With himalaya, HIMA strengthens its innovative power and invests in sustainable growth. Thanks to the autonomous lab, the topic of innovation has gained new prominence across the HIMA Group. Alongside product innovations, which are still developed at the headquarters, emphasis is placed here on business models and transformation projects that are jointly driven forward with customers.
In-house incubator
The himalaya Innovation Lab is located in the Green Business Park in the Taylor area of Mannheim. Surrounded by other innovative companies and taking advantage of carefully designed creative and inspiring spaces, the team has an excellent working environment for implementing innovation projects in a state-of-the-art facility, enabled by technology to enhance collaboration.
"The positive start validates our choice as shareholders to establish an in-house incubator to strengthen innovation and open up new business areas," explains Steffen Philipp, Managing Partner of HIMA.
Agility counts
The slogan 'Exploration Rocks' describes the core of the new organizational unit: Innovative ideas are highlighted and evaluated over a short period of time, and only the best ones are pursued further. As a result, HIMA employees, customers and other innovative companies are encouraged to develop and evaluate new ideas in a structured process that takes six to eight weeks and employs cutting-edge methods and concepts.
"As an independent family-owned company with 800 employees, it is quite exceptional to maintain our own Innovation Lab. However, its success proves that this is the right path to boost our innovation pace even further" explains Jörg de la Motte, Managing Director (CEO) at HIMA.
Within a year, the agile himalaya team established an extensive innovation network and evaluated more than ten innovative digital solutions, some of which are now being implemented. Two of these innovative projects are digitally-connected business models that HIMA intends to explore further. Based on the successful results and growing demand, the team will be enlarged by two additional Innovation Managers and additional working students.
"We are very proud to have already completed so many projects with HIMA employees, customers, potential users, research partners and start-ups. Although our project pipeline is well stocked, we welcome any new ideas and are glad to provide support," says Knut Haberkant, Head of Innovation Lab.
