Rob Sinnott can empathize with the nervous anticipation that comes with rolling out a new product.
“We really have to, when we develop products, develop products that we know are going to resonate very strongly with consumers,” he says.
As co-CEO and chief science officer of Mannatech Inc., he’s charged with creating new products for the $289 million global wellness solutions provider. From nutritional supplements to skin care products, he has to develop what’s going to be most effective and well received by customers.
“The biggest leadership challenge is really finding products and marketing angles that resonate very strongly and emotionally with consumers, because they need that ammunition when they go out and talk about our products and basically introduce other people to Mannatech,” Sinnott says.
He’s also doing it in an industry that typically isn’t known for creativity.
“The industry as a whole isn’t really known for tremendous innovation, but what I’ve done in my tenure as CSO here is I’ve brought in some of the innovative pathways that have been used in more innovative industries, like software and computer hardware, where it moves a lot faster and it’s a lot more competitive and taken those practices and applied them to the dietary industry,” Sinnott says. “Not to brag on it, but that’s why our product development process and products runs way ahead of our competition.”
By creating a solid idea-generation process, evaluating the best ones, and then developing a product road map, Sinnott has worked to make sure that Mannatech puts out the most relative products for its customers.
