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Meet Merz 👋
Founded by Friedrich Merz in Frankfurt, Germany in 1908, Pharmaceutical giant and family-owned business Merz has scaled to a billion-dollar business and operates out of 50+ countries.
From Merz Lifecare to Merz Aesthetics and Merz Therapeutics, Friedrich was an innovative individual whose motto is carried on into the 21st Century, as Merz now represents a parent company to many different entities and endeavors.
“Trust yourself, be different, and invent products that are truly needed”. — Friedrich Merz
We sat down with Innovation Director Marta Calderón Pérez and Innovation Specialist Sofia Fernandez Urzay to understand how edison365 has positively impacted MERZ Aesthetics in Iberia and the amazing work they’re doing to change the company culture and lead innovation by example.
Leading Innovation by Example 💡
It’s not every day you hear of an organization stepping into the unknown. But that’s what excites us! See, when we asked Merz about their purpose and how they are leading by example, we were told…
“We are the first within the Merz business to launch a corporate innovation department that is not only focused on product portfolio, but collaboration, innovative services and technology.”.
It was this newfound responsibility that brought edison365 and Merz Aesthetic together. “We wanted to create an entrepreneurial culture, that’s where we saw a need for a tool like edison365 — we’re super happy with the program.”
Summary
Challenge
MERZ Aesthetics not only wanted to transform its innovation management strategy but lacked the tools to efficiently manage and execute new ideas to their full potential.
Solution
A platform that offered an end-to-end innovation experience. From crowdsourcing ideas to encouraging entrepreneurship within the team.
Results
By integrating edison365 into their incentive scheme, they successfully sourced 239 ideas and launched 17 projects to improve work-life balance, customer experience and become more sustainable.
The Challenges 🎯
In pursuit of greatness, all businesses face challenges. It’s part and parcel of every innovation strategy. Using the right tools, however, can make all the difference! When asked about the challenges MERZ faced before introducing edison365, Marta said this…
“We had ideas, but they weren’t managed in an open way. They were super difficult to follow up on, and we lacked the ability to bring new ideas to life.”
Failing to efficiently manage and execute on new ideas is a common obstacle both big and small businesses face. In fact, did you know 80% of innovation projects never reach the market?
“edison365 was an Easy Choice” ⭐
Not only do many businesses face challenges with managing and executing ideas, but deciding on the right innovation tools can slow down progress and steer results off track. Luckily for MERZ, edison365 was a simple choice to make!
“We made comparisons against other tools but found edison365 to be an easy choice to make. It is super user-friendly, there’s no need for development, it is multilingual and matched our needs most.”
But that’s not all, Marta went on to say, “It is also easy to deploy and integrate with the wider team and Microsoft Office packages.” Demonstrating just how easy it has been to move ideas seamlessly across their business.
Join the world’s most innovative brands using our end-to-end innovation management tools.
Key Considerations for Merz
For MERZ Aesthetics, it was important they chose the right tools for the job, and that decision was edison365. But what were the considerations that drove their decision against all other tools and platforms out there?
Easy to integrate: Integrating edison365 was very easy within the MERZ Aesthetics business using single-sign-on (SSO) with our platform.
User-friendly: edison365 is built with user-friendly tools giving everyone in the MERZ Aesthetics team a quick and simple way to be innovative.
Multilingual: With the MERZ Aesthetics team based in Madrid, Spain, it was important edison365 could provide an environment that was multilingual.
239 Ways to be Transformative 🏆
If there’s one thing we’ve learned so far about MERZ Aesthetics it’s this… they are a super innovative team with a long history of doing things differently and challenging the status quo! So, how has edison365 lived up to this and helped the team transform their innovation management process?
Well, by launching 3 challenges and creating 17 on-going projects from 239 internal ideas in this fiscal year, of course! These figures are phenomenal and highlight the sheer volume of creativity and ideation happening at MERZ Aesthetics.
But what is it MERZ Aesthetics are trying to achieve with edison365? Their first ambition is to improve the work-life balance of its team members. Through edison365, they have collected 49 ideas and have 5 live projects.
Amongst those 49 ideas lies the answer to creating healthier, happier employees are engaged with their work and more productive! MERZ Aesthetics also have a staggering 136 ideas and 6 on-going projects to improve Customer Experience.
This kind of goal really helps MERZ Aesthetics set themselves apart from competitors and tailor their experience to customers in a way that helps them retain them for the future.
Finally, in a bid to become a more sustainable company (ESG), the team at MERZ Aesthetics have contributed 54 unique ideas and 6 on-going projects, helping them further establish their brand as a great place to work!
Impactful From Day One 🚀
It’s not just the numbers and figures we like to celebrate here. By implementing edison365, MERZ Aesthetics have seen other positive impacts on the wider team and business. According to Marta transparency around innovation has rapidly improved.
“edison365 helps us facilitate a lot of communication. Everyone knows the direction the company wants to move in, and employees feel listened to. It’s super interesting to see everyone’s ideas, and this inspires others to share their opinions.”
MERZ Aesthetics prides itself on a successful reward scheme that integrates with edison365. “We reward ideas with our internal point system. Ideas actively contribute to more employee points, and points can be spent on new experiences outside of work.”
This rallies the MERZ Aesthetics team to be innovative and embrace a culture of entrepreneurship as they move in the right direction as a workforce.
“It helps deploy ideas in a very structured way. It’s very rewarding to see ideas not only been listened to but also implemented.”
Seamless Adoption for Everyone 👏
If one thing is for sure, MERZ Aesthetics integrated edison365 into their innovation management process seamlessly. Our demonstration of edison365, described as “clear and super easy” was all MERZ Aesthetics needed to take their ideas to the next level.
From Power BI reports to ideas and challenges, Marta stated, “anyone onboarding with MERZ Aesthetics gets a demonstration of edison365”. This highlights just how serious MERZ Aesthetics takes innovation and their efforts to build a team of entrepreneurs.
An onboarding demonstration is one thing, however, Marta and Sofia explained that edison365 had brought out new qualities in their team. The team are fully engaged with submitting new ideas and feel comfortable doing so.
“People are willing to participate because it is fun!”
Putting ideas out into the world can be a daunting task. But with the right mindset, management and tools, that can be resolved. Something MERZ Aesthetics has perfected in a bid to create an ideas machine out of their team.
Bright Future for MERZ 🤩
MERZ Aesthetics is a pilot for innovation greatness. They are actively showcasing just what can be achieved when driven, entrepreneurial people come together. As they continue to succeed, their use of edison365 will be considered for other MERZ businesses.
As for their projects and challenges in edison365, MERZ Aesthetics will continue to transform their work-life balance, customer experience and become a more sustainable aesthetics powerhouse.
We want to thank both Marta and Sofia for their cooperation in putting this customer success story together and can’t wait to see more achievements for their team in edison365!
Join the world’s most innovative brands using our end-to-end innovation management tools.
