the process of idea generation. · cognitive and social-psychological approach to idea generation,...

Faculteit Letteren en Wijsbegeerte

Steven Schatteman

The Process of Idea Generation. Organizing, guiding and leading an ideation workshop

at Bayer BioScience NV

Promotor: Prof. Dr. G. Jacobs

Proefschrift voorgedragen tot het bekomen van de graad van

Master in de Meertalige Bedrijfscommunicatie

2008

iii

Acknowledgments

First of all, I would like to thank everyone who contributed, directly or indirectly, to the

realisation of this dissertation.

Additionally, I would like to express my specific gratitude to Mr. André Roef and Mrs. Ingrid

Cazaerck, for their support and advice, over both the course of my internship and the development

of this dissertation.

iv

Table of contents

Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................................... iii

Table of contents ............................................................................................................................ iv

Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 1

1. Company Presentation: Bayer BioScience NV ........................................................................ 3

1.1 History of Bayer BioScience NV ......................................................................................... 3

1.1.1 1982 – 1996: Plant Genetic Systems ....................................................................... 3

1.1.2 1996 – 1999: Plant Genetics Systems becomes part of AgrEvo .............................. 4

1.1.3 1999 – 2002: Aventis CropScience ......................................................................... 5

1.1.4 2002 – present: Bayer BioScience ........................................................................... 5

1.2 Company Structure ............................................................................................................... 6

1.2.1 Umbrella entity: Bayer AG ...................................................................................... 6

1.2.1.1 Global Structure ........................................................................................ 6

1.2.1.2 Bayer HealthCare ...................................................................................... 9

1.2.1.3 Bayer MaterialScience .............................................................................. 9

1.2.1.4 Bayer CropScience .................................................................................. 10

1.2.1.5 Bayer Service Companies ....................................................................... 11

1.2.2 Local entity: Bayer BioScience N.V. ..................................................................... 12

1.2.2.1 Local Structure ........................................................................................ 12

1.2.2.2 Supporting Services ................................................................................ 14

1.2.2.3 Host Organisations .................................................................................. 14

1.2.2.4 Communications department .................................................................. 18

1.3 Corporate Identity: Bayer BioScience ................................................................................ 19

1.3.1 Mission statement .................................................................................................. 19

1.3.2 Vision ..................................................................................................................... 20

1.3.3 Strategy .................................................................................................................. 21

1.4 Bayer BioScience products ................................................................................................. 22

1.4.1 Positioning of BioScience products ....................................................................... 22

1.4.2 Canola: InVigor® ................................................................................................... 22

1.4.3 Cotton: FiberMax® ................................................................................................. 23

1.4.4 Rice: Arize® ........................................................................................................... 23

1.5 Competitors in the biotechnology market ........................................................................... 24

1.5.1 Market Overview and Positioning ......................................................................... 24

1.5.2 Syngenta................................................................................................................. 26

1.5.3 Monsanto ............................................................................................................... 27

1.5.4 DuPont ................................................................................................................... 27

1.5.5 Dow AgroSciences ................................................................................................ 27

v

1.6 SWOT-analysis ................................................................................................................... 29

2. The process of organisational idea generation ....................................................................... 30

2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 30

2.2 Cognitive and social-psychological framework ................................................................. 32

2.2.1 Introductory remarks .............................................................................................. 32

2.2.2 Cognitive framework ............................................................................................. 33

2.2.3 Social psychological framework ............................................................................ 36

2.3 The problem finding process .............................................................................................. 37


2.3.2 Individual or group ideation strategy ..................................................................... 37

2.3.2.1 Nominal versus interacting groups ......................................................... 37

2.3.2.2 Disadvantages of group ideation ............................................................. 39

2.3.2.3 Advantages of group ideation ................................................................. 40

2.3.3 Group forming: illusion of productivity ................................................................ 41

2.3.4 Setting goals for the ideation process .................................................................... 43

2.4 The ideation process ........................................................................................................... 44


2.4.2 Brainstorming as an ideation tool .......................................................................... 45

2.4.3 Facilitating a brainstorming session ...................................................................... 46

2.5 The selection and evaluation process ................................................................................. 48


2.5.2 The concept of idea evaluation .............................................................................. 48

2.5.3 Strategies for idea evaluation ................................................................................. 50

2.6 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 51

3. Case study: an internship at Bayer BioScience NV ............................................................... 53

3.1 Introductory remarks .......................................................................................................... 53

3.2 Primary assignment: the ideation workshop ....................................................................... 54

3.2.1 Background and setting ......................................................................................... 54

3.2.2 Preparatory phase ................................................................................................... 55

3.2.2.1 Introductory remarks ............................................................................... 55

3.2.2.2 Getting acquainted with the subject ........................................................ 55

3.2.2.3 Logistic and practical preparations ......................................................... 57

3.2.2.4 Construction of the workshop agenda ..................................................... 60

3.2.3 Ideation workshop at Bayer Antwerpen ................................................................ 61

3.2.3.1 Introductory remarks ............................................................................... 61

3.2.3.2 Introduction and first acquaintance ......................................................... 61

3.2.3.3 Animal Health presentation .................................................................... 62

3.2.3.4 Top of mind exercise ............................................................................... 62

3.2.3.5 I like/don‟t like exercise .......................................................................... 62

3.2.3.6 Accidental discovery exercise ................................................................. 63

3.2.3.7 Well-being exercise ................................................................................. 63

3.2.3.8 Ranking and evaluation of ideas ............................................................. 63

vi

3.2.4 Workshop roll-out .................................................................................................. 64

3.2.5 Assignment evaluation ........................................................................................... 64

3.3 Secondary assignments ....................................................................................................... 66


