Interview with Henkel digital expert: How a large corporation tries to be creative
“Decision-making cycles are often relatively lengthy in a corporate structure,” says Salima Douven, head of the “Henkel dx” digital hub. Nevertheless, the consumer goods company tries to give its own employees new ideas.
Salima Douven heads the Open Innovation and Incubation division at the Henkel dx digital unit of the Henkel consumer goods group, which was founded in Berlin at the beginning of 2020. Your task: to turn group employees into “Henkel preneurs” who pursue their own ideas and develop them into innovative products.
t3n: Ms. Douven, the new dx Innovation Hub in Berlin could not start as planned due to Corona – group employees should actually meet external partners from startups and the digital industry there in order to develop ideas together with them. Is this external input now missing in the innovation process?
The Innovation Hub opened in October 2020, but of course we will have to do without on-site workshops with many people for a while, that’s true. The hub is not just about ideas from outside – there is actually no shortage of innovative ideas; there are many employees in the individual company departments who have ideas for new products that they are passionate about. But I am convinced that a completely different creative atmosphere will emerge once you get out of the familiar environment, when you meet other people in a different, inspiring atmosphere who work very differently and have completely different roles and perspectives. That helps to develop a bolder and more open mindset – and that is our goal.
t3n: Why is this mindset needed to develop innovative and creative ideas?
We see that an incredible number of ideas arise in the specialist departments. The fact that the employees often lack a concrete idea of what an innovation process could look like with which this idea can also be further developed. Or employees doubt that their idea is really relevant to their core business. This is also due to the fact that the decision-making cycles in a group structure are often relatively lengthy: you have to present an idea to several committees before you get a chance to implement it. This is where we at dx come into play as a new incubation unit: We want to provide our employees with a network and resources so that they can develop their own ideas more independently and more quickly and realize them within a few months.
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t3n: How exactly does it work?
In a workshop with the Laundry & Home Care business unit, for example, the idea arose that we could offer a sneaker cleaning service under our Persil brand. Then we at dx analyzed whether there was a market for it. Together with the corporate division, we built the first prototypes for a landing page, conducted surveys in social media among the target group, and looked for logistics and cooperation partners. And then after three months the service was live. In this process, the team learned a lot about how to test an idea, how to get from the ideation phase to research and market analysis, prototyping and testing to an initial, marketable offer. Something like that triggers a real cultural change in the teams, a different way of dealing with ideas.
t3n: So you are a kind of innovation service provider and trainer for corporate employees?
I would say: an innovation network. In 2021 we want to expand the internal innovation program even further and also offer training materials on the innovation process: What is the ideation phase? How do you know whether there is a market for your idea or how do you build a suitable business model for a product idea? How do you put together a team to successfully develop an idea further? Such things. We want to give our employees everything they need for successful innovation. But in the end this is just a tool – important, but not decisive. As I said, it is more important to develop the appropriate mindset. And that happens when you experience for yourself how motivating and inspiring it can be to actively promote your own ideas, to bring the right people together, to come into a flow together and to set something in motion. Or if you also experience that an idea does not pass the reality check – because that is also part of it. And that maybe a completely new, different idea will emerge from it.
