make It. Thank you for joining us live here at ASB Baking Tech. Let's keep this conversation going. Please, if you haven't already followed us, follow Women Who Make It, but also ASB. Um let us know what you thought of the show. If you're listening in later, be sure to also give us a like or share. The most meaningful, impactful thing you can do for shows like this is to share it with your friends or colleagues to help us spread the word and help more women. So, really, really do appreciate that. Because at the end of the day, we're not just making food, we're making moves. We're women who make it. Thank you guys. Thank you for listening to Women Who Make It. If today's episode inspired you, please follow the podcast so you never miss one of these powerful conversations. And we would also love your help in growing this community by sharing the show with friends and colleagues because together, our stories can create change. For even more connection and inspiration, follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn at femalesandfood.community. Or join our global community of women by visiting the website femalesandfood.community. We're not just making food, we're making moves. We're women who make it.