3.3.2 Translations ............................................................................................................ 66

3.3.3 Editorial contributions ........................................................................................... 66

Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 68

Bibliography .................................................................................................................................. 70

Appendix ....................................................................................................................................... 75

1

Introduction

Innovation and creativity are imperative in the contemporary organisational environment. In order

to remain competitive, companies continually have to improve their existing products and

services, and develop new products and services. In this respect, creativity of a company‟s

employees is of paramount importance for the effectiveness of an organisation, as market research

and analysis are expensive and time-consuming methods to ensure innovation. Therefore, many

companies decide to invest in internal idea generation, where the company‟s work force is

motivated and stimulated to generate new ideas. Investing in specific idea generation for a

particular subject with clear objectives can result in both short-term (the immediately generated

ideas for potential new products) and long-term (a changed employee attitude towards creativity)

benefits. A number of techniques and strategies for organisational idea generation have been

developed to support idea generation in organisations. Organizing brainstorming sessions has

emerged as the most frequently used of these different methods. I will analyse the concept of

organisational idea generation via brainstorming sessions, illustrating this concept with a specific

case study, viz. the organisation, guidance and lead of an ideation session at Bayer BioScience

NV.

In the first chapter of this dissertation, I will discuss and analyse the company of my

internship, focusing on the company history and structure (both on global and local level), its

corporate identity (mission statement, values and strategy), products and position in the

competitive environment. The chapter will be concluded in a summarizing SWOT-analysis,

reiterating the company‟s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

The second chapter focuses on the theoretical background and framework of organisational

creativity, and, more specifically, the concept of idea generation. In this chapter, I will start from a

cognitive and social-psychological approach to idea generation, and subsequently move to a more

practically oriented approach of the three different stages of ideation (problem finding, ideation

and evaluation), discussing key elements of these three stages in the idea generation process.

The description of my internship is the central element in the third chapter. In this case study, I

will elaborate on the different aspects of the ideation workshop that I conducted at Bayer

BioScience NV, paying specific attention to the three key internship phases: preparation, ideation

workshop and workshop roll-out. The description of the ideation workshop in all its aspects will

be followed by an evaluation of the assignment and my input in this project. Additionally, I will

2

discuss the secondary tasks I performed during my internship, ranging from translations to

editorial contributions.

To conclude this dissertation, I will summarise my experience throughout the internship, and

its contribution to my professional and personal development.

3

1. Company Presentation: Bayer BioScience NV

1.1 History of Bayer BioScience NV1

The history of Bayer BioScience N.V. reaches back some 25 years, and was preceded by research

conducted by Jeff Schell and Marc Van Montagu at the Ghent University. In cooperation with

their research team they studied the soil bacterium Agrobacterium tumefaciens and the ability of

some of its strains to induce tumours in plants. From this observation, they deduced a fundamental

premise: if Agrobacterium could transfer DNA to plants to stimulate the plants to make certain

products, then maybe plants could be induced to make desired products. GIMV counsel Gerard

Van Acker, enthusiastic about the potential of this development, gathered interested parties and

convinced them to establish a new enterprise, conceived as a business model around this new

technique. This marked the birth of the new company, which would however go through several

changes over the years before arriving at its current name and structure.

1.1.1 1982 – 1996: Plant Genetic Systems

On the 2nd of February 1982, Plant Genetics Systems (PGS) was founded. The enterprise‟s plan

was to capitalise on the first successes of using recombinant DNA technology for genetic

engineering of plants made in the Genetics Lab at Ghent University. The first stage of the

business strategy was aimed towards establishing a unique, strong and well-protected

technological base on which to build a business.

The first breakthrough came in 1985, with the engineering of the first insecticidal protein in

tobacco, which made it to the cover of Nature magazine. This made PGS the first company to

develop genetically engineered plants with insect tolerance, and thus profiled the company as a

potential threat for the pesticide businesses of the major agrochemical companies. Subsequent to

this initial success, the first field trials with herbicide tolerant plants were done in the US and later

on in Europe, resulting in successful testing and the prospect of commercial prosperity.

1 Cf. Wikipedia: Plant Genetics Systems. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_Genetic_Systems>, 30/06/2008;

FlandersBio: Bayer BioScience Fiche.

<http://www.flandersbio.be/documents/15_BayerBioScience_Fiche%20FINAAL.pdf>, 30/06/2008; Bayer

BioScience NV: Bayer BioScience nv... in motion. Unpublished booklet, Gent, Bayer BioScience NV, 2007.

4

In 1988, the increasing success led to an expansion of the field trial network into more crops,

including oilseed rape, alfalfa, tomato, poplar and sugar beet. Upon reaching its lustre, PGS was

internationally recognised as a leading contender in the rush to commercialise genetically

engineered plants. This reputation was even strengthened in 1989, as the company announced a

molecular genetic technology that allowed for the effective creation of hybrid varieties of many

plant species. This was considered to be a big breakthrough and received worldwide attention.

At the start of the 90s, PGS realised that a shift in strategic thinking became a priority. The

company focused on three technological platforms (a pollination control system (SeedLinkTM), Bt

(Bacillus thuringiensis)-based insect control and glufosinate tolerance) and mixed this with

licensing-out of technologies, forward integration in breeding and sales of seeds (including the

company‟s new research station in Astene) and strategic partnerships with seed companies (joint

projects with companies in the Netherlands (chicory, leek), Japan (brassica vegetables and rice)

and Canada (oilseed rape or canola)). This new strategy indicated that the company increasingly

directed its attention to product development. The greenhouse in Astene enabled the breeding and

growth of tobacco, corn and oilseed rape, and was equipped with advanced facilities for seed

drying, handling and storage capacity.

