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Meet CFE๐
Meet CFE, a construction and real estate multidisciplinary giant, operating in Belgium, Luxemburg, Poland and Germany. We caught up with Group Head of Innovation and Operations Director, Adam Oลdziejewski.
The conversation gave us a glimpse into the world of the CFE Group, how they innovate and why edison365 can help bring their ideas to life, in line with their ambitious plans.
Summary
Challenge
CFE required a central location where everyone can collaborate on new ideas. A place where they can enable fluid innovation across their different innovation horizons.
Solution
The edison365 platfom, offering a place for every team to collaborate on new ideas throughout the entire lifecycle, whether they're in Belgium, Poland or any other another business entity across Europe.
Results
By adding edison365 to the mix, CFE now have one centralized platform to crowdsource ideas, execute new opportunities and collaborate in real-time across their business. Not only this, but CFE have many great ideas for using edison365 moving forward.
The Challenges โ ๏ธย
CFE are a business with a lot of big ideas. But growing ideas in one of the companies to impact the whole group requires one thing, centralization. A challenge that was highlighted by Adam, who said thisโฆ
โThere was no centralized process before edison365. Each entity was managing and supporting on their own, without a central decision-making bodyโ.
CFE carries out its work across several countries, and in many businesses. This makes it hard for each business entity to innovate in harmony. But a baseline of all the efforts in innovations is that they bring people together across different businesses, segments, and domains, with a variety of different functions and skills in an open collaborative ecosystem.
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It is in fact a key success factor to make innovation work and at the same time it is at the core of CFEs SPARC (Shift, Perform, Accelerate, Return, Community) strategy where they want to accelerate CFE using integrated platforms across different segments and companies.
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In the past it has been proven that CFE can benefit from good ideas which have become real investments or companies. This proves that innovation is key for their strategy. There are internal start-ups of Woodshapers, Vmanager and now Pulse which are ideas that have been transformed in real projects and rolled out to the market becoming new business for CFE.
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These innovations originate out of our high potential management programs, combining the expertise of different domains. Next to this edison365 is a great complementary platform for us to activate all our employees through open innovation to help us prepare for the future through innovation.
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For that reason, it was pivotal to CFE to invest in a tool that helped managed innovation effectively and kept their ideas in one place. Adam explains this when talking about future goals, saying โWe want to push several innovations through the whole process, using edison365.โ
Ambitious Innovation Horizons ๐ก
After understanding the challenges CFE face around innovation, and how they plan to streamline their ideas with edison365, we discussed their innovation horizons.
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A strategy they have in place to forecast and prioritize ideas and the timescales they are working with. Letโs take a look at those horizons in a little more detail!
Innovation Horizon One 1๏ธโฃ
In horizon one, CFE identify the low-hanging fruits amongst their ideas. This typically includes innovation the company would like to roll out this year. From idea to pilot, pilot to project and finally execution. Current focuses are software, technology and timber structure.
Innovation Horizon Two 2๏ธโฃ
Next up, Adam filled us in on what CFE plan in horizon two. โHorizon two focuses beyond the end of the year. Longer projects that are maybe two years from completion.โ He concluded by mentioning that AI projects are beginning to appear in this category. Something a lot of industries and businesses are honing in on in their innovation efforts, as the demand for AI increases.
Innovation Horizon Three 3๏ธโฃ
Looking ahead, Adam tells us horizon three is where long-term projects live. Itโs where CFE look to explore and launch new offerings to their clients. This degree of innovation takes time and involves the most transformative ideas.
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โWhen managing ideas, we really need the most structured process possible. Ideas come to us in all shapes and sizes, from various angles and points of view.โ
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CFE know innovation is at the core of its business and has structured its plans into these three horizons. A clever approach to pair with edison365.
Join the worldโs most innovative brands using our end-to-end innovation management tools.
edison365 for Innovation Efficiency
CFE have created categories in edison365, which are focused around safety, sustainability in construction, off-site construction, low carbon buildings. Within these categories, Adam explains CFEs innovation efforts involve digitalization, how to use new technologies in construction, and how to become the most sustainable contractor.
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These ideas demonstrate a variety to CFEs ambitions to innovate, however, Adam explains that โPeople might not understand where ideas go.โ. Thatโs where edison365 comes in. By simplifying how ideas are captured in a single platform, Adam believes it โwill encourage people to feel more comfortable putting ideas forwardโ.
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With visibility into the progress of their ideas, edison365 eliminates uncertainty for users and provides key stakeholders with a centralized view of all innovations. They can easily drill down by category and innovation horizon.
Planning for Innovation Success ๐
Itโs no secret that innovation is at the heart of CFEs business. Adam explains innovative success for CFE involves rolling out all three horizons and implementing edison365 as a way of communicating and exchanging new ideas. We had the opportunity to ask Adam about developing a culture of innovation, and the challenges and successes CFE has had with this effort.
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โIn a very traditional industry like constructionโ, Adam explains, โtaking an innovative approach isnโt always easyโ, but slowly and surely, CFE has achieved this, and continues to make it part of their strategy. Adam tells us that innovation is up there next to sustainability, as a core focus of the business, and a high demand from shareholders. โThe key to the success is to get the right people on the innovation board and make them ambassadors.โ
โedison365 has helped collect, manage and communicate ideas. In the future, we hope it will encourage team members to submit ideas. We believe in it and want to make it a success!โ
Itโs safe to say CFE are ready to be transformative, and the mindset, ambition and attitude is already there as described by their Group Head of Innovation and Operations Director. We anticipate CFE will be rolling out ideas in large numbers, and really leveraging edison365 in a way that supports their innovation horizons. Weโd like to take the chance to thank Adam Oลdziejewski for sharing CFEs story so far and discussing how CFE use edison365 and their goals for the future.
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