In a world where innovation is asserting itself as a categorical imperative for businesses, it becomes crucial to understand how to do this and what the best methodologies may be for businesses to achieve this.
Building on this assumption, Selena Brocca, Alice Rizzetto e Olga Popa held a workshop at the Digital Open Lab at IMI Academy, the first inter-company Academy, which in addition to being a social enterprise, brings together major companies in the province of Treviso with the aim of creating training paths designed to increase the digital skills of its employees.
Upskill 4.0 is a partner in this project because it is a great believer in networking between realities within the same territory. Selena Brocca, our general manager, is in fact on the Board of Directors of IMI Academy with the proxy for education.
On Monday, January 15, there was a first lecture, entitled "Methodologies for Innovation Management in the Enterprise." which had as its objectives those of understanding Design Thinking and its impact in innovation, exploring the potential of Technologies 4.0 in the business context and concretely applying this method to define business challenges, starting from the macro objectives of one's own company.
Participating were managers, production and marketing directors, HT managers, area and production contact persons and sales managers from some major companies in Veneto: Tecnica Group, Zoppas, Latteria Montello S.p.A.- Nonno Nanni, SolidWorld GROUP, Solid Factory, TAKA-WPR, Siatek Srl and Vida srl.
The workshop focused on defining real challenges of the companies involved. The department heads, divided into mixed teams, laid out a problem or critical issue, and then the most challenging and sustainable challenges to address were chosen.
This was not just an exercise, but an active and highly engaging journey that started from real challenges that companies are facing in terms of growth and digitization. They analyzed the contexts in which companies face the greatest obstacles to being able to grow, what needs to be met to solve the identified problem, who are the people inside or outside the company who could benefit from solving certain problems, and what technologies could help.
During the workshop, much emphasis was placed on context analysis. Geopolitics, demographics, climate change, and technology have been strong discontinuities in recent years. In exploring new solutions, these need to be taken into account today. What can a company do to cope with these factors? The scale of change dictates methodologies that are up to the task. Innovation is essentially about solving problems, and there are as many ways to innovate as there are different types of problems to solve.
Just as we do not rely on a single marketing tactic, we must also build a portfolio of innovation strategies designed for specific tasks. There are many methodologies for innovation management, Design Thinking being one of them, but one methodology does not exclude another. What about technology? It can be used to improve and optimize business processes, but it is not the only solution.