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The field of innovation is constantly evolving, and analyzing what has worked in the past does not always provide answers or guidance for the challenges of today. To understand how companies innovate in uncertain times, our experts at innosabi spoke to innovators to find out how innovation is shifting and their predictions and plans for the future.
Last year, our experts at innosabi ran a series of in-depth interviews with innovators across several industries, including the public sector, to find out how innovation is transforming at this very moment. Here, we provide a round-up of the key points discussed.
"Never underestimate what impact management commitment can have. To truly transform a company and drive innovation, it needs to be driven by the management of the company."
Franziska Mair, HARTMANN GROUP
How can you get your entire company on board the digital transformation train and make change a positive thing so no one gets left behind? This is a question that many companies with non-digital business models are facing. Franziska Mair, Senior Manager Digital Innovation at the Hartmann Group, a leading provider of healthcare solutions, shared with us how she tackles this challenge to drive digital innovation in a traditional healthcare business.
"You have to take a different perspective, look at other people's problems, and find solutions based on your own experience and knowledge."
Jochen Werne, PROSEGURProsegur's Chief Visionary Officer, Jochen Werne, joined us for a deep pe interview about transforming a security business in the age of digital and crypto. His appeal to business leaders in this continuously shifting environment: "Take your time and try to at least get the gist of things. You should understand what technology can and cannot do, and not just follow your daily headlines."
"We definitely have to do the groundwork and build a solid foundation. But we can't lose sight of the grand vision, the long-term strategy."
Julia Post, STADT MÜNCHEN
Innovation is not only about companies and startups. It's also about politics and governance! Especially for cities, this means providing the right structures to foster innovation and, at the same time, innovate and transform themselves. A challenging task that we discussed with Julia Post, City Councillor of Munich. Our takeaway: Clearly communicating a vision becomes even more important when working in a public context.
See the full interview with Julia
"While many global brands' products are launched on a global scale, local needs can also be answered by local adaptations, still respecting the brand core."
Sabine Menzel, L'OREAL
L'Oréal no longer views beauty as its main business. Today, it's all about beauty tech and reinventing the future of beauty at the interp of science and technology. For Sabine Menzel, Market & Media Intelligence Director at L'Oréal, this comes down to a lot of data and research that respects the inpiduality of regions and supports the sustainability goals of the company.
Read our conversation with Sabine
"We firmly believe it to be the responsibility of every single person and pision to shape our future."
Sepp Maier, AGCO
Feeding the world's growing population in a sustainable and ecologically responsible way is one of our greatest challenges. This will only be possible with innovative technologies and new solutions in agriculture and farming. With the possibilities provided by digitalization and data analytics, AGCO is doing exactly that. For Sepp Maier, Global Product Manager at AGCO, evolving the company from a traditional machinery manufacturer to a leader in smart, sustainable agriculture solutions is a matter of making innovation everyone's business—not just a dedicated department.
Read more about AGCO's innovation culture
"Innovation needs to be part of corporate culture: it has to be part of the company's DNA."
Sarah Wittlieb, LAB CAMPUS
The most recent years have brought one of the most drastic changes in the way we work and—as a direct result—how workplaces adapt to the employees' needs. While this can be a great challenge for companies, it also offers a tremendous opportunity: rethink the role of our offices and bring the focus back on creativity, innovation, and humans. That's how Sarah Wittlieb, VP Sales & Innovation at LabCampus, sees the bigger picture of the cross-industry innovation center that they are building at Munich Airport.
"Curiosity drives us to build knowledge, provide relevant solutions, and continuously improve by asking questions and challenging ourselves."
Tom Koniordos, YARA MARINE
Few industries are affected by recent paradigm shifts as the shipping and maritime industries. Ship technologies are at the core of climate change discussions, harbors closing during the Covid-19 pandemic, changing supply chains, geopolitical instability, resource shortages, rising fuel prices—you name it. Dr. Thomas Koniordos, the CEO of Yara Marine Technologies, is "sailing his ship in the midst of this storm" and turns these challenges into an opportunity to build a greener maritime industry.
"We take our slogan 'invented for life' very seriously—it's not just a cute sticker you put on a laptop, but it guides our daily work."
Thomas Kropf, BOSCH
When you are willing to describe your successful corporate research as an "unfair competitive advantage", you are definitely doing something right. For Thomas Kropf, Head of Research at Bosch, this is only possible when you are continuously striving for excellence, valuing expert opinions (not just the highest-paid inpiduals), and embracing the "We innovate for life" spirit of Bosch.
Read more about how this works in practice
"I try to inspire my colleagues to go different ways, look outside the company, and dare to step over previously accepted barriers. Testing, learning, and building things, taking risks where risks are possible to take. I believe, or rather, I know that innovation is ultimately done by people."
Christoph Krois, SIEMENS
Siemens has consistently been at the top of the innovation game for close to two centuries. How is it able to do that? That's what we wanted to find out when interviewing Christoph Krois, founder of the Siemens Innovation Ecosystem. The short answer: spotting the underlying opportunities whenever there's a paradigm shift and understanding that humans are your most valuable asset.
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