Innovation — from idea to implementation In several issues of Navigatio I have touched upon the concept of innovation. I would like to say a bit more about this. “Innovation” is often used to refer to the process of “getting new ideas”. Strictly speaking, this is not correct. “Innovation” means “getting new ideas and implementing them”. Implementing the ideas is absolutely crucial. As some of you have heard me say, coming up with a good idea represents about 1 per cent of the work, while implementing it accounts for the remaining 99 per cent. Many people and many businesses come up with good ideas, but very few have the expertise, discipline and willpower to implement them. Getting a good idea is actually quite easy – in the shower in the morning, while sitting down for lunch with your colleagues, or going for a walk with your family in the evening. Implementing a new idea on the other hand is seldom easy. It usually takes blood, sweat and tears. The implementation of a new idea will almost invariably involve several failed attempts, and it takes a real man or a real woman to shake off defeat and keep trying. This issue of Navigatio is full of examples of ideas which are not just ideas, but ideas which are in the process of being implemented. Sea urchins for the Japanese market. Wellboats and net cages for cod. Frozen lumpfish roe in Paamiut. LEAN in Ilulissat. In all these cases, Royal Greenland has launched into implementing ideas which have never before been tried in practice in Greenland. Some of the ideas are not new – but so far nobody has ever succeeded in implementing them in the real world. Sea urchins for the Japanese market is a good example. The idea is pretty obvious: There are plenty of the right type of sea urchins in Greenland, and Japanese consumers love sea urchins, so let’s send sea urchins from Greenland to Japan. That was 1 per cent of the work done, well perhaps even less than 1 per cent. The real challenge is devising production processes and logistics which will ensure that the edible parts of the sea urchins reach the Japanese consumers at a quality and price which will stimulate interest in the product. As I understand it, attempts have previously been made to export sea urchins from Greenland to Japan, but with little success. That was 20-25 years ago, and as everybody seems to recall the fact that it didn’t go well back then, to my knowledge nobody has attempted to do so again. So it was a good idea, but it could not be described as being innovative because the idea was not implemented. The past 20-25 years have seen numerous and significant technological advances, and consumer habits and preferences have actually also changed quite a lot in the past generation or so. We are therefore confident that, by taking a focused and systematic approach to catching sea urchins and to production and logistics, we will be able to get a lot further than last time. And what if it doesn’t work out this time either? Then we will keep trying – because the sustainable harvesting of an unutilised Greenlandic resource and selling it to consumers whose quality of life will be improved by having access to it is a really, really good idea. Exactly the same thinking can be applied to frozen lumpfish roe from Paamiut. Again, the idea is pretty obvious: There is lots of lumpfish roe in Greenland (and now even MSC-certified), and most consumers prefer the natural lumpfish roe to the highly coloured and salted lumpfish roe, so let’s ship fresh lumpfish roe to Europe, and perhaps in the long term also to Asia. Again, that was 1 per cent of the work done . The innovation comes with being able to land, process and pack the lumpfish roe in such a way that it retains its natural appearance, taste 2 NAVIGATIO NO. 2 • 2015
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