The second edition of Fluidra Innovation Week has successfully completed this October 2018. Fluidra, a multinational group dedicated to developing solutions for a sustainable water use in swimming pools has trusted Imagine once again to power the intrapreneurial talent and create new products. Through an idea competition held in all the companies of the group, 12 employees from differents countries and diverse professional backgrounds were selected to come to Barcelona and dive into an intense week of exploring some of the company’s main challenges. With the support of Imagine experts and mentors the 4 teams of three passed through the phases of the Lombard Method to reach a solutions they presented on the last day of the program to the Jury composed by the Executive President and several top managers of the company.
The 2018 edition was kicked off at the “Ciutat de l’Aigua” – Aigües de Barcelona head office, where the participants met for the first time, formed the teams and completed the Phase 1 – Inspiration, defined the concrete problem they’d be working on, among the 3 sustainability topics proposed: Materials, Energy & Water.
For the Phase 2 – Ideation, the teams went to Món Sant Benet and visited Alícia Foundation, created by Ferran Adrià and a great example of how innovative solutions can be integrated into the day to day life. In the inspiring scenery of the medieval monastery the team completed the ideation phase, through diverging and thinking of the craziest ideas possible, and then converging them to detect the most innovative and viable solutions.
The next day, the Phase 3 – Prototyping took the participants to the FabLab Sant Cugat, where they could try out new technologies, review the business model with experts, work on the future product’s look & feel supported by the designers and validate their projects.
In the last Phase 4 – Communication, the teams stepped onto the stage of Teatreneu, to master the public speaking and stage movement tricks, and practice their final pitches.
On the DemoDay, celebrated at the everis LivingLab, a new hub for open innovation in Barcelona, the Jury, led by the Executive President of Fluidra Eloy Planes and R+D Director David Tapias, was presented with 4 different and complete solutions, like new processes to optimize spare pieces production and logistics, new systems of water heating, and a even a pioneer product classification plan.
After a complex deliberation process, the Jury decided on to winning solutions. Those got to continue the development at Fluidra Accelera, and the other two will be getting mentoring and support from correspondent departments to take advantage of the insights reached by the teams.
Fluidra has been working with Imagine for the last 3 years, and this collaboration has already led to launching new products to the market, developing an entrepreneurial attitude among the in-house professionals and offering unique opportunities of growth and learning to all the parties involved. Looking forward to the Fluidra Innovation Week 3 in 2019!
Video – https://vimeo.com/295852416