Winners in the Making

Innovation drives growth, which is why in the future, it will be promoted across the company through a variety of measures. We learned exactly what they entail from the Innovation Excellence Stream.

We should enter the running,” thought Julian Stiller when he first heard about the Innovation Award. Together with his team, he developed an app that is already being used successfully in eight of Saltigo’s ten facilities. “We would be delighted if as many employees as possible were to enter the Innovation Award competition with a wide range of commercialized products, processes, and business models. The only requirement is that they must have been launched within the last 24 months,” says Susanna Früh, a member of the Innovation Excellence team, Development GF.

This is because LANXESS aims to achieve significant growth in the future driven by innovation. The Innovation Award is one way the company wants to highlight relevant solutions. Those who wish to apply for the first round can do so in three categories: product innovation, process innovation, and business model innovation. Entries must be submitted by February 28, 2025. The ten best submissions will be shortlisted and the jury will select three teams from among them. Criteria for the award include the degree of innovation, business or financial success or prospects of success, sustainability, and the technical solution as well as its scalability to other areas of the company. 
In addition to the recognition, there is also a financial incentive for the participants: the team that takes first place will receive 10,000 euros, while the second and third place teams will receive 3,000 euros each – in line with the Safety Award. “Through this award, we want to recognize the efforts of our employees who devote their time and energy to thinking about how we can become even more successful as a group,” explains Frederique van Baarle, the Board Member responsible for the Innovation Excellence Stream. “Because that is our goal: we want to get better every day. And innovation is the way to achieve this.”

Back in October, the Innovation Excellence team worked with all of the BUs, Controlling, and IT to develop a new process for tracking the most important innovation metrics. “These are now discussed in regular meetings – so-called ‘Business Reviews’ – between the Board of Management and each BU. This makes it easier to manage innovation activities. And that also brings the development pipeline, which should act as an enabler of future growth, into focus,” explains Früh. This alone shows how seriously the company is taking the issue. 

The new spirit that is sweeping through the group is also evident in other groundbreaking decisions. For example, an innovation hub is being set up in Thane, India, similar to the AADC, the APAC Application Development Center, in Shanghai. The aim is to make this hub a central location where innovative ideas can be developed, tested, and applied both at the BU and GF level and across departments. “The focus is on an in-depth exchange of ideas and opinions as well as collaboration – we’re creating a platform for innovation activities with state-of-the-art laboratory equipment here. It will serve as a forum where experts from the various BUs and departments can regularly discuss and share and develop new solutions that initially seemed impossible. Available knowledge will be shared as best as possible and made available for everyone to use. At the same time, the Innovation Hub offers an attractive workplace for talented individuals and gives LANXESS the opportunity to participate in the growth opportunities in India,” says Christian Sturm, Head of Corporate Development. 

With this in mind, the Innovation Excellence team is building a global community of experts that will collaborate more closely across BU/GF boundaries in the future. In this context, the conventional Innovation Excellence Community Meetings will be supplemented by more modern formats. Similar to the “workdates,” innovators can meet virtually or in person for a coffee or lunch to get to know each other and benefit from each other’s respective skills. “We have many highly qualified and dedicated employees who have also expressed a desire for more opportunities to exchange ideas in relevant formats,” says Yan Zhang, who is building the community as part of the Innovation Excellence team. She is now inviting everyone to connect via the community. “Once this happens, it is bound to give rise to many new initiatives and ideas,” Zhang is convinced.

Quote:

The Goal Has Been Set
“We have a very clear goal: we want to get better and grow every day. I’m convinced that innovation is the way to achieve this.”
Frederique van Baarle