Start AnyIdea for free
Completely non-binding and without time limits.
Blog
Detail
Back
innovation
How are you supposed to innovate if you certainly don't dare to think so?
Today we spoke to a thoroughly innovative entrepreneurial team of father and son. Hermann and Thomas Neuburger from the Mühlviertel region stand behind the HERMANN brand, under which they produce vegetarian products based on herb mushrooms as market leaders. They have a patent for their processing process in Europe. The idea was born by Hermann Neuburger, who, as a meat product producer, saw it as his responsibility to create an alternative. For our environment and health.
AnyIdea: With the background of a butcher shop: How do you find HERMANN?
Hermann Neuburger: It simply came from the idea that meat production and animal husbandry had changed a lot and that I was sitting in the front row there. I was dissatisfied with this for a long time because I think everyone is responsible for themselves, for what they do and how they eat. And given the conditions in butchers, you have to think about whether that's okay. It was a long process for me until I said that I would like to continue producing high-quality food, but from a different raw material than meat.
AnyIdea: The herb mushroom was certainly not the first thing you think of.
Hermann Neuburger: That's right. I started looking for alternatives about 10 years ago and realized that there is actually no knowledge in Europe how to produce good meat substitutes. And so, after doing a variety of research, I came across Asia again and again, and then finally set off there. I've traveled a lot to Asia — Thailand, China, Japan. I didn't find a finished product or process, but I was able to take away three groups of raw materials: soy, seitan and mushrooms. We came across the mushrooms again and again during visits to vegetarian restaurants.
AnyIdea: They are now considered a lighthouse in the area of food and innovation. What do you think was the reason that you did it?
Hermann Neuburger: I think my own conviction was certainly the origin and is the engine. But of course you also have to form an appropriate team. You can't implement a project like this alone. It all began with a three-person team in the company. Of course, I also had to convince people first. But they understood very quickly what it was about. And the team then slowly expanded to 10 people. Then my son Thomas was added, who also shares my conviction. I always say: The boss can have a good idea, but he needs more people to implement the idea.
AnyIdea: Was HERMANN developed internally as a team or with the involvement of a wider environment?
Thomas Neuburger: It mainly happened in a small team. But because we are entrepreneurs, we have of course always carried development into the private sphere. Our families have had to go along and suffer, so to speak. At the beginning, we also started a field test with a local restaurateur. Because when the product is carried into a different environment, you get a completely different perspective than when you test it in isolation in a laboratory. That's how we always made sure that we had field experience. We didn't get any external help or a consultant, it was important to us to develop it internally. But we have certainly made sure that we get a lot of different opinions.
AnyIdea: There was no know-how about the processing of the herb mushroom. Did you therefore access external knowledge or was that internal learning-by-doing?
Thomas Neuburger: No, it was actually all learning-by-doing. We bring industrial know-how from Neuburg food processing, and experience from the sensitive hygiene sector has helped us. But we also had to learn a lot of new things. No one could have helped us with that, because the product did not exist. It was more like we had to show external parties how to do it.
Hermann Neuburger: It was actually a mix of several areas. I am also a trained chef, and there are also a few chefs in the team. So we worked together in a completely unconventional way. We have also received a Europe-wide patent for our developed process, as the process is new.
AnyIdea: Which goals in HERMANN's development are important to you and how do you ensure your success?
Hermann Neuburger: The most important thing is to be first in the consumer's mind. This is the best protection, meaning that every imitator has no chance. Of course, we also have a certain advantage that won't be easy to catch up with. A project like this shouldn't have a time or financial budget, but you have to be patient until you find solutions. The herb mushroom is only produced in very scarce quantities and is not available on the market. Demand is currently rising faster than production is meeting. By setting up our own herb mushroom farm, we tackled another huge task, which was also new territory for us. First, 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.
AnyIdea: HERMANN and Open Innovation: Do you receive and listen to feedback from the customer?
Hermann Neuburger: Of course. We have a very active community management system. We also have 15 sales representatives who do tastings in retail stores every day — Billa, Spar, Edeka, Rewe: This gives us 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 shouldn't let yourself be driven crazy by certain groups. In fact, it is the consumer who buys and not us.
AnyIdea: What does this process look like?
Hermann Neuburger: Suggestions or complaints are sent to management via sales or quality management. This means that every customer feedback is on our table. Of course, we'll react to that. A mistake can always be made, and of course we want to avoid that and learn from the mistakes. It doesn't mean that we already know everything. So we accept every customer request.
AnyIdea: So customer requests are listened to?
Hermann Neuburger: Yes, in any case, that also ends up in our management team. It may well be that we then sit down together and talk about it in our team. And then it is our decision whether we go in that direction, yes or no. But we really look at every request from the customer, no matter how exciting or strange.
AnyIdea: Is there anything else you would like to say about innovation?
Thomas Neuburger: An acquaintance of ours always says: Doesn't work, doesn't exist! How are you supposed to innovate if you don't even dare to think about it? I see time and time again that many people have this mindset and say, “I can't imagine that.” If you just try it, you have 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 trying it out. You then focus more intensively on a topic. A large part of our innovations has also come from employees. So you don't have to do the whole thing alone. But you still have to deal deeply and thoroughly with a topic, 24/7. You can see that with many companies or start-ups that have simply had an intensive interest in something. This results in success. That's when innovation happens. If you work intensively on the matter, you will also find solutions.
Hermann Neuburger: For us, it is simply a way of life. There are also people who prefer to keep existing things and don't like to have changes as much. And there are people who are curious and easily bored, and that obviously includes me. Unfortunately, we hardly celebrate any successes, because then we're always on the next project. I'm following Heraclitus who said that the only constant is change.
That is a way of life and if you don't have it, you have problems everywhere, whether privately or professionally. We are not saying that innovation is just a topic in the company, but innovation is normal thinking, constantly moving with the times. It's the same everywhere. Everything is changing. And when you see that positively, it's much easier for yourself in the company than if you want to slow down change.
AnyIdea would like to thank Hermann and Thomas Neuburger very much for the interview.