1.1.2 1996 – 1999: Plant Genetics Systems becomes part of AgrEvo

On August 16, 1996, PGS‟s development took another upturn, as Hoechst Schering AgrEvo

GmbH (AgrEvo) acquired the company. This was a logical next step for PGS, since the crop

production concept (the combination of seeds, technology and chemical crop protection) was

starting to emerge and major plant biotech products were only just coming to market. Thus, PGS

became part of a large multinational, allowing for the company to expand and face these new

challenges. The number of employees grew from 120 to more than 200. AgrEvo wanted to build a

crop production future; they already had the crop protection component and the technology

component (PGS). Now they needed one last element: the seed business, where its target was

corn. At the time, corn was the subject of a battle between the major companies in the agro

industry; this battle centred on attaining market share in the seed business and being the first to

introduce biotech traits in the corn market. Due to the longevity of various patent battles and the

absence of its own seed business, AgrEvo essentially lost this “battle”, and was forced to shift its

focus to cotton, oilseed rape and rice.

The cotton market was entered by a joint venture with an Australian seed company, which

secured access to Australian germplasm (~ birth of FiberMax®) and by forming a research alliance

with CSIRO, re-establishing cotton as a research target. In the canola business, the first InVigor®

5

hybrids were sold in 1997, making it a realistic business perspective for oilseed rape research. In

1999, AgrEvo acquired Proagro Seed Company Pvt.Ltd., an Indian seed company, which opened

up the opportunity of the development of rice as a crop at PGS. These initiatives illustrate the size

of the financial resources AgrEvo invested in the growth of its seed and trait businesses, resulting

in many new innovative technologies, and thus laying the foundations for future developments.

1.1.3 1999 – 2002: Aventis CropScience

Figure 1: Aventis logo

In 1999, Hoechst AG and Rhône-Poulenc SA decided to merge their activities in pharma and

crop protection, and formed a new company, Aventis SA. Within Aventis CropScience, the

company formerly known as PGS formed a separate business unit, BioScience. Symbolically, the

PGS logo was taken down and replaced by the sign Aventis CropScience N.V. The merger resulted

in the restructuring of the entire company and some stressful years (as there were signals that the

Aventis holding wanted to spin out CropScience). Additionally, the European ban of cultivation

of genetically engineered crops was maintained, meaning that field trials had to be conducted

outside Europe. This caused the Astene site to be slowly converted from a breeding station into a

research station.

The setbacks, however, did not mean that the Ghent research labs were not doing well. The

first results in abiotic stress control and the development of an effective method for gene

replacement in oilseed rape and corn were obtained.

1.1.4 2002 – present: Bayer BioScience

Fout!

Figure 2: Bayer logo

On the 2nd of October 2001, Bayer acquired Aventis CropScience through a stock purchase

agreement with Aventis and Schering. This acquisition was, at the time, the largest Bayer had ever

ventured in its 138 years of existence, and made its crop protection business (with that of Aventis

6

CropScience) take up the world‟s number two position in the agricultural chemicals business

(behind Sygenta). The new company name of Aventis CropScience NV was changed into Bayer

CropScience N.V. on June 11, 2002, but would soon be changed again. To indicate what the

company is all about, the name was altered into Bayer BioScience N.V. on August 12, 2002. With

this takeover, Bayer gained a foothold in the seed business, and saw that green biotechnology was

essential to the crop protection industry.

The new start of the biotechnology company was epitomised by a new infrastructure,

providing lab equipment and housing the employees. In April 2004, a new research facility in

Technologiepark in Zwijnaarde was taken into use, a facility that physically connected the

laboratory block and the administrative block (Legal, IP, HR, Finance,...), which used to be

separated in the AgrEvo days. In addition to the new building, the strategy was revised, and Bayer

opted to focus its research activities on oilseed rape, cotton, rice and vegetables. In addition to the

new strategy, many of the long-standing and time-consuming litigations were resolved. All these

activities marked the new road for the biotechnology company, a road Bayer BioScience has

followed ever since.

1.2 Company Structure

1.2.1 Umbrella entity: Bayer AG

1.2.1.1 Global Structure

In order to get a clear view of the structure of Bayer BioScience N.V., it is imperative to illustrate

the place of this company within the global holding that is the multinational Bayer AG. As I

discussed earlier (cf. 1.1.4, p.5), the company (at the time Aventis CropScience) was acquired by

Bayer AG in 2002 and has thus been inserted into a much larger and more complex consortium.

The Bayer group employs over 106,200 people worldwide, has its headquarters in Leverkusen,

Germany, and is present in more than 50 countries. It attained sales of € 32,385 million in 2007

and has Werner Wenning as its CEO. Bayer AG should be regarded as a huge organisation, in

which the different subsidiaries are intricate and difficult to discern. I therefore want to maintain a

clear and transparent view of the position of Bayer BioScience N.V. in the large organisation of

Bayer AG, which makes it necessary to look at the holding‟s structure in greater detail.

