360° Innovation: A Key Factor in the Success of Your Projects

In our previous articles, you’ve had the opportunity to learn about our vision of innovation. I’d now like to explain what makes the success of an innovation project so complex and what our strategies are for ensuring that a new service or product generates significant business. Finally, I’ll go on to explain how our services are structured to ensure the greatest possible success for innovation projects.

WHY TAKE A 360-DEGREE APPROACH TO INNOVATION?

If you’re used to reading articles about innovation on blogs, in white papers, or on LinkedIn, you’re probably aware that 95% of innovative projects never see the light of day or aren’t profitable enough.

In the previous article, Gabriel Genieis, our Director of Innovation, explained that, in our view, innovation MUST drive business; that is the conviction we have developed. Innovation must be based on a pain point, a problem, and solve that problem through a strong value proposition.
The technical solution is not the value proposition; thinking this way is a common cause of failure. It is the alignment of several components that ultimately makes it a success, hence the concept of 360-degree innovation: this is what I will explain in the paragraph below.

THE COMPONENTS OF SUCCESSFUL INNOVATION

I have grouped them into three categories, which together form a combination: TECH – DESIGN THINKING – BUSINESS PLAN

• A suitable technical solution: an innovation must be technologically up-to-date, ideally based on proven technologies (at the very least, that’s less risky). The risk of opting for a disruptive technology (whose feasibility has not been demonstrated) does not necessarily guarantee success… which brings me to the next point.
• Innovation must address specific needs: “purists” call this “design thinking.” For example, one of Decathlon’s greatest strengths is its ability to create sports equipment tailored to the specific practices and needs of a sport. Every product is tested by users (before it goes on sale!) to validate all its uses and confirm that all pain points have been addressed. You’ve no doubt got plenty of innovative products in mind that Decathlon has successfully launched… most recently, the mask that’s revolutionizing snorkeling: their innovation engineers solved the problems of visibility, fogging, breathing, and water seepage in the snorkel and mask… in short, all the pain points that could make snorkeling less than enjoyable.
• Validating the business model: It is essential to test the revenue model and the maximum selling price that can be achieved… right from the start of the concept phase. I recall the development of a small, innovative piece of industrial equipment that DYNERGIE had worked on. The concept, technology, and applications were optimal, and our teams specializing in innovation financing had secured public funding (grants and tax credits) covering 90% of the project’s costs. At the end of the prototyping phase, our client organized an “open house” event bringing together major clients who were enthusiastic about the product and had tested it; there were firm purchase intentions, but everything collapsed like a house of cards when the selling price was announced. Conclusion: the product never sold. Since then, before any development begins, we systematically verify that we can sell it.

Finally, it’s important to realize that an innovation project is expensive. Since Dynergie was founded and after having supported hundreds of innovation projects, we’ve found thata project requires a minimum investment of €300,000 (from proof of concept to commercialization), regardless of the subject matter. This is a minimum, as an industrial project will cost significantly more. How many of our clients thought they would invest a few tens of thousands of euros to arrive at a market-ready solution, only to decide to stop along the way because of the significant resources they needed to invest?

Let me explain in this final paragraph how DYNERGIE can help you ensure the success of an innovation project.

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DYNERGIE'S RESPONSE: A COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH TO INNOVATION

Dynergie’s sole objective is to ensure that the innovation projects entrusted to us are successful. Over the course of more than 10 years, through both failures and many successes, we have developed a comprehensive service offering that allows us to support clients at any stage of an innovation project, from the generation of innovative concepts to their commercialization.

In this context, our offering is structured around two key areas:

Support for leveraging public funding mechanisms to support innovation and R&D

DYNERGIE was founded on the combined expertise of its founders: Xavier LEVESY, a former account manager at ANVAR (now Bpifrance) with over 20 years of experience in financing innovative companies, and Louis VEYRET, an entrepreneur and specialist in long-term financing and supporting innovative companies. Their goal has been to enable all companies to access all available public aid programs designed to support innovation projects, whether these are carried out individually (potentially with service providers) or collaboratively within France and across Europe. The aid we secure takes the form of a tax credit (an amount that is deducted from corporate income tax or refunded in the event of a loss or break-even), a grant (funds not repaid to the funding body), or a zero-interest loan (amount repaid to the funding body, with a 3-year repayment deferral). Our comprehensive financial engineering allows us to cover up to 100% of project costs (on average, 70% coverage when combining two forms of aid). In this area, our client references range from startups to large corporations.

Operational support for growth strategies through innovation

We aim to secure financial investment in a project to ensure not only its profitability but also the company’s genuine growth through innovations in products, services, and business models.
The key is to find the best solution to address an identified problem. Our innovation champions will study and analyze everything that could jeopardize the project’s viability—including economic, regulatory, technical, and cultural risks (negative publicity)—in a highly methodical and systematic manner, addressing these issues one by one.
As explained in the first paragraph, we always start with the pain points of our clients—and especially our clients’ clients—identifying what the problem is and where we can take action. Once all these steps have been completed (more details in our article “How to Make Your Innovation Project a Success Like No Other!”), we’ll discuss the project and, through physical and digital testing, we’ll technically implement the proposed solution.

We can also use our proprietary UMI web platform to validate a concept’s potential by gathering at least 30 qualified expert reviews in less than three weeks. Among our innovation champions, our teams include former startup founders who have the expertise to develop concepts and validate their business potential using agile methods—a approach that appeals to large corporations whose processes may be rigid.

Finally, if—as part of our growth strategy recommendations—the most effective way to implement innovation is through external growth, then we have an expert who can screen potential targets, contact them, evaluate them, and then, based on a shortlist, initiate discussions leading to the acquisition of one or more companies.

I hope this article inspires you to reach out to us to see how we can help you make your project a success.

Please feel free to contact us to schedule an initial meeting.

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