Let's Cultivate Innovation
Because energy is central to all human activity, it's an industry that changes very quickly — especially in today's economic environment. Although we possess cutting-edge technological know-how, providing energy to as many people as possible means that innovation is more important than ever.
The need to supply clean, cheap, reliable energy is fostering the rapid development of new technologies with very promising growth opportunities in the deep offshore, solar energy, smart grid and energy storage sectors. Clearly, new activities, new services, new competencies and new operating methods need to be developed quickly. The important thing is to never stop innovating, so we can continuously adapt to the changing landscape and become the responsible energy major, today, and even more tomorrow. I believe that as the 21st century unfolds, innovation is more than ever the cornerstone of progress and success. It's a prerequisite for our companies' viability and development. It's a culture — a mindset that everyone must continuously embrace.
With this in mind, the Executive Committee and I recently attended Innovation Week in Silicon Valley, an event that we hope to attend every year to help us prepare for the future. That's because we also need to step back and see what innovations are causing a stir on the world stage and think about how they can be leveraged. This get-together allowed us to meet the representatives of such innovation giants as Google and Tesla, but also SunPower, a Total affiliate that is currently one of the world's leading solar photovoltaic companies.
These discussions confirmed my opinion of the self-driving car, which I believe is a prime example of the major transformations that await us. The introduction of driverless cars and their widespread electrification in urban areas will undoubtedly happen a lot faster than we think. I'm convinced that they will fundamentally alter the way we travel. Their impact on people's day-to-day lives, but also, obviously, on the economy as a whole, will be considerable. In order to be an actor of this "mobility revolution", we need to rethink our customer transportation solutions, as well as our traditional business models for producing and distributing energy.
These production and distribution methods have already changed significantly with the development of renewable energies. To manage the intermittency of renewable energy sources, natural gas, the least carbon-intensive of the fossil fuels, is an ideal partner, but to optimize production and store electricity, we also need to be able to connect renewables to the grid. That's why we recently acquired Saft, a flagship French manufacturer of high-tech batteries that will spearhead Total's operations in electricity storage, a crucial component to renewable energy development.
Having technology isn't enough, it's being open-minded that creates opportunities for innovation. Maintaining a permanent connection to the outside world will allow us to promote exchange, challenge ourselves and encourage innovation. I'm convinced that large corporations can obtain access to new ideas all over the world by adopting an open innovation collaborative approach. That's the objective of Total Energy Ventures, an investment fund that finances innovative, pioneering start-ups with which we are developing energy solutions for tomorrow. In another example of our commitment to developing new solutions, at the end of 2015 we launched an incubator for start-ups devoted to digital technologies for industry.
Innovation lies at the heart of our commitment to better energy. At Total, innovation means focusing squarely on producing and distributing energy that is safer, cleaner and more affordable.
LinkedIn TOP VOICE for EV ??, Event MC, ??? The Electric & Eclectic Podcast Show Host, ?? Documentary Maker, Board Advisor, Harmonica Player, Business Consultant & Investor -Founder Electric Vehicles Outlook Ltd
7 年I often highlight TOTAL in my EV Keynotes Patrick. Saft - Smart Move, 21st Century Vehicle Filling Stations - Smart Move, what's next?...
Former FT reporter and columnist, now writer-researcher on UK hitech companies, and founder of UK SME database at London-based Gibson Index Ltd.
8 年An interesting article - though I think Total's development of the deep sea oil reservoir Laggan-Tormore off the Shetland Isles of Scotland is your biggest achievement of recent years. By the way, we maintain a unique dataset of the UK's best and most innovative smaller companies at gibson-index.com, around 58,000 companies in 'total'..
Délégué Général chez MEDEF C?te d'Opale et Quai des Entreprises
8 年Thank you Vincent for this news. Sunpower (renewable energy), Saft (energy storage), One TOTAL organisation : several positive facts showing that your company is in motion to adapt to future needs and market conditions.
Directeur Régional Bourgogne Franche-Comté au sein de la direction France de TotalEnergies
8 年Innovation has various sides and is a long process following quite different development stages asking for various types of skills. Open innovation, without thinking of specific targets and possible constraints (market, time, technological limits ...) is very important as this is the basis for break-throughs. Therefore, conditions must be created to let this innovation process occur with as low constraints as possible. This is probably where we have a lot to learn from the United States where the environment (Research organizations, Governmental funds, University opening to technological research …) strongly promotes open innovation. Today there is not too much open innovation within companies due to expected short cycles of return of investments. As a consequence, once the innovation is there and proposed to investors, several investment funds are in competition. Part of the benefit of the innovation against competition is lost. Whether the innovation is internal or is brought to the company through investment funds, there is a right time to start taking on board technological constraints, customer expectations and develop robust business models … At this stage, companies are also not always following the right path. In fact, innovation has to be driven to its market and the inventors are most of the time not the relevant drivers due to their strong relationship with “their baby” and their lack of knowledge of the environment in which the innovation has to become a “product”. It must be someone else with pragmatic and straight forward approaches; accepting a reasonable amount of risks, uncertainties and imperfections; and being able to say “stop” whenever he recognizes that the chances of success are getting down to an unacceptable level. It is up to the company who wants to use innovation to serve its operations or to develop new businesses, to take the lead and provide the relevant driving team to take over the work of the inventors who will still support the development but in the “backstage”. Finally, there is a need within the company to accept a reasonable (or as low as possible) risk of failure (without any consequences on humans, environment, or company profitability) for the first use of a technology or a product because there is always a need for “field experience” to debug a new technology or to test the market response to a new product. Space X did several “full scale trials” to succeed in the recovery of the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket. Beside open innovation, "focused" innovation: innovation to bring solutions to an identified issue/limit … with already identified constraints (cost, timelines …) must also be promoted. In that case, the company must clearly explain the need (What for? When? ) and ask partners to develop a solution (What? How?). Most of the time, companies fail in accurately explaining their needs. It delays the development of the relevant innovations. One of the reasons can be that companies don't want to share with competition what delays/constraint their development or where they want to develop. In fact, relevant partners and powerful but confidential communication channels must be identified and activated to allow companies sharing their needs to drive the industry to work on solutions they are looking for. Innovations are an open door to great successes . However, in the innovation process, there is always the right trade-off to find to drive innovation to a success with imposing the right constraints at the right time with the relevant people and organizations.
Government of British Columbia | Projects. Policy. Partnerships.
8 年Very Apt. Innovation will be key to solving global problems, but it will only be enhanced by collaboration and open-mindedness. There are significant opportunities in solving the problems highlighted in this write-up - as outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda ~ SDG7: Affordable & Clean, Energy, SDG11: Sustainable Cities and Communities and SDG 13: Climate Action. SDG17: Partnership for the Goals is looking at how companies like Total, Google, Tesla plus other companies can come together to solve these problems through global partnership and cooperation. This is the era of Collaboration.