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CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORY

Innovation leadership in Australasia

How Fletcher Building is changing the game of construction and paving the way to market and innovation leavership in Australasia using the ITONICS Innovation OS.

100's

of employees with access to innovation

70+
ideas and projects
30+
executives managing portfolios
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"In order to firmly anchor innovation as the driver of growth in our company, we have actively sought a partner who could consult and support us best in innovation enablement and company-wide collaboration.
 
The ITONICS platform has become an integral part of the new innovation culture and is contributing to the cross-pollination of pioneering growth opportunities at Fletcher Building."
 
– Dr. Lisbeth Jacobs, General Manager Innovation and Sustainability, Fletcher Building
Fletcher Building Lisbeth Jacobs
Fletcher Building challenge
THE CHALLENGE

Market leadership in building products and construction

The new situation in 2020 has also forced the construction industry to realign itself. Major investments in the public sector, particularly in hospitals and other medical facilities, are pushing many construction companies towards rethinking and innovating. Emerging industry drivers such as sustainability and green investment are also shaping the new conditions.

On the way to becoming the Australasian leader in sustainable building products, construction, and distribution, Fletcher Building has set ambitious goals to get there.

Innovation at Fletcher Building

Innovation at Fletcher Building

Together with ITONICS, one of the foundation stones was laid at the end of 2019. In order to create company-wide synergies, generate evidence and transparency, the innovation platform of ITONICS was integrated and closely aligned with Fletcher Building‘s mission to fuel growth opportunities, innovation success, and company-wide collaboration.

  • One of the market leaders in NZ and Australia
  • Fragmented approaches to innovation processes across the business
  • Missing transparency over initiatives of 30 business units
  • Limited reporting to Executive Committee on innovation initiatives across the business
  • Difficulty in identifying project collaborations

Objectives

Strategic alignment

Implement an innovation portfolio management platform aligned to Fletcher Building’s strategic initiatives

Create evidence

Involve all innovation executives and bundle their activities to create synergies and generate evidence

Track portfolios

Track progress of projects and help to make decisions in project directions

Prioritize initiatives

Aid in road mapping and prioritizing innovation initiatives

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"What we were looking for was something outside the 'one-fits-all' solutions. Despite our complex requirements, the ITONICS platform met most of the core requirements from the very beginning and was further enhanced in close consultation with the ITONICS team. We are looking forward to the future and exciting projects to bring Fletcher Building to the top."
 
– Dr. Pretesh Parel, Head of Innovation Engine, Fletcher Building

THE SOLUTION

A main portfolio management platform aligned to strategic initiatives

The Fletcher Building Innovation Team is responsible for steering the innovation agenda across Fletcher Building. Supported by the ITONICS Innovation OS, the team is driving incubation, portfolio management, and strategic planning in line with the strategic goals.

Innovation Process at Fletcher Building

Incubation management

The Innovation Team develops transformational initiatives that build innovation and growth mindsets, promotes cultural change at all levels, and builds internal embedded innovation capabilities.

To provide uniform access to internal information and drive incubation management within the company, the Innovation Steering Group of every business unit collects core, adjacent, and transformational ideas within a portfolio of possibilities.

Within three decision-making rounds, all ideas are evaluated and narrowed down according to criteria such as customer desirability, business viability or tech feasibility.

Portfolio management

In monthly portfolio decision meetings, the ideas are transferred to a portfolio of projects in order to interlink strategic corporate goals and innovation operations.

The goal is to create balanced innovation portfolios that prepare for acting upon numerous possible contingencies.

Quarterly portfolio reviews provide a direct link to the Executive Committee, where portfolio outcomes and future directions are discussed.

Strategic planning

By visualizing and contextualizing market and technology trends with the defined innovation projects on an integrated roadmap, dependencies in innovation implementation are revealed.

Closing the loop back to the initial company missions, the roadmap layers represent the overall corporate strategic initiatives: environmental footprint, product innovation, modular/pre-fab, multi-residential, role of distribution, and supply chain.

The stakeholders

The Fletcher Building Innovation Team is responsible for steering the innovation agenda across Fletcher Building. Supported by the ITONICS platform, the team is driving incubation, portfolio management, and strategic planning in line with the strategic goals.

  • The Executive Committee is accountable for the overall growth of Fletcher Building via innovation.

  • The GM Innovation and Sustainability leads the Innovation team (Insight and Engine) and drives the innovation agenda and cultural change across the business.

  •  The Innovation Insight Team, which includes innovation analysts, identifies external opportunities as well as market and competitor insights. It also maintains and manages close relationships with the R&D and startup community as well as with governmental and regulatory institutions.

  • The Innovation Engine Team incubates and accelerates transformational innovation outcomes and is in charge of managing the innovation funnel and portfolio innovation projects.

  • Individual Business Steering Innovation Groups are responsible for management of their individual innovation portfolio, with more focus on core and adjacent innovation.

Achievements

  • The platform is an integral part of the new innovation culture and contributed to cross-pollination of pioneering growth opportunities. More than 70 ideas and projects have been moved through the funnel.
  • Due to improved collaboration opportunities, the entire company is undergoing a cultural transformation giving 100’s of employees access to innovations happening across the business.
  • The new innovation process is fully digitized and mapped on a collaborative innovation platform.
  • The central organization of information results in immense time savings in the innovation process.
  • Over 30 innovation leaders from across the company now manage their portfolios with full transparency.
  • More than a dozen potential business to business collaborations have already been identified.
  • Executive Committees: Growth opportunities and the right investment decisions for the company are now visible.
  • Innovation Team: The team is now able to obtain informationabout the entire company and link topics between the businesses, technologies, and markets. Cultural change now also becomes visible, tangible, and measurable. Innovation paths can be better prioritized and informed decisions can be made and justified based on data.
  • Business Steering Innovation Groups: The progress of projects can now easily be tracked. Ratings make clear where to focus on, also in order to save resources. Teams are now able to prove the benefit of their idea with a small budget.

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About Fletcher Building

Fletcher Building is the largest, vertically integrated building and construction company in New Zealand, today employing over 15,000 people across around 30 businesses, which also span through Australia and the South Pacific.

Learn more about how innovative companies implemented a world-class innovation ecosystem. Get a free demo!

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