Ignite. Inspire. Innovate: Spark Open Innovation Program

What is Spark??

What would you do if you had an idea that brings you one step closer in solving URC's business challenge???

URC’s first ever Open Innovation Program, entitled Spark, invited all employees to bring in their creative ideas in solving the company’s major business challenges. Our Chief Human Resources Officer and Agile Transformation Lead, Atty. Lisa Abalajon, together with our Chief Research and Development Officer, Krishna Mohan Suri, wanted to have an avenue where employees can share their innovative solutions in the hopes of tapping the creative talents in our company, regardless of role, function, geography or years of experience.?

There were three major challenges presented: (1) How might we grow URC Coffee business in VISMIN?, (2) How might we eliminate waste in the end-to-end Integrated Supply Chain process and efficiently utilize our resources, (3) How might we reinforce a culture of safety in the workplace??

Deliberations?

Two months from the program’s introduction, an overwhelming 99 ideas were submitted. 26 entries stood out and became the foundation for forming the finalist teams who would be participating in the Spark Exploration Program where they will continue to build on their initial ideas, growth hacking their proposed solutions, and exploring other possibilities. Six teams made up of 53 cross-functional employees emerged as the pioneer batch of the program.??

Exploration Program?

Innovation Experts, Krishna Mohan Suri and Yi Ta Chng, Innovation Consultant and CEO of Whatif Asia, were at the helm of the Exploration Program. The teams went through 6-weeks of intense and focused sessions of drawing out inspiration, thinking big, generating ideas and identifying the best paths forward.??

The teams were also guided by our in-house SIT (Systemic Inventive Thinking) Champions in exploring solutions, options and possibilities.??

Final Showcase?

Finally on May 10, each of the six teams had a chance to present their final pitch to the leadership panel led by none other than our URC Chairman of the Board of Directors, Mr. Lance Y. Gokongwei and URC President and CEO, Mr. Irwin C. Lee together with the leadership sponsors of each business challenge.??

It was an afternoon brimming with creativity, inspiration and innovation. The teams presented well thought-through solutions, possibilities and new experiences to the delight of the panel. Each presentation ended with a ceremonial turnover of their ideas to the respective leadership sponsors.?

Huge congratulations to all Spark teams for answering the call to be Game Changers for URC!??

The Regional Coffee Team originally set out to explore possible regional flavor variants and packaging ideas for our Great Taste coffee products. Over the course of the different workshops, the idea evolved towards innovating a new format for Coffee specific to the taste of the VisMin market, introducing a revolutionary Coffee Tablea mix.?

Prior to becoming the VisMin Coffee RTM Team, the group was originally the Healthy Coffee Team. Instead of ideating new product ideas, the team focused on what they identified as the core problem in VisMin: URC’s distribution strategy. The team’s idea evolved from healthy coffee variants to innovating a route-to-market strategy specifically for Sari-Sari stores.?

Similarly, the Energy Team, started off as the Steam Energy Team. From harnessing steam energy to turn waste into a power source, they moved towards forming an Energy Governance Council, promoting a sense of community across all URC plants to actively drive energy savings and improvements with how plants perform.?

The Digitalization Team zeroed in on low-cost implementation of technologies to improve production inefficiencies. Carefully looking at the step-by-step process in our manufacturing lines, the team identified key areas where technology, through smart sensors, could identify opportunities to catch inefficiencies in real-time.?

The Food Waste Team focused on leveraging waste-to-value solution, minimizing unused food waste and maximizing opportunities to generate profits; exploring peel-to-powder conversion and bioplastics.?

?The Safety Culture Team looked at digitalization as the path towards reinforcing safety at the plant level, building on their initial idea of a chatbot and introducing wearable technologies to better onboard, train, and manage new hires and third-party contractual workers.?

Written by Pao Ortega, Agile PMO Associate?