Can you explain the concept of Fujitsu’s Innovation as a Service and how it differs from other approaches?
At Fujitsu, we tackle innovation challenges through our Innovation as a Service (IaaS) offering and consulting services. This service combines strategic planning, process implementation, cultural transformation, and technological innovation, ensuring a smooth and effective innovation journey. The offering is customizable, allowing us to tailor it to each client’s context and maturity.
Organizations must become more resilient, ethical, and sustainable in the face of many internal and external pressures. Our mission is to align innovative approaches with these objectives. We integrate new technologies to test new concepts and focus efforts on business models.
Innovation is a concept often misunderstood. Sometimes, it’s a flash of genius, but it can also be about continuous improvement. It’s important to find the balance between exploring new possibilities while improving those that already exist. An idea is useless if you do nothing with it.
What are the main services and solutions offered under Fujitsu’s Innovation as a Service to help companies stay competitive?
Our services rely on six key elements, starting with a strategic roadmap that aligns plans with the company’s goals. The second element is technological innovation—creating new solutions using, for example, AI or hyper-automation. The third element involves implementing innovation processes using methods like Design Thinking and Agile to generate ideas. The fourth element is innovation management, which involves tracking results and managing emerging challenges. The fifth focuses on fostering a culture of innovation—promoting cooperation and building supportive ecosystems. Lastly, we offer consulting and coaching services (executive coaching, leadership development, and continuous advisory support).
How does Fujitsu support its clients throughout the innovation process, from the initial idea to the concrete implementation of solutions?
We help our clients find the right balance between exploitation (managing the present) and exploration (inventing the future) within their ecosystem. Our mission is to ensure a more “observable” process from idea generation to execution, including idea capture, innovation portfolio management, innovation culture, metrics, and execution tools.
Exploitation focuses on incremental improvements and cost savings, guided by performance and efficiency goals. In contrast, exploration focuses on radical changes and market disruption, driven by trends, economic changes, new technologies, and customer insights. Bridging these two approaches means that operational and innovation teams work together on projects close to the core business, requiring technological advances or updates to business models.
How does Innovation as a Service address current challenges such as digital transformation and sustainability?
Our multifaceted approach helps meet these challenges. Rather than talking about digital transformation, we prefer the term acceleration. In this context, technology integration can improve efficiency and enable our clients to stay at the forefront of innovation. However, this is never enough if you don’t simultaneously examine processes, people, data, and the influencing factors of your business model.
As for sustainability, it is at the heart of our identity. All innovation efforts include long-term environmental, social, and economic objectives, evaluated according to criteria of desirability, feasibility, viability, and adaptability. In this way, we help organizations adopt more sustainable practices and solutions that create long-term business value and a lasting social impact.
What tangible benefits can companies expect from adopting Fujitsu’s Innovation as a Service to anticipate and meet future market needs?
We define the tangible benefits of adopting our approach from the outset in collaboration with our clients, based on a predefined set of innovation and execution performance indicators. Of course, results depend on the organization’s commitment, specific case, and maturity stage.
We believe that an open mindset towards advanced technologies and a culture of continuous improvement enable organizations to adapt quickly to market changes and new trends while continuing to innovate. This way, they maintain a competitive edge and contribute to sustainable growth by aligning innovation efforts with long-term environmental, social, and economic objectives, thereby strengthening the company’s resilience.
By establishing methods to generate ideas and implementing the best ones, Fujitsu’s innovation processes and strategic integration help organizations identify areas for improvement in terms of efficiency and operational performance, reduce costs, and optimize resources. They also help identify and develop innovative ideas that can make a difference early in the journey.
Our approach eliminates barriers and encourages cross-functional cooperation, leading to more creative and comprehensive solutions. By integrating data-driven decision-making and insights into the innovation process, companies unlock more of their potential and ensure initiatives rest on solid foundations. If businesses want to foster innovation and manage risks, it’s important to create an environment that values learning from failures. Considering failure as a lesson ultimately leads to better outcomes. While these may vary according to the context of each company, the goal is to ensure sustainable results, allowing businesses to remain competitive.