How can you innovate if you don't even dare to think about it?

Today we spoke to a thoroughly innovative entrepreneurial team of father and son. Hermann and Thomas Neuburger from the Mühlviertel are behind the HERMANN brand, under which they are the market leaders in the production of vegetarian products based on herb mushrooms. They have a patent for their processing method in Europe. The idea came from Hermann Neuburger, who, as a meat product producer, felt responsible for creating an alternative. For our environment and health.

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AnyIdea: With the background of a butcher's shop: How do you come up with HERMANN?

Hermann Neuburger: It simply came from the idea that meat production and animal husbandry have changed a lot and I was sitting in the front row. I have been dissatisfied with this for a long time, because I think that everyone is responsible for themselves, for what they do and how they eat. And with the conditions in the butcher's shops, you have to think about whether that's okay. It was a long process for me until I said I wanted to continue producing high-quality food, but from a different raw material than meat.

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AnyIdea: The herb mushroom was certainly not the first thing that came to mind.

Hermann Neuburger: That's right. I started looking for alternatives about 10 years ago and realised that in Europe there is actually no knowledge of how to produce good meat substitutes. And so, after doing various kinds of research, I came across Asia again and again, and finally set off there. I made many trips to Asia - Thailand, China, Japan. I didn't find a finished product or process, but I was able to take three groups of raw materials with me: Soy, seitan and mushrooms. We kept coming across the mushrooms during visits to vegetarian restaurants.

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AnyIdea: Today you are considered a beacon in food and innovation. What do you think was the reason you made it?

Hermann Neuburger: I think my own conviction was certainly the origin and is the motor. But of course you also have to form an appropriate team. You can't implement a project like this alone. It started with a team of three in the company. Of course, I had to convince them first. But they understood very quickly what it was all about. And the team slowly expanded to 10 people. Then my son Thomas joined us, who also shares my conviction. I always say: The boss can have a good idea, but he needs more people to implement it.

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AnyIdea: Did the development of HERMANN take place internally within the team or with the involvement of a broader environment?

Thomas Neuburger: It mainly happened in a small team. But because we are entrepreneurs, we have of course always carried the development into our private lives. Our families have had to go along with us and suffer with us, so to speak. In the beginning, we also started a field test with a local restaurateur. Because when the product is taken into a different environment, you get a completely different perspective than when you test it in isolation in the laboratory. So we have always looked to get field experience. We didn't get external help or a consultant, it was important to us to develop it internally. But we made sure that we got a lot of different opinions.

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AnyIdea: There was no know-how about the processing of the herb mushroom. Did you therefore draw on external knowledge or was it internal learning-by-doing?

Thomas Neuburger: No, it was actually all learning-by-doing. We bring industrial know-how from Neuburger Food Processing, the experience from the sensitive hygiene area has helped us. But we also had to learn a lot of new things. Nobody could have helped us with that, because the product didn't exist. It was rather the case that we had to show external people how it was done.

Hermann Neuburger: It was actually a mixture of several areas. I am also a trained cook, and there are also some cooks in the team. So we worked together in a very unconventional way. We also received a Europe-wide patent for the process we developed because it is new.

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AnyIdea: What goals are important to you in the further development of HERMANN and how do you ensure your success?

Hermann Neuburger: The most important thing is to be first in the consumer's mind. That is the best safeguard, so that any imitator has no chance. Of course, we have a certain lead that will not be easy to catch up with. There must be no time or financial budget in front of such a project, but one must patiently keep at it until solutions are found. The herb oyster is only produced in very limited quantities and cannot be bought on the market. Demand is currently rising faster than production can keep up. With the establishment of our own herb oyster cultivation, we tackled another huge task, which was also new territory for us. Firstly, to acquire the know-how to grow herb mushrooms economically, and secondly, to make the investment. These are certain efforts that others cannot imitate so quickly.

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AnyIdea: HERMANN and Open Innovation: Do you receive and listen to feedback from customers?

Hermann Neuburger: Of course. We have a very active community management. We also have 15 field staff who do daily tastings in the retail trade - Billa, Spar, Edeka, Rewe: This way we get almost 200,000 customer contacts and direct feedback. That is very important to us. Of course, you always have to put the feedback in perspective, you mustn't let certain groups drive you crazy. In fact, it is the consumer who buys and not us.

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AnyIdea: What does this process look like?

Hermann Neuburger: Suggestions or even a complaint come to the management via the sales department or quality management. This means that all customer feedback is on our desk. Of course, we then react to it. Mistakes can always happen, and of course we want to avoid them and learn from them. It doesn't mean that we already know everything. So we accept every customer enquiry.

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AnyIdea: So customer wishes are being listened to?

Hermann Neuburger: Yes, definitely, that also ends up with us in the management. It may well be that we then sit down together and talk about it in our team. And then it's our decision whether we go in that direction, yes or no. But we really do look at every request from the client, no matter how exciting or peculiar.

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AnyIdea: Is there anything else you would like to say in conclusion on the subject of innovation?

Thomas Neuburger: An acquaintance of ours always says: There's no such thing as can't! How are you supposed to come up with innovations if you don't even dare to think about it? I see again and again that many people have this mindset and say, "I can't imagine that". If you just try it, there is a 50% chance that it will work. Sure, you always take a risk, but the chance of success is always relatively high. Often it's really just a matter of trying things out. You then deal with a topic more intensively. A large part of our innovations came from our employees. So you don't have to do it all alone. But you still have to deal with a topic deeply and thoroughly, 24/7. You see that with many companies or start-ups, they simply had an intense interest in one thing. That's where success comes from. Then innovation happens. If you deal with the matter intensively, you also find solutions.

Hermann Neuburger: For us it is also simply an attitude to life. There are also those people who prefer to preserve existing things and don't like change so much. And there are people who are curious and quickly bored, and I am obviously one of them. Unfortunately, we hardly ever celebrate successes because we're always on to the next project by then. I stick to Heraclitus, who said that the only constant is change.

It's a way of life, and if you don't have that, you have problems everywhere, whether in your private or professional life. We don't say innovation is just any topic in the company, but innovation is normal thinking, constantly moving with the times. That is the case everywhere. Everything changes. And if you see that in a positive light, it's much easier to do things in the company than if you want to put the brakes on change.

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AnyIdea would like to thank Hermann and Thomas Neuburger for the interview.

www.hermann.bio