Granlund’s innovation strategy aims to improve the company’s international competitiveness and support the objectives of the business strategy. The new innovation strategy was created by the entire Group working together.
”Our new innovation strategy is in place for the period from 2017 to 2021, and the key principle is that usability guides everything that we do,” says Tuomas Laine, Director of the Innovation and Development department. ”The strategy is centred around user-orientation and collaboration, and these were the values that guided us to include every member of personnel in creating the strategy. Everyone was able to comment on suggestions on a web-based ideas wall, and everyone also had the chance to share their own ideas.”
Strategic development areas
The ideas that received the most support were refined into development areas for inclusion in the innovation strategy.
”One of the new development areas is information to support usage, so our aim is to gain the deepest possible understanding of how buildings are used and to support the end-users. Through analysis and optimisation, we will seek the best starting points for decision-making, and visualisation will enable us to create a better customer experience through means such as virtual technology. The tools and methods for collaboration area shows that we want to develop collaboration models that can be utilised in scenarios such as alliance-based projects.”
Collaboration is also a highly visible factor in cascading the strategy.
”We want to develop alongside our partners and the sector as a whole, and we aim to continue participating in EU and Tekes projects, as well as new KIRA digital projects,” Laine states. ”Thesis projects are also an important part of Granlund’s innovation process. In addition, we intend to hold startup events and run an annual innovation campaign that the entire Group will participate in.”
A vision of a smart, learning building
The innovation strategy envisions the building of the future, where the user and the building communicate with each other.
”Initially, we will focus on developing functional platforms, but we plan to gradually increase the amount of artificial intelligence used in buildings. Our development work is taking us towards a building type that can report, predict and learn, and that is constantly improving on its ability to address operational and user needs. At the same time, I believe that we are responding to constantly mounting international competition in consultancy by introducing new technologies and expertise, without losing focus on the customer experience. Operations cannot be allowed to become too mechanical.”
”Research and development plays a very important role in Granlund’s growth, and the entire Group understands the importance of this work. For example, the personnel survey showed that employees consider a strive for development to be one of the most important success factors. Innovations enabled us to double our net sales in five years, and we are sure to see similar leaps forwards while the new innovation strategy is being implemented. We aim to constantly reinvent ourselves, commercialise fresh ideas and grow internationally.”
– Pekka Metsi, CEO of Granlund Oy
