Businesses aspire to stand out in the market through innovation, aiming to achieve the competitiveness epitomised by market unicorns – young organizations that have grown rapidly and currently generate millions annually. How can one compete with them, given that they inherently possess a culture of innovation from the outset? How can the vertical structure of a traditional organization be adapted to an innovative culture?
These are some of the questions pondered by the leadership of large traditional brands who have witnessed a shift in business thinking with the advent of new technologies and new ways of creating products and services. Furthermore, even those comfortably positioned in the market are attentive to the customer’s new mode of consumption, especially with the development of technologies.
3M has become a reference in innovation culture. Thus, it has served as a benchmark for both old and new organizations that see this process as an irreversible path. With 110 years in the market, the organization boasts 46 technological platforms that cater to at least a dozen segments such as healthcare, consumer, safety, industry, among others.
Innovation Culture as a Differential
The differentiator? An innovation culture that continuously creates new products while keeping a keen eye on addressing customer pain points.
Just to illustrate, in 2010, 30% of 3M’s products sold were created based on consumer needs. Hence, there’s a technical team dedicated to developing these solutions.
The first thing to understand is that innovation culture isn’t the same as innovation as a strategy. While culture involves people and processes operating within a methodology, utilizing technology and creativity as a living system, it’s also prone to failures. The other approach employs innovative methods for specific products or projects, with a set start and end date. Thus, the strategy is much more focused and targeted towards a particular team.
According to Luiz Serafim, head of innovation at 3M, the main lever is finding a way to immerse leaders in this innovation universe. This way, they won’t become obsolete and won’t see the company disappear.
“They need to do better, create this safe, psychologically emotional environment, look outward, stimulate. This is the first big lever they have to pull to impact people, all employees. By focusing on leaders to create this environment, many things will flourish.”
In this sense, instilling an innovation culture is much more complex, especially in companies that have operated for years with a verticalized structure and method, relying on production processes to sell to a dispersed target audience willing to consume whatever the market produces, even if the product doesn’t fully meet their needs.
This is because innovation culture is a business model. That is, the heart of the company, which if adopted properly, should be clearly recognized by outsiders. To achieve this, a technology network needs to be established, with investment capable of sustaining a specialized technical team with access to technology.
This group will work to develop products focused on meeting customer needs. Therefore, this is the initial step to implement the change process: defining the role of innovation in the company’s strategy and its investment capacity in it.
The Importance of Listening to the Customer
Another fundamental aspect of moving towards innovation is listening to the customer and their needs. In doing so, we aim to create solutions that positively impact their lives. Moreover, 3M follows the theory that if it doesn’t improve the lives of those who consume its products, it’s not worth producing.
“I find 3M’s practice of going into the field very important. I once watched a Cuban documentary that said: ‘la verdad esta en la calle’ (the truth is on the street). Undoubtedly, we practice this; if you really want to know how to innovate. People might entertain a myth that at 3M, you’ll go in there with a post-it note and a new idea to stick on the wall, but it’s nothing like that. So, if I want to innovate, I need to see what is valuable, I need to go to the users.”
The company also works with the design thinking approach, where solution development is done collectively and collaboratively among professionals, placing people at the center of the product in an empathy-driven process involving both customers and stakeholders.
“When we introduced design thinking at 3M about five years ago, we understood and deconstructed certain things. Every day I come home with a list of things from companies that serve me or brands that I interact with that could be better. I see them in the car I drive, in yogurt, in the TV remote; you become a fanatic. But at the same time, this gives you joy and tools to move forward,” he concludes.
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Luiz Serafim was our guest in one of our recent CorpUp Talks episodes.
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