North Face 2014 Annual Report Download - page 20

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18
A CULTURE OF SHARING
For VF to remain a leader in the apparel and footwear industry, we have to keep
delivering new products and experiences that consistently delight consumers. And
we need to support that with new design, production and distribution approaches
that our competitors can't duplicate.
Four years ago, VF developed a plan and a process for accelerating innovation
throughout the company, from new product development to better manufacturing
processes to enhancements to the digital and in-store consumer experiences. Thanks
to this effort, we've built a robust $1.5 billion pipeline of new ideas. And $500 million
of those ideas are already in market.
Two drivers of new ideas are the VF Innovation Fund and a mantra of "going outside"
for new ideas. Think of the fund as a source of internal venture capital that we use to
finance the best cutting-edge ideas generated by our associates. Through the fund, we've
already invested $15 million to support more than 100 projects since 2010. "Going
outside" has led to a global network of experts and advisors from many disciplines
that fills our pipeline. And people all around the company continue to respond with more
ideas that are bigger and better.
Now, we’re setting our sights even higher. In 2014, we launched a refreshed innovation
strategy that continues to seek new and better ways to deliver what consumers want.
We’ve always put a heavy emphasis on consumer insights, but now we're focusing on
better ways to marry those consumer insights to innovations in advanced materials
and world-class design of products and experiences. Consistent with our approach,
we have already opened innovation centers for footwear and technical apparel,
and the new innovation center for jeanswear will open during the first half of 2015.
These centers are major enablers of global sharing and collaboration across all
of our businesses.
3
new global centers
opened to advance
innovation
2
centers to achieve
experiential innovation
$
500M
of new ideas in the market
PLAT FO R M
STRATEGY
AND INNOVATION