Growing through Innovation … Cree Recognized Worldwide

It’s said by many that innovation drives growth. Be it innovations in products, services, processes, marketing, customer service or other areas of the business, innovation can differentiate your company.

For many manufacturers, innovation is driven by the National Electric Code (NEC). Some have a history of new product introductions, some of which are innovative, some are product extensions or ways to fill out a line. Infrequently are there “disruptive technologies” which Don Hendler, President of Leviton, defines as “innovations that upset common thinking” in the February issue of NEMA electroindustry. Don was writing about today’s lighting industry.

The March issue of Fast Company identified, in their opinion, The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies. And surprisingly the electrical industry was represented at #19.

Cree was recognized as the 19th most innovative company in the world and for “leading the LED revolution”. The write-up mentioned that 28 year old Cree, which spent 25 years developing LED components for equipment and other companies’ bulbs “decided to make its own – better.” In 2014, company revenues were $1.65B but the company feels it has only 2% market penetration of LED bulbs. Cree sold 20 million LED bulbs in 2014 in the U.S. And while the may have a big presence in retail, Home Depot is only 11% of revenue.

Congratulations to Cree.

So, we’d like to ask you (distributors) …whom do you think are the most innovative manufacturers in the industry (or by product category) in the areas of:

• Product Innovation
• Service to Distributors
• Process Improvement
• Marketing to Distributors (strategies, tools, etc)
• Marketing to Customers (strategies, tools, etc)
• Training
• or Overall

And it would be great if you could tell us why?

Manufacturers … which distributors do you think are innovative in helping drive growth?