The Bayer AG holding consists of three subgroups and three service companies, which all

function independently. It also has a Corporate Centre, which “supports the Group Management

7

Board in its task of strategic leadership”2 and is formed by the board of management and the

supervisory board. On its website, the company offers this schematic view of its organisation:

Figure 3 Bayer AG organisation chart3

This graph shows the different subgroups of Bayer AG, but gives no indication towards the

relative size and sales of the different subgroups. In order to demonstrate the different size and

relative importance of the three subgroups and to further approach the level of the subcompany

Bayer BioScience NV, I turn to the Bayer annual report for two elucidating graphs. The first

graph lists key data of the three subgroups and their respective segments, illustrating the size of

these subgroups. These numbers clearly indicate that, as far as sales and earnings are concerned,

Bayer CropScience (the subgroup to which Bayer BioScience NV belongs) is the “smallest” of the

three subgroups:

2 Bayer AG: Profile and Organization. <http://www.bayer.com/en/Profile-and-Organization.aspx>, 01/07/2008

3 Bayer AG: Profile and Organization.

8

Figure 4: Key data by subgroup and segment in 20074

The same conclusion can be deduced from the graphical presentation of the sales by segment,

which is offered in the annual report. Bayer CropScience is, when it comes to sales, the smallest

subgroup and represents only 18% of the Bayer sales:

Figure 5: Sales by segment in percent in 2007 (2006 in parentheses)5

The cited numbers already offer an interesting view of the relation between the subgroups

within the Bayer Group, but cannot convey the entire framework of this complex organisation.

They do however lapidarily illustrate the relative size of the subgroups, and can assist in

determining the position and situation of Bayer CropScience (and, subsequently, of Bayer

BioScience NV). In the next paragraphs, I would like to elaborate on the different subgroups and

4 Bayer AG: Science For A Better Life. Bayer Annual Report 2007. Leverkusen: Bayer AG, 2008, p.33

5 Bayer AG: Bayer Annual Report 2007. p.33

9

service companies, paying specific attention to the Bayer CropScience group, since Bayer

BioScience N.V. is a part of this particular subgroup.

1.2.1.2 Bayer HealthCare

The Bayer HealthCare group is mainly operative in the field of human and animal health. It

focuses on researching, developing and producing new products and therapeutic approaches. This

subgroup is the biggest of the three Bayer subgroups, with sales in 2007 amounting to € 14,807

million and a work force of 51,600 employees. It is headquartered in Leverkusen and realised an

operating profit of € 1,564 million in 2007.6 Bayer HealthCare consists of four different

departments, each with its specific focus: Bayer Schering Pharma (prescription medicines; sales

of € 10,267 million in 2007), Animal Health (over-the-counter medicines and nutritional

supplements; sales of € 14,807 million), Consumer Care (blood glucose monitoring systems; €

2,634 million) and Diabetes Care (veterinary medicines and grooming products; € 950 million).7

Bayer Healthcare has a product portfolio of more than 100 products, of which the Bayer

HealthCare website lists the 10 best-selling products in 2007: Yasmin®/YAZ®/Yasminelle®,

Betaferon®/Betaseron®, Ascensia®, Kogenate®, Adalat®, Aspirin®, Avalox®/Avelox®,

Cipro®/Ciprobay®, Mirena®, Levitra®.8

1.2.1.3 Bayer MaterialScience

The Bayer subgroup Bayer MaterialScience is active in the field of researching, developing and

producing materials, as the company name suggests. The company is, as the Bayer Group website

states, a manufacturer of “polymers and high-quality plastics”.9 The company‟s best-known

products are polycarbonates and polyurethanes (e.g. Makrolon®, Desmodur®, Makrofol® and

Apec®) as well as system solutions (e.g. coatings such as Bayhydrol®, Desmopan® and

Bayhydur®). The company is globally present in more than 30 locations and has around 14,900

employees. In 2007, it realised sales of about € 10,435 million.10

6 Cf. Bayer HealthCare: Facts and Figures.

<http://www.bayerhealthcare.com/scripts/pages/en/company/profile/facts_amp_figures/index.php>, 04/07/2008 7 Cf. Bayer AG: Profile and Organization.

8 Bayer HealthCare: Bayer HealthCare Products.

<http://www.bayerhealthcare.com/scripts/pages/en/company/products/top_20_products/index.php>, 04/07/2008 9 Bayer AG: Profile and Organization.

10 Bayer MaterialScience: Bayer MaterialScience. The leader in high-tech materials.

<http://www.bayermaterialscience.com/internet/global_portal_cms.nsf/id/Company_EN?OpenDocument>,

04/07/2008

10

1.2.1.4 Bayer CropScience

Bayer CropScience is the third and final subgroup of Bayer AG, and for this dissertation also the

most important one, since it contains the company I am going to analyse: Bayer BioScience NV.

The company is active in three fields: “crop protection, non-agricultural pest-control and seeds

and plants biotechnology”11. These three fields of activity translate into three respective business

branches: Crop Protection, Environmental Science and BioScience. The subgroup employs 17.800

people worldwide and reached sales of € 5,826 million in 2007. The Bayer CropScience website

offers a graph illustrating the distribution of sales over the three business branches:

Figure 6: Sales Bayer CropScience 2007 by business12

A first subgroup of Bayer CropScience is Crop Protection. This division aims at developing

durable solutions for the protection of crops. It has a broad portfolio of products in four fields:

herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and seed treatment. In the field of herbicides, the company has

taken up a leading position in the market of cereals, corn, rice and sugar beet, with over 150

products. As far as insecticides are concerned, Crop Protection offers more than 60 products

protecting crops from insects, such as Admire®, Baycid®, Confidor®. The fungicide department is

concerned with three segments: cereals, industrial crops and oomycetes (a type of pathogen which

affects grapes, vegetables and potatoes). The seed treatment department also offers a wide variety

of products and application technologies for crop protection, via the treatment of seeds.13

The second subgroup of Bayer CropScience is Environmental Science. This department

contains all non-agricultural applications. A distinction is made between professional products

and consumer products. The professional product portfolio entails products in the field of green

11

Bayer CropScience: Our Company.

<http://www.bayercropscience.com/BCSWeb/CropProtection.nsf/id/EN_Our_Company>, 04/07/2008 12

Bayer CropScience: Facts and Figures.

