Fundermax | Learning from each other and becoming more innovative

Courage to innovate, creativity and innovative spirit

The Austrian company FunderMax is the world market leader for high-quality façade panels and offers a decorative product range for interior design. Headquartered in St. Veit an der Glan in Carinthia, the company can look back on 130 years of corporate history. From the very beginning, the courage to try something new, creativity and innovative spirit have been firmly anchored in the company's philosophy. FunderMax focuses on sustainable raw materials, highest quality, innovative design and sustainable production. The company is owned by Constantia Industries AG, one of the largest privately owned industrial groups in Austria, and employs around 1,400 people worldwide. FunderMax ensures the best quality "Made in Austria" and won the Austrian Quality Award in 2018.

No standstill, but continuous improvement

As a company with many employees in different departments such as production, research and purchasing, the previous CIP became more tedious and less flexible over time. In addition, the 2020 pandemic particularly hampered the company's ability to improve and adapt processes. A modern and digital tool was to help break up existing structures and try something new. It was important that the tool was easy to use and could be implemented quickly. With AnyIdea, the CIP was to be made campaignable and the challenging time of the pandemic was to be used as an opportunity.

We were very impressed by the commitment, flexibility and inventiveness of our staff in this situation. With our idea campaign Learning from each other, we wanted to make even better use of this potential in a structured way and learn as an organisation as well as personally from the ideas of our colleagues.

- Gernot Schöbitz, Managing Director

Ideas Hype

The big goal was to involve all employees, to take away lessons from the crisis and to strengthen the spirit of innovation. The expectations were high - the generation of creative ideas and a good exchange among the employees was the overriding goal. Sending ideas should be as simple as possible and also possible on the go via app. This way, employees on construction sites or in production can also participate easily. These expectations were even exceeded with AnyIdea: With over 500 ideas and a great positive response, AnyIdea was able to convince everyone. The idea campaign not only proved the ingenuity of the employees, but also triggered a real hype within the company thanks to gamification and provided a lot of fun when sending ideas, liking and commenting.

Learning from each other

In autumn 2020, the campaign called "Learning from each other" was launched with a duration of six weeks. All employees internationally could send their ideas, suggestions for improvement, experiences and solutions on different focal topics. These three focal points were:

• A sparing use of valuable resources,
• Occupational safety and health and
• Growth opportunities for the company.

To best support the campaign, it was promoted in the newsletter and posters and flyers with QR codes about the campaign were displayed. The promotion team monitored the performance of the campaign and supported the idea creators. Due to the thematic focus, the time frame and the promotion team, everyone was motivated and dared to be creative.

Finally, the team evaluated the ideas received in AnyIdea according to the criteria of feasibility, added value and creativity and gave feedback to the respective idea providers. Due to the simple evaluation, the filters, sorting and the idea portfolio, we always had a good overview, despite the high number of ideas received. Furthermore, our work was made much easier by AnyIdea's automated workflows and communication. The ideas cover topics such as healthy food, flexible working models, digitalised processes as well as marketing and partnerships. 10 ideas were awarded and also some special prizes. The lucky winners were able to choose for themselves which prizes they would receive at the official award ceremony. Wishes were, for example, a team dinner or a cooking voucher.

Part of a big whole

The advantages and benefits of AnyIdea for FunderMax are: An absolutely simple and optimal involvement of all employees in the idea generation process (ideation). Through the digital idea campaign, everyone had a chance to participate and be heard, which can be a challenge especially in a company the size of FunderMax. In addition, the ease of use, gamification and mobile apps motivated everyone to participate. Especially all those who do not come into contact with the topic of innovation or idea management on a daily basis became part of an innovation process and part of a big picture. Without a digital tool like AnyIdea, the more than 500 ideas generated would probably not have been mapped and implemented in this form.

Discover and use opportunity

Fundermax has used 2020, among other things, to discover and use future development potential in an uncomplicated and innovative way. Some quick wins have already been implemented - for example, digital services for use in the home office have been introduced or optimised and the range of healthy food in the company has been expanded. Work on the formulation and realisation of further ideas is ongoing, e.g. a programme for cooperation with universities. With AnyIdea, FunderMax has managed to break up existing structures, rethink ideation and innovation processes and learn from each other in difficult times.