‘Innovation creates value and helps growth’: Grupo Nutresa

Nutresa won the Portafolio award in the Innovation category in 2019.

Alberto Niño Torres, Vice President of Innovation and Nutrition at Grupo Nutresa, said that innovation is a process in which doctors, but also employees of the different companies that make up the group, intervene.

(Read more: Tigo and AWS ratify alliance to strengthen cloud services offering)

What are the main innovation milestones at Nutresa?

The design of a proprietary system based on the identification of the common elements of the innovative process, which has made it possible for Grupo Nutresa companies to work synergistically while recognizing their differences and taking advantage of their similarities, generating an ecosystem for innovation.

The articulation of innovation capabilities with the National System of Science, Technology and Innovation in Colombia, the incorporation of doctors in the Research, Development and Innovation (R+D+i) processes, which encouraged and strengthened the generation of knowledge and thus supporting innovation. Also the appropriation of agility concepts to respond to market needs and the construction of an infrastructure that supports the internal research ecosystem.

What contributions do they generate?

The impact must transcend the launch of new products and services. At Grupo Nutresa, innovation is an essential strategic capacity in generating value and with which we seek to positively impact human talent to generate new capabilities in the development of solutions to global problems and the generation of opportunities.

Thanks to innovation, new productivity projects were implemented in production processes that are reflected in the competitiveness of products and services in local and global markets.

Innovation in collaborative ecosystems allows us to consolidate synergies around knowledge and new creation to better face society’s challenges.

The use of new technologies brings us closer globally and allows us to develop more businesses. Innovation creates value as a common denominator, and this helps economic growth, and social and environmental well-being.

The strategy is in continuous alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Our challenge lies in putting innovation at the service of the challenges that will drive growth and in enabling the mechanisms so that the actors related to the challenges can articulate themselves.

(Read more: This is the German brand of the Louis Vuitton empire that arrived in Colombia)

What strategies do you apply to be innovative?

Innovation at Grupo Nutresa is a systemic capability whose main objective is to accompany the organization in its corporate strategy of “increasing value generation.”

We have an innovation model, Imagix, with four pillars: Culture, Portfolio, Ecosystem, and Processes and Resources. The innovation strategy seeks to develop and strengthen each of them in an articulated manner throughout each of Grupo Nutresa’s businesses to develop the capabilities to innovate effectively.

We have innovation programs that seek, among others, continuous improvement and the generation of new disruptive business models, always encouraging the active participation of all the organization’s collaborators.

Where does development in innovation originate?

Innovation originates both inside and outside the organization. Changes in consumer trends and behavior; the evolution of technology; the new regulations; scientific advances; macroeconomic changes; and the creativity and curiosity of collaborators, allies – and the ecosystem – are a source of innovation for Grupo Nutresa. Materialization can be achieved from within the business and in collaboration with actors in the ecosystem.

(More news: Going deeper into other countries, the commitment that the Postobón company has)

(Read more: La Casa de las Carcasas plans to open a production center in Colombia)

How has innovation contributed and what effects has it had on Nutresa?

Declaring innovation as a strategic capability requires alignment on the internal capabilities that must be developed.

These include agile and entrepreneurial mindset, fostering curiosity that challenges the status quo, internal and ecosystem collaboration, agile and simple processes that allow for greater opportunity, new skills for talent, new ways of working, global vision, resilience and learning. in the face of failures, flexibility, focus on the market and the generation of value.

This requires a transformation of people and businesses and, as a result, produces high-impact results, prepares the organization to face a changing environment, and find ways to grow and generate a positive impact on society.

In legal matters, what is behind innovation?

Where Grupo Nutresa operates, we use protection mechanisms such as patents, industrial secrets and trademark registrations, and we constantly monitor intellectual property protection processes and cases.

What is innovation and sustainability like?
​
Innovation is a strategic and transversal capacity at Grupo Nutresa, therefore, it is always present in the design of solutions to all types of challenges related to products, services, experiences, processes, etc.

(See: The Café San Alberto brand reinforces its omnichannel strategy)

HOLMAN RODRÍGUEZ MARTÍNEZ
Portfolio