Challenge: Corporate innovation strategy for the steel sector
In an increasingly competitive and constantly evolving business environment, the Innovation Office of a renowned steel sector company faced a challenge: to redefine its strategy to continue providing significant value to the entire organization. The need was not only to maintain but also to increase its contribution to sustainable growth and competitiveness with a long-term corporate innovation strategy.
With innovation projects heavily dependent on public funding, the challenge was exacerbated by the need to align initiatives with the viability and feasibility criteria set by the various administrations.
The complexity was compounded by the pressure to adapt to the growing demands of sustainability, energy efficiency, and digital transformation, in line with the company’s overall strategic goals and market expectations.
The Innovation Office needed to establish a strategic framework that not only captured emerging opportunities, but also strengthened the organization’s resilience and ability to adapt to future challenges.
Solution
In response to this challenge, Quantion strengthened the company’s Innovation Office, aligning it with its vision and focusing its efforts on four key pillars: energy and emissions, circularity, digitalization and people.
Through the creation of a dedicated team, strategic actions were taken to evaluate and adapt the company’s current innovation model. This process identified and promoted areas where open innovation could catalyze significant progress, particularly in the areas of energy and emissions, circularity, digitalization and the human factor.
Outcomes
- Improved strategic alignment: The revision of the innovation model strengthened the synergy between innovation initiatives and the company’s strategic pillars, resulting in greater coherence and focus in the areas of energy and emissions, circularity, and digitalization.
- Promoting open innovation: Collaboration with external entities was consolidated, enhancing the development of innovative solutions by leveraging shared knowledge, technologies and resources.
- Increased funding for innovation: Strategic management and proactive pursuit of public funding maximized opportunities for project funding, securing additional resources to implement key initiatives.
- Process optimization and digitization: Significant improvements in internal processes were identified and implemented, including the adoption of digital technologies that increased operational efficiency and innovation capacity.