Policy

For Groupe SEB, innovation is part of a virtuous circle – both a creator of value for clients/distributors and a source of progress and satisfaction for the consumer. It generates profitable growth which enables us to reinvest in innovation, thereby starting the whole cycle once again. 

For Groupe SEB, innovation comes in many forms and is fed by a trilogy combining strategic marketing, technology and design. For innovation to be pertinent and applicable the right product must be launched in the right place at the right time. An analysis of market trends and customer demand must therefore be conducted upstream all innovation. For this purpose, the purely internal process must be supported by partnerships developed with large companies, research centres, universities etc.

The Group’s operations are characterised by rapid renewal of product ranges (almost 60% of our turnover generated from products that are less than 3 years old) and a high number of new products and models (200 to 250 new products launched every year). Also, the diversity of our businesses requires an extremely wide range of skills in innovation, these being both more qualified and more specialised, entailing in parallel a high level of cross fertilisation between our different businesses.

Our capacity for creative synthesis and our innovative processes gained recognition when we were awarded ATK’s Best Innovator award in April 2010 and a Hermès for Innovation at the 3rd National Meeting of Directors of Innovation.
 

Renowned for our innovative strength > “Best Innovator” Special Jury Award  : received in May 2010 from ATKearney in partnership with Les Echos daily financial newspaper, in recognition of our innovative strength and our openness to external partnerships (research laboratories or other companies).    > Hermès for Innovation : awarded in May 2010 during the 3rd National Meeting of Directors of Innovation, in recognition of our capacity to transform our technological progress into a genuine customer benefit.

Creating a Product range

A structured process, 4 key phases :

• exploration (generating ideas and checking they are pertinent);
• demonstration (demonstrating feasibility of selected ideas);
• production (investing to create a new growth area or to boost an existing market)
• and finally use…