5 valuable insights

2020 will be remembered as an impactful and very turbulent year, in which especially the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and global warming have become apparent. As a consequence thereof, several key trends are accelerated (non-exhaustive list); adaptability of organizations, automated marketing, digital transformation, product as a service, integration of artificial intelligence and circular business model incl. green-economy targets. The acceleration of these trends will be fueled by the fact that these are inextricably linked to one another.

The Growth Garage is an initiative of Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials to accelerate growth for the business by building essential competences, running pilots to create proof-of-concept and create a roadmap to scale & deploy. Please find below 5 valuable insights, through the eyes of the Growth Garage, that are essential to continue growing your business.

Purpose. The foundation for growth needs to be based on an overarching purpose that addresses the key global challenges and needs to contribute to the well-being of generations to come. Translating this overarching purpose to day-to-day activities can be very stimulating. All team members in the Growth Garage can work on initiatives that are close to their passion, contribute to a greater purpose and contain elements that address 3 important pillars: Economics, Technology (innovative, high-end, differentiated) and Sustainability (people and planet), also known as #KAITEKI Value for Tomorrow.

Team. Any investor, any startup, any incubator, any growth accelerator knows that the right team is key to success. A variety of skills and personalities are important and should be complementary, but there needs to be something else: a champion. The champion navigates the team on a bumpy journey with dedication, persistence and passion. No Champion, no pilot. Furthermore, the team runs pilots according to agile principles, aiming to deliver ‘proof-of-concept’ and a roadmap to ‘scale & deploy’. The pilots typically consist of three phases:

1. Diagnostics
2. Design Sprint
3. Delivery Sprint

Likewise startups and scaleups, Minimum Viable Products (MVP’s) are designed and tested at (in- or external) customers to generate fast and relevant feedback to be used in an iterative process to produce the next version of the MVP. This way-of-working, this active learning cycle and direct involvement of customers is an absolute must for future success and implies intrinsic adaptability of your organization, hence become future proof.

Business Intelligence. Scalable business intelligence can create valuable insights for an entire organization. The use of artificial intelligence supports the scalability of this essential competence. The Growth Garage created a digital twin of Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials (MCAM) that includes materials, technologies and competences. This digital twin is matched 24/7 with any data available in the public space. Deep learning algorithms are able to process large numbers of data and are able to generated insights and patterns from unstructured data. Technology and industry experts need to work hand-in-hand to ensure successful adaptation of AI boosted BI. BI is typically used during the Diagnostics phase, in which we make a deepdive in a technology or industry. The insight are fed into the Design Sprint when the MVP’s are generated. The competence is also being used to support running business with the latest insights or to uncover ecosystems that are worthwhile engaging in.

Ecosystem. We realize that we cannot succeed alone in this connected world and therefore actively build and foster partnerships. We continuously seek for like-minded partners to engage in pilots to create proof-of-concepts together and lay a strong foundation for sustainable growth. Moving forward, the Growth Garage will use its competences to support you to boost your creativity and experience, aiming to elevate your innovations to the next level. With hands-on support, we can materialize your ideas by making use of our great material innovations, design capabilities, functional prototyping (example: 3D printing of injection molding tools with polymers or metal) and a variety of scalable and cost efficient production technologies. The differentiation towards other accelerator programs is that we are able to reduce the total length of such a pilot to 3 months (typical 6 to 9 months), meanwhile materializing your idea in an early stage of the development, due to our capabilities in functional prototyping.

Example. The afore mentioned elements are essential to generate differentiated services and new business models that support our customers to be successful. The relaunch of the injection moldable carbon-fiber based KyronMAX platform https://kyronmax.mcam.com/ is an example of a high-tech engineering plastic product that became a service to solve important challenges of our customers:

1. Reduction of time-to-market with a factor of 2-3x
2. Functional prototyping in days at relative low costs to get early proof of concept (SPRINT)
3. Cost effective production processes to produce final injection moldable parts that cover ramp-up scenarios from low to high volume production
4. Intrinsic integration of recycling (design, material, waste, production) and reduction of the carbon footprint

The key to success is actually the combination of afore mentioned competences (non-exhaustive list), as they will reinforce one another and support your capability to grow your business.