Innovation Journey

Duration

4 Months

Number of Participants

Type

DISCOVERY flex

Impact

How we empowered SKF to unlock groundbreaking innovation

The Overview

Driving innovation in a global company

At the Creativity Lab, we believe in radical creativity to drive true innovation. Our partnership with SKF, a global leader in the Bearing Industries, showcases our ability to transform ambiguity into boundless innovative potential.

The Story

How we met.

Our journey with SKF began with an exploratory conversation at the Innovation Roundtable in Copenhagen. This initial spark quickly evolved into a profound partnership, driven by a shared ambition to accelerate innovation within SKF’s product portfolio.

The Problem

Unlocking hidden Potential

Alessio from SKF approached us with a broad objective: to accelerate innovation within their product portfolio. Did we know what the problem was? Definitely not! But did we know how to approach it? Hell yes! And so we told Alessio: “No worries, we will guide you and your team to a breakthrough!”

Creativity Lab – Breakthrough Consulting

Take a look at our breakthrough consulting and discover the individual journey to our clients’ transformation.

Project

Initiation

Alessio perceived SKF’s current innovation challenge as a perceived lack of groundbreaking ideas, particularly in a very traditional industry. So we put together some key players from different SKF functions to set the playing field to be creative in for the other 20 people to join the journey.

Problem Space

Exploration

When we started investigating the so-called problem space in on-site meetings in Schweinfurt and Brussels, we created a future map on the opportunities that lie in current and future customer needs. However, during the problem space exploration another opportunity field besides products emerged: Internal processes that limit value creation for the customer. Our immediate response was characteristic: “We’ll need to work on both aspects.”

Solution

Creation

Once we agreed on two product and two process search fields to generate ideas for, we engaged in daily creativity sessions in which we applied creative behaviors to open up the divergent thinking space and break out of established thinking patterns.

Breakthrough

Execution

Over a period of four months in total, we were not only able to generate patent-worthy new product ideas. We also came together in Gothenburg to celebrate the success and decide on the next steps for implementing the product and process innovation ideas. In only a few weeks after our final meeting, SKF colleagues were able to implement the ideas and created real world impact.

You thought becoming more creative was that easy? Too good to be true!

Tobias Eismann
+49 (173) 6702506

Investing in creativity to solve your challenges takes time. We work with science-based approaches to create environments that foster the creativity of you, your team, and the entire organization. What’s your creative challenge?