<http://www.bayercropscience.com/BCSWeb/CropProtection.nsf/id/FactsFigures>, 04/07/2008 13

Cf. Bayer CropScience: Crop Protection. Leadership through balance and innovation.

<http://www.bayercropscience.com/BCSWeb/CropProtection.nsf/id/Crop-Protection>, 04/07/2008

11

industry, professional pest management and vector and locust control. The consumer product

portfolio ranges from branded lawn and garden products (pest and weed control) to speciality

actives (sales of active ingredients).14

The third and subgroup of Bayer CropScience is BioScience. According to Bayer, this

business unit “is a seed business that uses plant biotechnology and modern plant breeding

techniques to improve the quality of crops and vegetables”15. BioScience has a work force of over

2000 employees and has its headquarters in Lyon. In 2007, the company realised global sales of €

382 million. BioScience sells conventional and genetically enhanced seeds to farmers. These

seeds are developed using a range of plant biotechnology tools and advanced plant breeding

techniques with the aim of improving the overall quality of crops, increasing yields and creating

sustainable solutions to meet the increasing need for food, feed, fibre and renewable resources.

The company‟s products are situated in two segments: vegetable seeds and agricultural seeds. The

vegetable seeds are bred and processed at the Nunhems subsidiary. The main crops here are

onions, tomatoes, carrots, leek and melons. The agricultural seeds focus on “improving the

agronomic performance of three strategic crops: cotton, canola and rice, using modern plant

breeding and plant biotechnology innovations”16. As I already mentioned, Bayer BioScience NV

is a part of Bayer CropScience and, more specifically and logically, of Bayer BioScience. The

company is BioScience‟s largest biotechnology research and innovation centre. In the next

chapters (from 1.2.2 Local entity: Bayer BioScience N.V., p.12 onwards) I will focus on this

particular department of Bayer BioScience.

1.2.1.5 Bayer Service Companies

The Bayer group also contains three service companies, which provide “central service

functions”17: Bayer Business Services, Bayer Technology Services and Currenta. I turn to the

Bayer AG site for a short description of these companies‟ tasks:

Bayer Business Services is the Bayer Group‟s international competence center for it-based

services. Its product offering focuses on integrated services in the core areas of it [sic]

infrastructure and applications, procurement and logistics, human resources and executive

personnel services, and finance and accounting. Bayer Technology Services is the global

14

Cf. Bayer CropScience: Environmental Science. Offering solutions to control pests and weeds efficiently and

to improve the quality of life of professional users and consumers.

<http://www.bayercropscience.com/BCSWeb/CropProtection.nsf/id/Environmental-Science>, 04/07/2008 15

Bayer CropScience: BioScience. Integrated solutions for the farm and beyond.

<http://www.bayercropscience.com/BCSWeb/CropProtection.nsf/id/Bio-Science>, 04/07/2008 16

Bayer CropScience: BioScience. Integrated solutions for the farm and beyond. 17

Bayer AG: Profile and Organization.

12

technological backbone for the Bayer Group and a major innovation driver. Its services

comprise the development, planning, construction and optimization of processes and plant.

This service company offers fully integrated solutions right through the life cycle of

production facilities. Currenta offers services for the chemical industry including utility

supply, waste management, infrastructure, safety, security, analytics and vocational training

[...].18

1.2.2 Local entity: Bayer BioScience N.V.

1.2.2.1 Local Structure

As I have mentioned in the previous part (cf. 1.2.1, p.6), Bayer BioScience NV is a subsidiary of

Bayer CropScience AG, one of the three subgroups of Bayer AG. After having established its

global position within the Bayer Group, I will now discuss the local organisation Bayer

BioScience NV in greater detail.

Bayer BioScience NV is a company that consists of three different sites (an innovation centre

in Zwijnaarde, a greenhouse in Astene, and a site in Brussels, concerned with Regulatory Affairs).

The company combines plant biotechnology research (55% of the activities) with BioScience

business support functions (45% of the activities) to “optimize the innovation process in a

responsible and sustainable approach”19. Bayer BioScience NV employs 270 people, 80% of

whom have enjoyed higher education, and has an international work force (more than 10% have a

non-Belgian nationality). The company is structured around the research activities on the one

hand, and the supporting services on the other hand. In the following paragraphs I will succinctly

discuss the different departments of Bayer BioScience NV, but I would first like to elucidate the

company structure, by providing the company‟s organisation chart:

18

Bayer AG: Profile and Organization. 19

FlandersBio: Bayer BioScience. <http://www.flandersbio.be/organization_detail2.asp?id_org=15>, 04/07/2008

13

Managing

Director

Host

Organisations

Planning &

Controlling

General

Services

Human

Resources

Communications

Legal

IP

Technology

Management

Research

Agricultural

Crops

BioAnalytics Regulatory QA/QC

Trait

Biology

Product

Research

BioInformation

Technology

Licensing

Canola

Health Cotton Oilseeds Rice

Figure 7: Organisation chart Bayer BioScience NV

14

1.2.2.2 Supporting Services

Within the corporate structure of Bayer BioScience NV, there are four departments that are not

strictly or directly involved in the biotechnological research and innovation activities. These

departments could be considered as supporting services, as they perform rather circumstantial

activities with regard to the daily procedures of a company. They are therefore represented in the

organisation chart as being on the same level as the host organisations (research and connected

activities), but they are not connected with these host organisations. These departments are

Planning and Controlling, Human Resources, General Services and Communication.

In the department Planning and Controlling, the financial aspects of the company are being

managed. The most important tasks of this department are situated in composing, actualizing and

managing the accounting, taking care of tax declaration, and organizing the planning and

controlling of the company.

