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Cornelia Büttner

Better not wait for innovation to happen

Many innovations happen by chance, but EBP is not one to sit around and wait. "Our aim is to create new solutions for specific problems", says EBP Executive Board Member Ivo Leiss. "The focus is on the trends we already see coming." With its new Boost Camp for innovation, EBP has created a framework that gives employees from various disciplines an opportunity to generate new ideas, test their viability and streamline their development with customer input.

The aim is to go from ideas to market-ready solutions in the shortest amount of time – solutions that are not just pulled out of a hat, but reflect the needs of customers and offer clear benefits. “We encourage our experts to track trendsetting developments and to use them as a basis for creating innovative, sustainable solutions that work for our customers”, says Leiss by way of describing EBP’s goal. 

From snow-free winter tourism to electric-vehicle solutions

We started by giving our employees an opportunity to showcase their ideas, stipulating only that the ideas needed to be innovative and convincing for potential customers. Employees whose ideas met both criteria were encouraged to present them in 2-minute pitches to employees in other EBP divisions. In the end, a total of 50 innovation ideas were showcased, including snow-free winter tourism; electric-vehicle solutions for a mass market and a navigation app for the blind and visually impaired. The nine ideas with the most votes qualified for further development at a Boost Camp where interdisciplinary teams work together with customers on pragmatic solutions. 

Interdisciplinary and customer-oriented

"Exciting things happen when talented individuals from various disciplines sit down together to create something new. The results include sustainable solutions that reflect a 360-degree view", says Leiss enthusiastically about the success of the innovation program at EBP. 

Video credits:
Concept and script: EBP Communications
Video production: EISBERG Productions GmbH
Voiceover: Melissa Exelberth

Our employees quickly developed 50 innovation ideas.
Our employees quickly developed 50 innovation ideas.
A vote was held to select the most promising projects.
A vote was held to select the most promising projects.
In the context of a Boost Camp, the innovation projects were developed systematically by interdisciplinary teams working directly with potential customers.
In the context of a Boost Camp, the innovation projects were developed systematically by interdisciplinary teams working directly with potential customers.
The path from a trend to a concrete project
The path from a trend to a concrete project