Emma Colquhoun

“I was always interested in the idea of doing things differently. When I first went to work for Robinsons, I worked on a range of squashes but then was given the challenge of coming up with something completely new. We needed a product that kids would like, that has a strong flavour, but is healthy so that mums would buy it.

“I was given a blank sheet. The normal business process for a new product is about 18 months - I produced Fruit Shoot h20 in 8 months. This meant that everything had to be done in an innovative way to get it done and get it right. It was critical that the technical and communications team really got behind it and were prepared for the speed and the pressure to deliver.

“In a corporate environment you have to be passionate and drive something forward. It’s also important to find someone within the organisation to sponsor and support you. Then you can make interesting things happen – as a lone voice you can’t do anything.”