The activities of Human Resources focus on the managing of all aspects regarding the work

force. These activities include recruitment, assisting and participating in the selection procedures

(both internal and external) and negotiating the terms of employment. The department also

supports and guards the performance and competence management and advises the general

management on matters regarding compensation and benefits. Additionally, Human Resources

makes sure that the company upholds all legal requirements concerning employment relations,

and is responsible for personnel administration (contracts, salaries, pension and other

insurances,...).

The department General Services is mainly concerned with logistical operations. Subtasks of

this department are engineering, purchasing, facility management, safety, security and reception.

The department of Communication will be discussed in a separate paragraph, since this was

the department in which the internship took place, and I would therefore like to elaborate on this

department in somewhat greater detail.

1.2.2.3 Host Organisations

The core business of the company is being performed by the Host Organisations, since they are

active in the field of research or are directly supporting these research activities. These

departments are concerned with plant biotechnology, in order to improve crop quality. On the

organisation chart, we can distinguish four different departments that belong to the host

organisations: Legal, IP, Technology Management, Research and Agricultural Crops.

15

1.2.2.3.1 Legal

First of all, I will turn to the Legal department within Bayer BioScience NV. This department is

responsible for all legal and judicial ramifications and implication of the biotechnology activities

of research departments. This implies a wide range of tasks, e.g.:

reviewing all documents binding the company,

drafting and reviewing of agreements (joint ventures, acquisitions, R&D or License

agreements,...),

assisting in the negotiation of agreements,

giving legal advice to BioScience managers (e.g. on legal aspects of regulatory matters),

managing litigations,

ensuring corporate housekeeping,

ensuring compliance with contractual obligations by capturing agreements into a legal

database and by sending triggers to responsible managers,

checking compliance with legal obligations within BioScience

selecting, appointing and instructing outside counsel,

participating in industry working groups and government consultations,

creating and maintaining a database of BioScience agreements,

corporate work (organizing shareholders' meetings, board of directors‟ meetings, follow-up

of statutes and/or by-laws, nomination of directors, powers of attorney, etc.)

....

1.2.2.3.2 IP

The second department of the Host Organisations I would like to consider is the IP department.

The Intellectual Property department of Bayer BioScience NV manages all aspects and domains

within the company that are the result of creative processes of the human mind with a direct or

potential commercial interest. Examples of this intellectual property are slogans and logos (=

brands, trademarks), specific genetic combinations within a variety of plants (= plant breeder‟s

rights) and technical inventions (= patents). The IP department is in other words responsible for

the protection of the products and know-how of Bayer BioScience NV. The tasks of IP can

roughly be translated into three domains:

IP Protection:

o Ensuring appropriate protection of technology, know-how and products of Bayer

BioScience N.V. (patents, trade secret),

16

o Challenging IP positions of other parties,

o Handling IP aspects of litigation.

IP Licensing:

o Supporting business units with respect to IP issues,

o Allowing third parties to use Bayer BioScience NV inventions,

o Acquiring permission to use inventions of third parties.

IP Intelligence:

o Monitoring developments in core technologies (within and outside Bayer BioScience

N.V.),

o Steering research in view of IP issues,

o Analyzing and comparing the IP position of Bayer BioScience N.V. and other parties,

o Reviewing technology aspects of regulatory files and agreements.

1.2.2.3.3 Technology Management Department

The Technology Management Department is split up into three divisions: BioAnalytics,

Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance. The BioAnalytics division is a BioScience laboratory

and technical expert function, which function is to facilitate the movement of BioScience projects

to the market by providing appropriate analytical, molecular and biological tools. It provides

technical expertise and scientific support to the different market areas, expert advice and data to

regulatory affairs and scientific expertise throughout the BioScience organisation. The division

also provides scientific collaboration and guidance to government agencies, to technology

licensees and to partner laboratories, in an overall goal of facilitating the global acceptance of

novel food, feed and biotech products.

The Regulatory Affairs division works collaboratively with other expert functions to establish

and document the safety of BioScience products. The team delivers this information to

governments around the world to allow Bayer BioScience to conduct field trials, allow

commercial use and facilitate international trade in its products. The division‟s most important

tasks are acquiring all legally required permits to work with GMOs (genetically modified

organisms) and ensuring compliance with permit conditions by Bayer BioScience NV employees

who work with Bayer CropScience genetically modified products. Regulatory Affairs covers the

use of GMOs in laboratories and greenhouses (limited use), field trials and development activities,

and commercial activities (import of products cultivated outside Europe and cultivation in Europe

of genetically modified products).

The final division of the Technology Management Department is Quality Assurance. This

subdepartment has a supportive function to the Bayer BioScience NV business units (Agricultural

17

Crops and Vegetables). It has two main tasks: first of all, the division draws up standards for seed

quality, according to the global product stewardship strategy, to maximise the product‟s benefits

and minimise its potential risks. Secondly, it aims to continually improve the seed production

process, to ensure that the amount of seed shoots produced is sufficient to meet the specific

quality standards throughout the development process.

1.2.2.3.4 Research Department

The fourth department of the host organisations is the Research Department. Within this

department, we can distinguish four subdivisions: Trait Biology, Product Research,

BioInformation and Technology Licensing. The first two divisions are actual business research

units, whereas the latter two are support dimensions for the former two.

The first part of the Research department is Trait Biology, a department consisting of five

expertise groups amounting to a total of about one hundred scientists. There are three technology

know-how groups and two product know-how groups. The technology know-how groups are

Genetics (aims to deliver differentiated traits for integration into cotton, rice and canola breeding

pipelines), Genome Engineering (develops, applies and improves tissue culture and

biotechnology-driven genome engineering approaches) and Trait Testing (evaluates desired traits

under various growth conditions and enables up-scaling of plant material). Crop Productivity

(aims to identify, validate and modulate key genes to increase yield and yield stability) and

Quality Enhancement (wants to develop novel plant-based specialty products) are the product

know-how groups.

