Businesses young and old see power in partnership

Businesses young and old see power in partnership, illustration photo/ Source: freepik.com

Ha Do, senior partner at KPMG Vietnam, said that more than three-quarters of all corporate managers consider revenue growth as the key goal of innovation.

“To go ahead and open collaborative innovation, KPMG helps partners build management systems, connect ecosystems, and find solutions to offer innovative products and services, new business models, and new partnerships,” said Do at last week’s Innovative Leadership Forum in Hanoi.

At Procter & Gamble (P&G), open innovation is applied early for new products, leveraging the factory ecosystem, research and development (R&D), and boosting the consumer community.

P&G has developed more than 2,000 partnerships, 18 global markets led by open innovation, and 4,000 ideas from the creative community, Do said.

Moreover, cooperation instead of competition has increased the efficiency of R&D by up to 60 per cent and minimised competition in the market. Some $3 billion in revenue at partner companies has been generated by P&G’s open innovation, creating 22 billion-dollar brands and with 35 per cent of products originating from outside P&G.

Without innovation, even giants or decades-old businesses will fall behind current trends.

Rang Dong Light Source and Vacuum Flask JSC is one such business. In 2011, the company established three research centres on light technology, digital technology, and digital business models. Rang Dong has gradually researched, designed and manufactured automatic lines applying high technology to build an intelligent manufacture system.

“We do not have enough conditions or money to buy solutions from large corporations. Therefore, we learn ideas and production models of leading corporations in smart manufacturing. During implementation, we hire corporations in countries that have cultures close to ours but with a higher level of automation, to create cheaper prices,” said Nguyen Doan Ket, vice chairman and deputy general director of Rang Dong.

After many years of promoting digital transformation, Ket said the company could meet all export orders in difficult conditions such as supply chain disruption.

“With smart manufacturing, the company gradually produces almost no inventory and no errors. Labour productivity sometimes increases by up to five-fold. Production time has cut down by 10 per cent and reduced production costs by 6.2 per cent, freeing up 6,000 sq.m of warehouse space in Hanoi,” Ket said.

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Do Thanh Trung said the wave of innovation is spreading strongly, and innovative ability is a competitive advantage today.

“In this, large corporations and businesses are considered crucial elements in the innovation ecosystem, affecting the structural transformation of the Vietnamese economy,” he said. “To continuously innovate, it is necessary to join forces from all elements in the ecosystem. All subjects should play their full role, and cooperate and support each other in the ecosystem.”

In the 2023 Global Innovation Index, Vietnam ranked 46th among 132 listed countries and economies, up two places from 2022. The index, created by the World Intellectual Property Organization, also lists Vietnam as one of the top seven middle-income countries showing the most progress in innovation over the last decade.

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