Innovation In Times Of Crisis

We are not going to lie, we are entering a period of crisis, a major economic crisis. The question now is: what is the place and role of innovation in times of crisis? Without revealing the conclusion of this article, we are convinced that the role of innovation is very important: it is a way to be more efficient and more productive. A crisis is certainly not a desired situation, whether it's structural, economic or social. Globally, everyone wants to recover from it. Innovation is a good way to optimize the process and accelerate our emergence from it. Let's look at past crises and see what innovation has brought.

Let's start with canned food, which was invented in the 18th century, but was only widely used at the end of the Civil War (1861-1865). Preserving food for a long time makes it possible to provide solutions to feed populations and to increase efficiency by reducing agricultural spoilage. This first example already shows two points:

• Innovations in times of crisis don't necessarily stem from basic research, but rather from the intelligent use of existing technologies.
• Innovations in times of crisis lead to the development of new products much faster than in normal times.

In this example, an innovation is able to serve a large population by exploiting a discovery made many years earlier.

The same is true of aspirin. Today, it is the most available drug on earth. The molecule used to make aspirin was discovered by the Frenchman Charles-Frédéric Gerhardt in 1853, but was only democratized by the Bayer laboratory in 1899 with a cheaper molecule.

Innovations in times of crisis do not start from the top, they start from the bottom. They affect a large number of people, and spread in numbers from the outset. The 1847 crash, one of the biggest in the 19th century, caused a major economic crisis (even leading to the 3rd French revolution a year later!). However, it also led to the invention of powdered milk in 1851 to feed as many newborns as possible while providing a safe solution for transporting and preserving a fragile natural product, milk.

The famous French car Citro?n 2CV was launched in 1948, at the end of the war. Once again, the idea was to produce a very cheap car for the largest number of buyers. It was a basic product aimed at reviving the manufacturing industry and enabling more people to buy a car.

Following the same logic, let's take a look at some of today's major companies: Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Apple, IBM, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft...

John Pemberton created the first version of Coca-Cola in his pharmacy at the end of the Civil War and sold the drink at a modest price.

McDonald's was created by two brothers after the Great Depression. The idea was to feed as many people as possible at a very reasonable price by offering a reduced range of products (hamburgers and soda) that met the expectations of most customers.

Airbus was born during the air transport sector crisis at the end of the 1960s. At that time, air transport was saturated with planes that were too small (80 seats). Airbus was able to create planes that were adapted to the demand of the struggling market by creating aircrafts with 300 seats.

Apple was founded on April 1, 1976, and Microsoft on November 26, 1976, both in the midst of a structural crisis in the computer industry: this sector was at the end of its rope. Big computer systems were far too expensive and only accessible to very large companies. It was crucial to update existing models so that computer technology could reach as many people as possible. Microsoft and Apple, with their new operating systems designed for the general public, succeeded in establishing themselves as the two giants of today's IT industry. Meanwhile, Google truly launched its operations at the beginning of the 2000s in the midst of a new crisis that caused the Internet bubble to burst.

These companies were smart enough to adapt in times of crisis. We may wonder whether their story would have been the same if they had emerged in a "non-crisis" period.

Having said that, we must also know how to project ourselves. We clearly have a lot to do here: we are entering or exiting phases of sanitary, societal, economic, and ecological crises... this period is likely to be particularly complex to handle. We shall keep a cool head and remain pragmatic: we are not going to offer you a product on the same level as aspirin or a business model identical to that of Coca-Cola. Nevertheless, we can analyze what technology has to contribute. Technology also has a lot to make up for. It created giants that invented "modern day slave" delivery people or cause the decline of small businesses in favor of sales that are devoid of interaction and humanity because they are made from the couch.

As far as I am concerned, I am convinced that technology can play a beneficial role for consumers. Advanced traceability features allow us to deliver reliable information to consumers and showcase those who are committed to worthy causes such as organic farming or sustainable development. Without reliable information, who should we believe? Who should we support? Who should we pay? We don't really know. Thanks to flow tracking functionalities, we will be able to clearly identify who brings value. This is an interesting question, especially at the end of the lock down phase.

Who brings the most value? The one who manufactures? The one who delivers while taking risks on the road and during contacts with customers? Or the one who only provides a digital platform to connect customers with suppliers? If we follow digital processes, we can share profits equally without taking advantage of people.

Digitizing processes and making them accessible to as many people as possible would also reduce the environmental impact by optimizing transits. Algorithms obviously have a lot to offer. Their optimization capabilities are far more efficient than what humans could do in the same amount of time. This is one of the keys. It is worth mentioning that we reduce energy consumption by optimizing flows and transits.

The democratization of algorithms certainly offers a way out of the crisis. The resulting massive optimization will benefit everyone. This optimization is not an anarchic one, but follows values guided by common sense. We mentioned earlier the fair distribution of profits. No need to think for hours and hours to reach this sensible idea. I think that companies are ready to question themselves, for their image, for their employees, and perhaps even simply for themselves.

Let's innovate to get out of this crisis. Let's use technological tools that have been available for years, but not necessarily well implemented. This would scale up economies, provide transparency thanks to traceability and give the consumer the ability to make informed decisions by having access to reliable information rather than advertisements that no one really trusts any more.