From Israel Electric Corp. to Samsung – How to Integrate Innovation into...

From Israel Electric Corp. to Samsung – How to Integrate Innovation into Organizations and What is the Impact of COVID-19?

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Zviya Baron, Head of Innovation at the Israel Electric Corporation, understands well that in such an organization – innovation is not a natural feature of the company or its employees. So how do you integrate innovation into a company that has been owned by the government for 97 years, operating without competition? “You do it carefully and from inside the organization, basing on vision and strategy,” Baron says at the INNOTECH broadcast on innovation, cyber, and HLS organized by iHLS.

Baron: “Our solution is to create innovation differently: to grow it. In every department, we nominate an innovation representative who can identify opportunities for innovation from routine work. This person identifies key workers that can help, and mainly work with them on mapping their problems. At a later stage, we offer several solutions and let them choose. We become vital for them – it’s addictive.” According to Baron, some 40 different pilot projects have already been launched at the Electric Corp., undoubtedly signifying the beginning of a revolution.

The case of the Israel Electric Corp. represents large, veteran organizations whose operation arena has not changed significantly, though challenges are present also in a corporate such as IAI.

Adi Chen Menaker, IAI’s Head of Innovation, explains that in spite of IAI’s size and age, innovation is part of its DNA. Chen Menaker: “In recent years, we have been trying to integrate processes that encourage innovation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have proven that we can react instantly. Within days, we created more than 31 projects in response to the needs of the Israel Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Health. We offered various solutions for disinfection, body temperature measurement, ventilators, and more.” In addition, Chen Menaker emphasizes, “we opened an in-house innovation center designed to encourage innovation among employees. 10 groups were already created within this project, successfully finding applicable solutions that they continue to develop. Some of the projects already have their customers, who fund them because they like the idea and believe in it.”

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Coping with innovation is also evident in Intel. Tzahi Weisfeld, General Manager of Ignite: Intel for Startups, explains: “We have to innovate because we are surrounded by competition. There is competition from within – when each unit makes its own efforts, and there is external competition, such as the acquisitions of Mobileye, Moovit, Havana Labs, etc. Weisfeld’s unit which has been operative in Israel during the last 18 months is looking for early-stage startups all over the world. It has started operations in Tel-Aviv and is now widening its scope of activities to Munich and Austin in the US. Weisfeld emphasizes that they don’t only support the startups and help them advance but also try to adopt their way of thinking and bring it back into the company.

The need to progress with time is also acknowledged by Samsung. Eyal Miller, General Manager of Samsung NEXT TLV, contends that Samsung has been innovating from day one. “Not many people know that the company started its way as a small grocery store and has passed a long way until it reached the current brand. We believe that the company’s future opportunities lie in the software and services world, and that’s where we are heading.”

Concerning innovation, Miller said: “One channel of effort is focusing on identifying innovation and technology outside the company, including acquisitions, collaboration opportunities and investments. In parallel, we have an in-house development team of some 100-150 development experts. When we identify an idea that has the potential to turn into a business opportunity – we can either build from scratch or acquire.”

Guy Keren, the CEO of iHLS, the company that leads the IMoD’s innovation program and operates a security accelerator, explains that innovation is a matter of pace. “In large organizations, the integration of a new technological system could take even two years, while the lifespan of a startup is four-five months. In the past, we heard large and cumbersome systems declaring that they simply could not enter the innovation arena. This reality has changed thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. Organizations were forced to shift to remote work and circumstances made them change and integrate technological systems. The world will not return to the previous state.”

Ran Natanzon, Head of Innovation and Country Branding, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Chairperson of the Innovation Session at INNOTECH conference, is proud of the Israeli innovation and claims that it has become one of Israel’s major foci of attraction globally, evident both in export as well as in the establishment of international R&D centers in Israel.