By Fernanda Costa
One of the key factors determining a company’s success in delivering innovations to the market is the robustness and agility of its product development process. The literature on innovation management addresses this topic from various perspectives, including organizational ambidexterity, which refers to a company’s ability to explore new opportunities while optimizing its operations and making incremental improvements. To achieve this, some key pillars are essential.
Building strategic partnerships enhances innovation capacity by integrating external knowledge in an agile and structured manner. Efficient R&D teams collaborate with customers, startups, universities, and suppliers. At Indorama, the Innovation Management Office (IMO) supports the creation and management of this network while facilitating funding for high-risk research projects. At the same time, the use of digital tools for R&D accelerates innovation by efficiently capturing and analyzing data. With the support of a dedicated Digital R&D team, Indorama invests in predictive systems for new products and tools that optimize laboratory development. A concrete example will be presented at ISAA, where we applied artificial neural networks to predict the bioefficacy of herbicide formulations by correlating weed control data with photosynthesis parameters.
Another crucial factor is the ability to test and iterate to validate new ideas with speed and precision. Indorama has advanced infrastructure for this purpose, including high-throughput equipment for formulation development, plant growth chamber and greenhouses for bioefficacy assessment. Additionally, a spray chamber enables application technology testing, such as rainfastness, retention, and drift analysis. This infrastructure not only accelerates internal innovation but is also available to customers to foster co-creation and collaborative project development.
