EDITOR’S LETTER
Innovation as a Competitive Strategy Richiedi la versione in italiano a info@ipcm.it
The fact that innovation is the trump card to maintain a competitive advantage in an increasingly crowded global market, burdened by duties and limitations, and sometimes depressed, rather than motivated, by “green” issues is certainly one of the most shared concepts among entrepreneurs and managers. What are we really referring to when we talk about innovation? Sustaining innovation, for example, is aimed at reducing production costs and increasing the efficiency of companies. It is the most widespread type of innovation, but also the least relevant for the market. Breakout innovation, on the other hand, is created by bringing a product capable of creating a discontinuity with the previous offer into a consolidated market. Finally, disruptive innovation can completely change the competitive area and the prevalent business model in a certain market. Let us think of the advent of digital photography, smartphones, or Uber and Airbnb in the service sector. Disruptive innovation proves that no technology or business model is definitive. Therefore, rather than “innovation”, “disruption” is the key word for success. Disruption is the search for innovative elements in technology that do not simply guarantee a competitive advantage but completely redefine the rules of a given sector. This is the type of innovation that is overturning entire sectors, such as the automotive one, apparently in crisis but only when it comes to the already-existing business models. Here, the advent of new players such as Google and Tesla (which has the largest number of projects involving new production and coating plants) is causing profound changes and tumultuousness in a market that is firmly tied to tradition. Digitisation, 3D printing, and nanotechnology are just some of the technologies that companies can use to create disruption. Disruptive innovation must involve all departments and corporate functions: marketing, human resources, and sales. Companies must open up and communicate with universities, laboratories, research centres, and institutions both nationally and internationally. They must also offer specialised trainings, essential to create a culture of innovation.
Alessia Venturi Editor-in-chief Direttore Responsabile
In this first issue of 2020, the year that starts the second decade of the 21st century, ipcm® offers a long series of articles related to innovations of both the sustaining and other types. It will be possible to see most of them first-hand at PaintExpo 2020, the industrial coating sector event par excellence, where the world’s industry elite meets every two years to present the latest developments, innovations, and studies on finishes and surface treatments. We also inaugurate some very varied content sections. The “Raw Materials” section was created out of the interest of large chemical companies in presenting the performance levels that paints can achieve through the use of new raw materials to ipcm®’s target readers, mainly end users of painting and coating products. The “Art within Surfaces” section, conceived in the wake of the event organised last year to celebrate the tenth anniversary of our publishing house, which precisely combined the concepts of art and surfaces, will include interviews on the relation between art and industry as well as art and society. Each issue will also contain a review of what ipcm® did in the previous two months in the surface treatment sector worldwide: trade fairs visited, projects, and events, but also opinions and findings on what is happening in our industry. Finally, the “Specialized Training” section will present ipcm®_Academy’s ambitious project to create a school to train “surface finishing process technologists”, a role recognised at the European level but never defined before. Ipcm®’s way to create disruption.
international PAINT&COATING magazine - JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020 - N. 61
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