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Coroplast Global | Insights The first group-wide Coroplast Innovation Workshop

With our claim as a technology leader, we are constantly looking for new ways to develop tailored ideas for our customers. Recently, we tried an exciting cross-divisional workshop format and were thrilled with the creative atmosphere and results.
During our new innovation workshop our interdisciplinary teams developed plenty of exciting ideas for new products and solutions.

Lateral thinking in a relaxed atmosphere

“Doing things differently” is our motto, and our management is setting a good example. Thus, the idea to try out unusual formats when developing new product and solution ideas was, so to speak, a matter for the boss. Dr. Martin Uebele, our Corporate Office Manager, took up the cause and organized Coroplast Group's first interdisciplinary innovation workshop.

The aim is to get colleagues with completely different roles and experiences out of their day-to-day business. To achieve this, all participants are placed in an informal, non-hierarchical situation that encourages free thinking, a view beyond the boundaries of their own specialist area and new, customer-oriented perspectives. The ideas are given the necessary time to mature in peace. They are not judged immediately, but the mixed teams play on equal terms with the idea and look at it from every possible angle.

16 enthusiastic participants from all business areas were quickly won over, we enlisted external support for the professional moderation of the workshop and with our new Lounge we had the perfect location right in the building. So we could start.

The participants of our new workshop format got to know many useful innovation methods.

The innovation processes leading to the right idea require just as much creativity and freedom as the idea itself.

Michele Lagnese | Head of Digital Transformation

Organization and results of the workshop

We started into an exciting day with an inspiring mix of colleagues from varying areas such as development, production, sales, administration, marketing and others. Many had already thought up some ideas in advance and brought their notes with them. At the beginning, we collected the most important trends potentially influencing our business models: What is happening out there? What is changing? What risks and opportunities does this create for Coroplast? What new applications do we see for our products and solutions? What additional services could we offer our customers?

All participants wrote down their thoughts and ideas on many notes, which we then reorganized jointly and from which we selected the most promising ones. These favorites were then worked out further in smaller teams. We were all enthusiastic about the concepts that emerged from this process. The next step is to work on the details in the near future before we present them to our customers.

But this much is already revealed: We will ensure an even better digital customer experience. Keywords here are the user experience on our new websites or optimized communication and services on all important channels. We will be able to offer our customers exciting new use cases for our well-tried products. And we are working on creative ways of upcycling - in line with the new Coroplast Group sustainability strategy.

Learnings

Diversity, a creative, open atmosphere and effective innovation methods are key to success. We have succeeded in creating a framework that enables a truly open, informal exchange of ideas between very different colleagues that led to astonishing results. The hierarchies that existed in everyday business were completely dissolved. The new Lounge proved to be the ideal venue for the workshop: Spacious, comfortable and superbly equipped for creative work.

We are already looking forward to the next workshops and will take the energy of this day and many exciting innovation methods into our day-to-day business.