The second group is the actual Product Research. The Bayer BioScience research strategy is

centred around seven market areas, four of which are present in the Bayer BioScience NV

subsidiary, viz. health, cotton, oilseeds and rice. Each of these market areas has a dedicated

Product Research Manager, who is responsible for the research portfolio in the Market Area.

Bayer BioScience NV is also the head office of BioScience Research Management, which

includes the presence of the head of research and research operations.

BioInformation is the third subgroup of this department, and this division performs four

core activities and employs more than twenty bioinformation scientists. The Genomic Data

Platform provides user–friendly genomics and genetics platforms integrating data from public and

in-house origins. The R&D Data Platform implements, maintains and supports a global

framework of structured data management solutions to handle biological material and

experimental data. Architecture and Services offers an IT working environment to Bioscience NV,

including support to hardware and universal software packages, while securing network

connectivity to all Bioscience sites. Finally, BioAnalysis Services provides experimental results

18

by using the Genomics Data Platform, or develops automatic pipelines, specific visualisation

interfaces and tools for users to obtain the desired results.

The fourth and final group within the Research department is the Technology Licensing

group. This subgroup approaches third parties in collaboration with Research, IP and the Legal

team in order to access specific expertise or technology required to ensure the success of research.

1.2.2.3.5 Agricultural Crops

The final department of the Host Organisations is the Agricultural Crops group. This

department houses one additional BioScience market area in the field of agricultural crops: canola

(oilseed rape). Within this market area, research is conducted into new trait concepts and enabling

technologies.

1.2.2.4 Communications department

The department of Communication is one of the supporting services within Bayer BioScience

NV, which I discussed earlier (cf. supra). It is however also in this department that the internship

took place, and I would therefore like to cover it separately and in greater detail, to illustrate the

environment in which the internship came about.

The tasks of the communications department of Bayer BioScience NV can be divided into

internal and external communication, with the former clearly occupying the greatest amount of

time. Internal communication takes up 90% of the department‟s activities, and entails a wide

range of different tasks. In general, the department functions as the management‟s spokesperson

towards the employees. This includes a number of activities: drafting personnel information,

updating the local intranet, notifying the employees of events or internal happenings in Belgium

(e.g. the company‟s 25th anniversary,...), and redacting the company magazine. In addition to

these specifically local internal communication tasks, the department is also responsible for the

translation and adaptation of guidelines and policies that are imposed by Bayer AG (e.g. about the

proper use of company cell phones, ...).

The external communication amounts to a mere 10% of the department‟s job, which obviously

is a very small part. The communications department can only communicate externally with

regard to occurrences in Belgium (e.g. interviews in Belgium,...), so external communication is

kept strictly local. The major bulk of external communication is taken care of by the larger

multinational (either by Bayer CropScience (out of Monheim) or even by Bayer AG (out of

Leverkusen). Bayer wants to keep all external communication as uniform and streamlined as

possible, and therefore keeps it mostly centralised. This also implies that the external

19

communication that is performed by Bayer BioScience NV has to be reported to the company

headquarters.

It is within this context that the internship took place, and the report of this internship will

show that its content can also be counted as belonging to the internal communication.

1.3 Corporate Identity: Bayer BioScience

1.3.1 Mission statement

The Bayer AG mission statement, which can be extrapolated to the subgroup Bayer CropScience

and the subsidiary Bayer BioScience NV, originates from the company‟s slogan: Science for a

better life. This slogan hints at the company‟s intention to become and remain a company that

uses scientific and research-based innovation to develop and manufacture products that can

improve the quality of people‟s lives. The company‟s new mission statement illustrates this aim:

We have set out to create an enterprise that is keenly focused on its customers, its strengths,

its potential and the markets of the future: a top international company renowned for

product quality, employee skills, economic performance and innovative strength, and

committed to increasing corporate value and achieving sustained growth. The Bayer brand

symbolizes these goals throughout the world.20

This mission statement applies to the three Bayer subgroups, but in the mission statement, the

group also elaborates on the mission statements for each subgroup, thus also giving a more

specific mission statement for Bayer BioScience:

With our distinctive knowledge of [...] plants [...], we intend to focus in future on the [area]

of [...] nutrition [...]. By applying our skills in [this area] we aim to [...] contribute to

ensuring a sufficient supply of high-quality food for an ever-increasing global population

[...]. These activities offer access to major growth markets. This mission statement

underscores our willingness as an inventor company to help shape the future and our

determination to come up with innovations that benefit humankind.21

Bayer AG wants to capitalise on biotechnology and genetic engineering as major innovation

drivers and considers BioScience in this regard as a key development business toward innovation

and growth.

20

Bayer AG: Future – Goals – Strategy – Values. The Mission Statement of the Bayer Group.

<http://www.bayer.com/en/Bayer-Mission-Statement.pdfx>, 06/07/2008 21


20

To state or provide evidence of whether this mission statement has thoroughly permeated the

corporate structure and workforce of Bayer BioScience NV is not an easy or straightforward task.

During the internship, I was only active in the Communications department, and was not

confronted with all aspects and departments of the company. Obviously, the limited duration of

the internship further impedes a thorough analysis of this permeation. Nevertheless, it became

clear over the course of the internship that innovation and research, as proclaimed in the mission

statement, clearly are the core business of this company. The other activities and departments

supply supporting activities. This focus on innovation and research was reflected in the content of

the internship as well. My task was to organise an ideation workshop, in which innovative ideas

for products or services could and should be uttered (cf. infra). It is my opinion that the content of

this workshop embodies Bayer‟s mission statement and vision, to the extent that striving for

innovation, as the Bayer Group prescribes it, is taken up by its subsidiaries, and in particular by

Bayer BioScience NV.

