Transformational program to develop future innovation and impact leaders
Innovation is part Sika’s DNA and brand positioning. Although the company’s track record in innovation already started in 1910 with the waterproofing of the first Gotthard tunnel in Switzerland, innovation has always been something challenging to obtain and requires multidimensional leadership – in today’s complex world more than ever before.
Now, Sika has put into life the Sika Global Innovation Challenge (GIC) in the context of its Talent Management and its ambition to foster the innovative drive of high potentials. The purpose of the program is to prepare a new generation of innovation leaders and to embrace key change drivers such as sustainability, digitalization, and circular economy. In the context of the first Sika Innovation Challenge, the international and cross-functional teams are working on real-life innovation projects encompassing technical applications like fireproof building envelops, sustainable facades and recycling solutions.
"Our corporate culture, collaboration and building trust are prerequisites to bring forward innovations as a crucial aspect of the entrepreneurial process." Daniela Odermatt, Head HR Corporate Functions
New Ways of Collaboration
With the GIC, Sika is looking at things from a leadership perspective - how business ideas are transformed to relevant business cases and how new generation leaders implement them. By incorporating the GIC, Sika aims to create a global structure to help talents and teams expand their capabilities, as well as to explore and develop new ideas while simultaneously providing a realistic possibility for future innovation leaders to exploit and implement new solutions and applications.
With the aim to support talents and projects in R&D, sustainability, efficiency improvement, and technical areas, the initiative aims to challenge both individuals, teams, and the entire organization in terms of working on real-life projects. Teams are working together to explore their innovation challenge, to think of current and future business opportunities, and to define compelling value propositions. The collaboration focuses on agile project management, team members from different walks of life, with different professional background, and with manifold capabilities are collaborating remotely using digital tools like MS teams or an online whiteboard (or MIRO board).
The future innovation drivers derive from R&D the experts, coaches and so called “innovation shepard” who focus on project coaching and on adding an outside-in perspective in order to master the shift from product to solution selling, to create a business case, and to bring solutions to the market.
The Sika Global Innovation Challenge - the program to develop talents into innovation leaders and to transforms ideas to real opportunities for business and further personal and corporate growth.
"As the recovery of our ecosystems is both a complex and multi-faceted challenge, collaboration is key to innovate towards a more sustainable future. With the GIC, Sika develops talents to innovation leaders." Mike Byrne, CTH Coating Systems, R&D and one of the Project Sponsors
The Sika Innovation Challenge
- Develops talents and prepares future innovation leaders
- Processes real-life innovation projects
- Embraces key change drivers such as sustainability, digitalization and circular economy
- Adds an outside-in perspective by combining innovation, market and customer focus
- Contributes to plan and steer transformation processes