What is innovation?

Tony Foster, Sales and Marketing Director of the UK packaging division of DS Smith shares his thoughts about when nice ideas develop into innovation.

For many, innovation means new ideas, but for DS Smith, ideas are just the start.

We believe it is only when ideas are developed to deliver value that they become innovative. They need to have a positive impact on our customer’s performance, whether that’s sales or brand awareness.

Innovation at DS Smith needs to take place in every department, at every level, across the entire business, every day. This means pushing the boundaries at every possible stage of collaboration with our customers. We achieve this by challenging existing ideas, developing new creative designs and inspiring our employees. We may make boxes but we aim to drive innovation by ensuring our customers achieve more for less.

We seek to deliver industry firsts. For example the creation and implementation of PACE, a programme designed to maximise pack performance by optimising the fibre we use in our boxes. We achieve this by creating technology that enables us to fully control the manufacturing process, in order to guarantee packaging performance, while using as little material as possible – ultimately saving our customers money. We also invest to innovate and are well into our £100m investment plan, which includes the installation of the first ever HP Inkjet Web Press.

However, innovation also means thinking outside the box (excuse the pun). And we wouldn’t be able to challenge ourselves and exceed the expectations of our customers without an inspired, motivated and healthy workforce. As the saying goes, healthy body, healthy mind. Therefore we have created a companywide ‘Healthy Hearts’ scheme, which ensures we have fit and motivated employees, organising activities to encourage them to lead healthy lives. This in turn makes our business stronger, healthier and more energised.

If we establish the right culture and continue to challenge ourselves, anyone’s bright idea can be turned into a value adding innovation, benefiting our customers and our business. We don’t believe in simply thinking innovatively, for us it is innovation delivered. That’s what counts.