Innovation is a concept that in recent times has gained great interest, since it constitutes an important source of competitive advantage, creating value and impacting the productivity of the company, whether based on the product or service offered, on the quality of the products. processes, marketing strategies or organizational models, but that interest is sometimes not reflected in positive results. Given this, the magic recipe is the concrete investigation of new models and mutual support within and between companies.
Given the above, the first thing we must ask ourselves: What is innovation? According to Teresa Amabile, the renowned professor of the Business Management Unit of Harvard Business School, defines Innovation as the successful implementation of creative ideas ₁. Ideas that must be very well studied so that they are directed to what you want to achieve.
According to Laura Carvajal, a member of the “Accelera Innova” Business Innovation Club team, she says that innovating represents a lot of risk, but at the same time the benefit can be very high, which has to do with new business opportunities and improving the image of The company adds that there are companies that have done this of arriving and spending on something that ends up having neither feet nor head. Although there are others like the case of Wilug who made a virtual reality device using the fire extinguisher and this has brought them to increase the price of a normal theoretical training and this also goes in favor of the environment.
In situations of risk, all safeguards must be taken, within this, an exhaustive investigation of the general situation with a systemic perspective and in parallel an investigation of similar experiences that manage to contribute to the management of that risk and add real value to its products and / or services. The aforementioned should be taken seriously into account since Chile is not adding value to its exports, a situation for which we wonder how other countries innovate that manage to re-sell the same products at higher prices. We see this reflected, for example, that in the first month of 2017, there was an increase of 23.5% in the exported volume of fresh fruit compared to the same month last year; and yet the global value decreases 39.1% ₂.
To carry out innovation, not only technology or disruptive innovations are needed that seem not to be available to all companies, innovation can be found with improvements of something existing, that is, practicing evolutionary innovation where innovation can be quantified based on factors such as performance, productivity, sales and competitiveness. In this way, models used by other companies, for example from developed countries, can be taken. This practice plays a key role and is not to arrive and practice it, but rather there is a whole investigative process that those that "ship managers" of the companies should value. . As well as Juan Carlos Bravo, manager of the Innovation Club, acknowledges that the risks of innovating can be very high and that in this sense the methodology used by The Innovation Club consists of “work sessions, in which the The first approach is that they know another reality and that they know that there are other entrepreneurs who are doing interesting things ”.
International situation worthy of being remembered is the "LEGO Case" between 1998 and 2003, the Danish toy empire went through a severe crisis and was on the verge of bankruptcy, and after recovering LEGO acquires a new philosophy "no lose the balance between focus and creativity " ₃. Clear example that despite being creative and producing different products and saying that these were "innovations", they never really innovated because they did not process their idea well, they did not take into account the true needs of the market, a serious error that can be eradicated with good market research.
The reality of Chile could be even more favorable economically if when exporting it obtained a higher FOB (Free on board) price, where importers could perceive an added value of the products taking advantage of the production limitations of those countries, where the innovation lies in the creation of products derived from grapes and / or internal logistics and / or product marketing. This is consistent with the export of table grapes to the main importer of fresh fruits, the United States. If we consider the information provided by ODEPA (2014) which shows that 322,313 [Ton] of fresh grapes were exported to the US in that year, considering only 6 grape varieties (Thompson Seedless, Flame Seedless, Red Globe, Crimson Seedless, Black Seedless and Sugraone) that represent 89% of the total exported. This valued in CIF price (Cost, insurance and freight), for the US would be $328,358,212,834 per year ₄ and according to the sale prices of each variety obtained from USDA (2014) ₅, there would be a total income of $674,806,080,409, which implies a captured value of $346,447,867,574 and with this profit, 556 modern canned fruit factories could be built. A reaffirmation that innovation generates value for the company, but for this it is necessary to investigate and focus the ideas so that they are successful. Chile lost value capture by not exporting its product in a more elaborate way. And what do you think? Do you think that companies today know how to value their innovations?
1. Amabile, TM, & Pratt, MG (2016). The dynamic component model of creativity and innovation in organizations: Making progress, making meaning. Research in Organizational Behavior, 36, 157-183.
2. Fruit Bulletin, 2017. ODEPA. Department of agriculture.
3. León, A. (2016). LEGO CASE: How to escape unprofitable innovation. I want to innovate.
4. PASO (2014). Annual fresh fruit exports and imports bulletin.
5. USDA (2014). Report results prices at terminal market.
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