INNOVATION
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Ever since the 90s, with Brazilian openness of market, the biggest part of the companies started a frenetic run after technological structuring and, first of all, management improvement. In this period, programs for total quality, six sigma, benchmarking and others were more intensively begun. All these programs basically have a single focus: improving the performance/outcome through a higher efficiency in productivity, costs and reliability/quality. An important aspect observed at the current scenario is that these management templates were widely implemented, resulting in companies' standardization, even between competitors. Nowadays, competitor companies' costs are getting closer and closer, as well as technologies, competitive prices and product quality, a point that has formerly stopped being a competitive differential to turn into an essential requirement.
A surveillance recently undertaken by Gallup Institute with more than 500 executives detaches a very critical element: At each passing year companies show a strategic planning more similar to their competitors'. All such things guide into only one way: competitiveness through price rather than values, differentials and services. Because of that we may see in the market an increasing destruction of values by low prices. The current moment might be defined as being of business practices/prices going down a “decreasing spiral”. As a summary, we see that companies – as a whole – that do not seek for a differential or for ways to add a value to their business are but damned to stagnation and/or value loss. It is exactly at this 21st century's first decade that we can see that the companies can reach outcomes that exceed the average of the market and, what is more, in a sustainable fashion and for sequenced years they sought – through innovation – the creation of values such as product and service distinction which are noticed by customers. Some matters such as internal innovation program, management oriented to participative innovation and innovation management oriented to the value chain are getting more and more top-of-mind subjects at companies once they represent the only way for them to start being different than their competitors. And Ibema is in this top group.
Since 2004, along with the consolidation of the new product lines, manufactured at the new cartonboard machine – mach. III – the company has been reaching new steps of management and image being more and more set as a company whose main competitive distinctions are the carrying out of special services for customers, as well as flexibility, product lines with unique features and, first of all, the closeness to the market: customers, end users, status entities, universities. All these allow the company to guide its management and to define the strategic planning emphasizing the very values that are noticed by the customers. Speaking of innovating initiatives that Ibema has been developing we may refer to the events of services focused on the customers: Ibema technical seminars for customers and end users, made in a systemic fashion with almost four years of execution with at least six seminars per year in different regions addressing issues that the market is interested on.
We began the seminars in 2006 with the issue Cut and Furrow; we kept going in 2007 with Problems and Solutions in Offset Printing; in 2008 the issue was pre-printing and Better Performance in Offset Printing; and this year we emphasize the issue of Innovation in Packages. We already have a chosen matter and we are getting prepared for the new round of seminars that will happen from the first semester of 2010 on. It is worth speaking – still at the field of services that are noticed by the customer – of the actuation of Technical Support Ibema that features professionals of graphics and papers. By using the formal education and experience living we can provide the customers with innovating solutions and improvement of performance and also clearly understand what is the need of the customer. Besides that, our team counts on the permanent advisory service given by professor Sérgio Rossi Filho, qualified and acknowledged professional of graphic segment who has a large experience in processes of pre-printing and printing. Besides the case assistance given to the customers by the technical support team, we promote, along with our partner advisors, in-company lectures to the customers, with the issues of “Paper Manufacturing Processes”, “Offset Printing”, “Pre-Printing” and “Cut and Furrow”. Speaking of innovation in processes and products Ibema has innovated in the market by launching the CG line, featuring the Supera and Speciala products, characterized by high stiffness and unique visual presentation by Supera, exactly given by the whiteness of the back side granted by this product, even though it is not a triplex card yet it has three independent coats. In triplex line we have Speciala card, that has distinctions such as whiteness and high stiffness. Referring to products manufactured at machine II, at our Ibema site, we have been undertaking lots of studies on development and we already have products to be launched in mid-2010 that are structured to amaze the market.
Rogério Junqueira is Manager of Product Development and Technical Support for Customers.
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