Innovation management at Nordic Food Industry
Daniel Richardsson is an innovation and process manager and will hold a breakfast seminar on innovation management at Nordic Food Industry 2022. He is one of Sweden’s leading figures in innovative strength-based work methods.
– Innovation management is an important and growing field. My work is about getting people to develop in the areas that are needed, it can be about new products and services as well as working methods and routines. My specialty is moving people into the new and unknown, says Daniel.
“Dare to question the current business logic”
There is a great need in the food industry, like other industries, to innovate more. And according to Daniel, the biggest challenge lies in exploring how companies should face future opportunities and have the courage to rethink when it comes to the existing business and processes.
– Companies need to dare to question their current business logic and their design principles. It may be that you need to check your current processes. Do they create value in a sustainable way? If they don’t, you need to dare to experiment more with how they can look. Many get stuck in satisfying today’s customers and their stated needs. But it’s important not to get stuck in the way we’ve done things in the past. What works now may not work later. It is important to find a balance between today’s business and at the same time to strengthen the innovation capacity for the future.
Innovation management ensures renewal
During the seminar that Daniel is participating in at Nordic Food Industry, he will talk about the opportunities around innovation management and how we can systematically ensure that the organisation innovates.
– As innovation management grows as a discipline, so do the professional roles in it. I want to talk about how we identify and create innovation leaders in the organisation. These are the people who, based on the new requirements and opportunities that exist, can look into the future and see new paths to take to get ahead. It will also be about how we should lead in the organisation to enable and create innovation.
Daniel tells us that innovation is not only about new technical solutions, but that it is also something we can implement systematically in the organisation’s renewal in a number of different areas.
– We can also see innovation as a system, an Innovation Management System. In the organisation, it is beneficial to look at it and ask yourself – what role do I take in this system? What do I contribute? In this way, we create better conditions for innovation. I hope that during Nordic Food Industry I can inspire those listening to be brave and take the next step to strengthen their ability to handle the opportunities of the future. And to do it with the help of innovation management (ISO 56000 series) and with the help of skilled innovation leaders and teams, Daniel concludes.
