10 Dec 2019

80% of innovations emerge from the industry

Industry is the linchpin of innovation. 80% of innovations arise from the industry. 70% of large companies have increased investment in innovation departments. Disruptive solutions can come up with mechanisms to find value propositions outside the company itself.

Girbau LAB, with its director Mariona Sanz as representative, exposed this reality and its application in the laundry industry sector at the Innova y Acción forum in Valencia on November 15th. The event, organized by Blue Red, featured more than 30 companies. In addition to the presentation, there was a workshop where participants helped to find disruptive solutions for challenges of the Girbau sector.

The rapid change with digital transformation has made organizations open up to capture knowledge and growth options. Girbau LAB is a good example of an open innovation platform to find disruptive solutions.

In this Blue Red video, Mariona Sanz talks about the different aspects of innovation through Girbau LAB

During the event, Mariona Sanz exposed the strategic challenges of Girbau LAB – digital transformation, sustainability and circularity and human wellness and health – to which their projects are focused.

She also spoke of the approach to startups and external talent – with IndTechChallenge as an example – as well as the internal entrepreneurship projects led by the iDrivers program – in Spain and the international project.

All this has allowed 16 new projects to be opened during the first year of Girbau LAB’s existence, starting with the detection of 300 opportunities. The Girbau LAB ecosystem has agreements with 7 actors between startups, corporates and technology and knowledge entities.

It is also important to highlight the importance of people as participants in any innovation process. The recruitment and empowerment of internal talent, within Girbau, is one of the elements achieved with the aforementioned intrapreneurship programs, the iDrivers. This has facilitated the dissemination and execution of the innovation culture. This was also one of the messages expressed on the Innova y Accion forum.