Work that Inspires

The Formula for Innovation – People, Technology, Service

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As the world leader in serving science, we need to stay ahead of the curve. We need to constantly think about advancing science, so customers have the freedom to be bolder and more innovative – and we take pride in taking science and technology a step beyond where it is today.

Whether our customers are improving life for patients, protecting our global climate or keeping people safe, they look to Thermo Fisher Scientific for innovative solutions.

Innovation is engraved in Thermo Fisher Scientific’s DNA, and it is more than developing novel technologies and products. It is something we need to embed in our people, technology and service. This is what I call “The Formula for Innovation”.

People – Creating an Innovative Culture

When I came to Thermo Fisher nearly 12 years ago, I was looking for a company that aligned with my own goals to create real impact on people, society and the world. So naturally, I was drawn to Thermo Fisher’s Mission – to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. But when I learned more about its China teams and people on the ground, I found that it was not just an ambitious goal, but that my future colleagues here would be working to innovate every day to make Thermo Fisher a world leader in its many fields.

Our innovations and technology breakthroughs have been a testament to the creativity, ingenuity and longstanding commitment of our team around the world. In these 12 years, I’ve found that driving innovative means finding the motivation behind what our teams do.

For example, the CITC team has a sole focus on product and software innovation. But they are motivated by wanting to learn their customers’ needs, and then developing a product that answers that. A sales team is motived by understanding how to better connect with customers, and developing tools that can better manage the relationship, or a new service that drives long-term customer stickiness.

As an employer, Thermo Fisher also uses innovation to find and retain the best talent in the country. We make it a priority to work with the local governments where we operate to make sure we can bring in talent from across the country who believe in our Mission.

Internally, we empower our people to advance innovative technologies, develop meaningful solutions and build rewarding careers. Our GrowthClick mobile app is a platform that invites every employee to contribute ideas. It’s not only a way to encourage innovation, but also provides incentivizes. Employees are rewarded at many phases of the ideation process, from approval through to the many stages of implementation. In fact, a number of products and services are already launched on the market that started as an employee contribution in the app.

We have a culture that encourages people to ask questions and answer the unknown. While we tend to think scientists and researchers stay in their labs, it is just as important to get out, be inquisitive with the customer, understand what they’re asking for, and be able to synthesize those requirements. With inquisitive and aspirational talent like this on the team, I believe we can really make a difference in the world.

Technology- Investing in Innovation

What makes Thermo Fisher innovative in our technology is our ability to synergize it across multiple applications. This is strengthened by our investments, like the more than USD 1 billion invested per year in R&D, and the Innovation Centers established in Shanghai and Suzhou in 2013 and 2020, respectively, which drives the launch of more than 100 patents and 8 new products on average per year.

Most recently, we developed a product for research for life science academia. But we recognized that the same technology was needed in clinical settings. So we developed it further to be brought into the clinical industry, making it simple for medical professionals and technicians to use without needing to do any of the additional data analysis work that academic researchers do. By being more customer-centric in our technology development, we’ve been able to innovate further and become a player in more diverse vertical markets.

Another example of being innovative in synergizing is in the suite of new products and services we have put out in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We leveraged our existing technology that collects air samples and developed it further to be widely applied in critical venues like hospitals and retirement homes. The device continuously collects samples from the air that can be tested for virus contamination. The data can then be run to help venues better manage how they quarantine and segregate high-risk patients.

Thermo Fisher’s response to the pandemic has been an incredible evolution of our Mission, and one of which I am particularly proud. We’ve touched many lives in our suite of solutions which include testing products and vaccine manufacturing technology. And we are a key part of the vaccine manufacturing supply chain – our biopharma business touches about 1 million patients every day. We are providing innovative products and services that really help better the lives of patients.

Service- Collaborating with Clients to Innovate

Staying customer-centric is the last essential component in Thermo Fisher’s formula for innovation. Everything we do in our teams and technology is all about providing better services and solutions for our customers.

To more closely connect and understand the customer perspective, we launched the China Customer Experience Center last year in Shanghai. It not only enables our customers to experience Thermo Fisher’s state-of-the-art solutions, but also offers us the opportunity to better understand their challenges and how we can innovate together to overcome them.

Most recently, I was fortunate to kick-off a new collaboration with Chengdu Tianfu Bio City which will focus on cultivating new biopharma industry players. The park was looking to attract quality startups, and while they work with the government to provide some incentives, they also turned to Thermo Fisher because they recognized how broadly we could serve customers. We not only provided research tools, but also collaborated on new ideas like setting up a biopharma education center, enhancing services for companies housed in the park, and developing a procurement system that leverages our products and channels. Through our mutual innovation and a focus on service, we were able to develop a complete ecosystem for the Bio City, which will ultimately drive more intimacy and longevity with our customers.

With service at the heart of our people and technology, Thermo Fisher offers solutions that are the foundation for disruptive discoveries and inventions. Our innovation helps find cures for cancer, protects the environment, ensures food safety and moves forward with projects that can truly improve millions of lives.

By taking science a step beyond with our Formula for Innovation, we are a step closer to a healthier, cleaner and safer world.