Innovating, again and again!

Innovation is an essential process in any company, regardless of its size. Product, organizational, service, disruptive or environmental innovation… innovation can take various forms. But she does not decide without in-depth work on the activities of her company and without taking prior precautions. André Montaud, former director of Thésame , an expert center for innovation professions, tells us more.

Can a company today, especially in the industrial sector, survive without innovating?

The answer is not simple, because everyone has a personal vision of innovation. We do not expect the same type of innovation from a company oriented on capacity – we will then go rather to organizational innovation and production innovation – from a product or sub-assembly oriented company which will be more about technological innovation. So yes, companies must innovate, but not all in the same way.

What are the different ways of innovating for a company?

In the general imagination, we often associate innovation with technological innovation, and even with digital innovation. The Las Vegas show, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), is said to be the innovation show. But it basically brings together digital innovations. Innovation is much broader and of several types:

·        Product innovation: how to integrate new technologies into a product to provide it with other functions. In the industrial sector, this consists for example of adding electronics or digital connection to a mechanical product.

·        Production innovation (often linked to organizational innovation) : how to modify production lines to meet fluctuating demands. This innovation revolves around new post-Lean methods (search for performance through continuous improvement and elimination of waste) , business agility, team reconfiguration. In industry, for example, it is the appearance of automated chains or cobotics, which is robotics that facilitates the rapid reprogramming of products.

·        Service innovation: how to no longer sell a product as such, but sell the service provided by this product (sale of machine hours, predictive maintenance, etc.).

The targets of innovation are as much products as people and services. To these three major sectors of innovation, we can add environmental innovation, which is developing strongly. This is linked to the cost of energy, but also to a societal demand for the reduction of environmental impacts. Today, it is necessary to rethink the product not only for its use, but also so that its operating cost is as low as possible, in terms of energy and impact on the environment.

And what about breakthrough (or disruptive) innovation?

It can be applied to all the other innovations. Concretely, a breakthrough innovation would consist of moving from a mechanical product to a mechatronic product, from a chain organization to an island organization, from a classic service to a service by activity...

What are the preliminary precautions to take before innovating?

The first is to have financial reserves, cash. When I set up Thésame, our business support strategy was to immediately think of a pyramid method of innovation: enabling companies to innovate by first supporting them in organizational innovation. For what ? Because the return on investment of organizational innovation is very fast and frees up financial resources to then attack technological and digital innovation. Then, the company must agree to “get out of the box”, out of its comfort zone. I like to say that a good innovator is one who is able to disobey his hierarchy. If we confine ourselves to traditional processes, we are in the innovation of improvement, far from the innovation of rupture. The strength of a company lies in its ability to go where it is not expected. These are cultural prerequisites: letting its innovators come out of traditional procedures and having a “sponsor” in general management.

Do you see any other prerequisites?

We must constantly be on the lookout for weak signals sent by customers, changes in society, emerging technologies in other sectors of activity. You also need employees who are not in the “mold”. The companies initiating breakthrough innovations are those that have collaborators who do not correspond to the classic profile, curious people, who accept to put themselves in danger.

Do you have a concrete example of a completely revised business strategy for the benefit of successfully implemented innovations?

Yes, I will cite the example of EFI Automotive with its internal start-up incubator AXANDUS . AXANDUS' objective is to accelerate the development of innovative companies and start-ups, from design to industrialization, including purchasing and business development, to enable them to achieve a strong competitive position. in their market. As part of AXANDUS, EFI Automotive has developed, for its partner Stellantis, a wireless induction charging robot for electric vehicles which was presented this year at CES. This is a real breakthrough innovation, as the robot is able to recharge the car without any action from the user. We are in agility: being able to go excessively quickly between the idea and the product. Through AXANDUS, EFI Automotive perfectly represents the example of a company that has understood everything about what the innovation of tomorrow should be.