Executive VP Europe of Mérieux NutriSciences
On January 31, we hosted our first internal Innovation Forum, to accelerate innovation to better serve our customers. Jennifer Marquet, Executive VP Europe and sponsor of the global Innovation initiative, looks back on an international and collaborative meeting, organized remotely.
How does this forum contribute to Mérieux NutriSciences’ innovation approach?
The first Innovation Forum is part of an innovation acceleration initiative launched in 2022, to better meet the current and emerging needs of our customers, as well as to support our ESG commitment for Innovation. It took place after an important phase of listening and monitoring, followed by the structuring of our findings around some major Business Opportunities. We organized the Innovation Forum to bring together all key contributors of innovation projects, including profiles from all countries (directors, laboratory managers, business experts, representatives of the Silliker® Food Science Centers, etc.)
What were the objectives?
The first two objectives were to share the Business Opportunities and to start defining innovative solutions to address them. Some opportunities cover current issues, such as providing laboratory management support for our customers who have their own structure. Others are emerging, such as the rationalization of packaging, or the issue of PFAS*, the so-called “eternal” contaminants, that are of concern to the public authorities but of which some customers are not yet aware. For each opportunity, we asked participants to suggest solutions. In the case of PFAS for example, there may be consulting-type solutions to train our customers and support for risk analysis, and analytical-type solutions through the development of tests.
The event also aimed to strengthen our culture of innovation, with the intervention of Dr Kevin Powell, a consultant specialized in innovation and strategy to better serve customers. He talked about the boldness in choosing innovations and the importance of fully understanding the problem we address. With this image: we must fall in love with the problem, not with the solution!
What are the next steps in Mérieux NutriSciences’ innovation process?
In February 2023, our entities across the world are selecting the market-relevant ideas they wish to see transformed into projects and those to which they can contribute. This step will allow us to know which innovations are the most popular, and therefore of the highest priority.
* PFAS: per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, a family of more than 4,000 chemical compounds.
Watch this space for more content and updates on our Innovation journey, projects and more!
