Be the change. Lead.
Maritime Developments Limited
The creative knowledge behind market-leading equipment and engineering for floating lift, lay and retrieval operations.
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At MDL, we’re known for our tailored consultancy, equipment and personnel packages.?We support visionaries, eager to innovate and improve the way things are done.
In this newsletter series, we will show you some of the most exciting concepts that we developed in response to challenges presented to us by our clients: energy contractors - big and small - looking to find better approaches to traditional operations on and offshore.
But before we dive into the juicy stuff, let's tackle one important question...
Why would you take the risk of "being the first"?
Mitigating the risks for lasting rewards
In the energy business, everyone loves to "be the first to be second" - keen to run with a proven technology, without going through the pain of bringing it to market.
And the perception of that pain is not to be brushed off: it starts with the clever bit, that is - coming up with the idea for something great - usually something that one's own business would really benefit from.
Then, there's the conceptualisation, development and delivery - finally leading to first application. The moment of truth. The reason why most technology users prefer to remain just that - a user, waiting idly until the benefits and functionality are demonstrated, clear and - as far as one can expect - worry free.
"Being the first" means innovating. Here's the Oxford Learners' Dictionary definition of that word:
to introduce new things, ideas or ways of doing something
And the reason why we innovate, is because we are looking for an improvement in our processes or operations, in terms of safety, environmental impacts, time efficiency, wastage etc. In other words, we are looking to change the way things are done.
But change invariably carries an element of risk.
"Risk is inherently scary on its own but ... the innovators are those who recognise the risks, take a view on them, and understand how they can be mitigated," says our CEO Derek Smith in his latest blog.
"You manage risk in an intelligent way. If it is truly something ground-breaking and new, choose a partner with a proven track record in delivering comparable projects."
This is where MDL comes in. Not only do we have the complete technical skillset in-house to enable full delivery service, from concept stage - we also have over 23-year track record of doing it!
That's designing and delivering new technology that works “straight out the box” - right?from first application. And that's why we say that We Build Innovation...
Find more innovation inspiration on this page:
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But the question still remains: why be the first, when you can wait, and be the safe "second" user of a technology?
"Those who don’t grasp change are choosing the risk-free path but they’re also closing the door on huge potential savings," Derek says.
"Efficiency and savings can be measured in many ways - in saving time, saving effort, saving money. All these help us do everything we can to reduce the carbon footprints in all our operations as we move towards a net zero world."
Which takes us to the elephant in the room; because the energy industry has collectively made a ginormous commitment to change, and it even has a name: the Paris Agreement.
Why this IS the time to innovate
In January 2020, the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) and Oxford Economics surveyed 350 oil and gas executives in 25 countries involved in defining or executing their organisation’s innovation strategy. Here's what they found:
"The executives surveyed indicate innovation is needed to achieve greater operational efficiency. Over the next three years, their organizations plan to drive innovation to control costs, improve asset productivity, and enhance asset reliability...
"Nearly two-thirds of the oil and gas executives surveyed report their organization’s innovation activities are—at best—on par with other, similar companies or that they are a market follower. Only slightly more than 40 percent of respondents say they are executing an innovation strategy which can?improve their effectiveness at creating value."
The following excerpt really hit home:
"In addition, companies are driving innovation in isolation. Nearly half of executives report that they conduct innovation with dedicated innovation teams inside the organization. Yet, only a third are working with other business partners, such as suppliers, academia, research institutions, business platforms, and customers...
"Organizations aren’t employing a broad range of channels and sources to help formulate innovation ideas, and thus lack the perspective of outside organizations that may understand the customer or challenge better."
So, on the one hand, innovation is about adding value (to your business and to your end client) by tackling a given challenge more efficiently; simultaneously, it can enable progressing towards the goals of tackling climate change - which, in fact, also means adding value (to your business and your client's!)
Ultimately, being simply a technology user and not embracing change may prove to be too little, too late for those players in the energy business who rely on access to safer, more efficient systems and streamlined working processes that someone else has mastered, while the industry transitions in line with its net zero commitments.
The authors of the report identified a group of executives who are successfully progressing with their innovation strategies, and extracted from them three key tactics:
Derek's blog speaks about creating that innovation culture in your organisation - read it in full here.
Our mission has always been to solve our customers' challenges, and our innovation culture is here to help you gain the edge in your market - and thrive.
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