1.3.2 Vision

The vision of Bayer BioScience corresponds with that of the subgroup to which it belongs, viz.

Bayer CropScience. On the Bayer CropScience website, the vision is divulged in detail:

At Bayer CropScience, our vision is to be a leading partner in providing innovative

products and combined solutions for the production of quality food, feed and fiber to meet

the global challenges of tomorrow.

We strive to build long term, consistent, predictable and mutually beneficial partnerships

with our customers and stakeholders, and aim to generate value through innovation.

For Bayer CropScience, it is a key priority to conduct our business responsibly, fulfill [sic]

our commitment to Sustainable Development and achieve long-term growth with superior

financial returns. Our values express what organizational, cultural and ethical references we

wish to promote in managing our employees and business. They are a company

commitment, as well as an individual commitment for each of our employees.22

This vision is in line with the mission statement as formulated by the Bayer Group, and mainly

advocates innovation and growth. Since these are long-term objectives, it is very difficult to draw

other evidence than mentioned in the previous point.

Bayer CropScience has also drafted a statement in which they enlist their values. In addition to

the economically oriented values (will to succeed, sustainability of the actions and passion for the

stakeholders), the ethical aspect is also taken into account (respect for people and nature, integrity,

22

Bayer CropScience: Vision and Values.

<http://www.bayercropscience.com/BCSWeb/CropProtection.nsf/id/EN_Values>, 06/07/2008

21

openness and honesty). This ethical concept is also reflected in the company‟s idea of “Product

Stewardship”23, which is “the responsible and ethical management of a crop protection product

throughout its life cycle”24, so from invention to eventual use. The company‟s values are

described in a graph on the website:

Figure 8: Bayer BioScience values25

1.3.3 Strategy

The strategy of Bayer BioScience is, similar to its mission statement and vision, formulated by

Bayer CropScience. This Bayer subgroup determines the strategy of its subsidiaries Crop

Protection, Environmental Science and BioScience, and expresses the following statement as its

strategy:

To achieve sustainable profitability by:

o Capitalizing on our strong and well-balanced portfolio with a special focus on

innovative and high-margin products

o Optimizing efficiency in operative and administrative processes

To leverage on active portfolio management by:

o Capitalizing on successful lifecycle management

o Improving the portfolio mix

To foster industry leadership in innovation by:

o Focusing on business and technology innovation to deliver a sustainable pipeline of

new active ingredients

o Addressing needs for bio-based resources

To be the most attractive employer in our industry by:

o Identifying, retaining and developing the best talent employees26

23

Bayer CropScience: Sustainability and Commitment. Our commitment to product stewardship.

<http://www.bayercropscience.com/BCSWeb/CropProtection.nsf/id/ProductStew>, 07/08/2008 24

Bayer CropScience: Sustainability and Commitment. Our commitment to product stewardship. 25

Bayer CropScience: Vision and Values. 26

Bayer CropScience: Strategic Objectives.

<http://www.bayercropscience.com/BCSWeb/CropProtection.nsf/id/StrategicObjectives>, 07/07/2008

22

This strategy is very general, since it applies to the entire CropScience group. We can render it

more concrete by applying it to Bayer BioScience. This results in a Bayer BioScience strategy that

aims to continue to combine its intrinsic strength (as an innovator, developer and deliverer of

advanced biotechnologies) with a range of strategic upstream and downstream partners. More

specifically, Bayer BioScience (and consequently also Bayer BioScience NV) wants to establish a

leadership position in the field of agricultural seeds (cotton, canola and rice). Additionally,

BioScience intends to become a primary supplier of high value plant-based speciality products for

agriculture, nutrition, health and biomaterials.

1.4 Bayer BioScience products

1.4.1 Positioning of BioScience products

Before I embark on a positioning and description of the products Bayer BioScience offers, I

would first like to clarify the position of Bayer BioScience NV in the product process. Since

Bayer BioScience NV is an innovation centre that combines research with global and regional

business support function, it is not directly involved in the final stages of the product

development, branding, marketing or sales. The company however is involved in activities that

initiate these stages, through trait discovery (by means of genetic and genome engineering),

identification of promising new products, realisation of plant biotechnology projects and

preparation of traits for commercialisation.

The Bayer BioScience business objectives are situated in the field of crop solutions (seeds,

trait technologies and crop protection). To summarise the business activities of Bayer BioScience,

we could state that the company sells conventional and genetically enhanced seeds to farmers, to

improve the crop quality and increase the yield. The company‟s activities are aimed at three

fields: vegetable seeds (the Nunhems brand), agricultural seeds and new business ventures. As the

innovative activities of Bayer BioScience NV mainly focus on the agricultural seeds field, I will

discuss only this specific business area, which offers the products InVigor®, FiberMax® and

Arize®.

1.4.2 Canola: InVigor®

The InVigor® product line (e.g. Centurion®, Decis®, Rovral®, Prosper®,...) includes canola

(oilseed rape) seed and technologies, along with crop protection products. The products of this

umbrella brand provide various solutions for canola farmers. The products basically offer,

23

according to the CropScience website, “hybrid canola seed (spring oilseed rape) varieties with

tremendous yield potential across the North American northern grain belt.”27 The Bayer InVigor®

canola varieties hold a 35% market share, which is situated primarily in North America. To

maximise this market share, the company has expressed the intention to “[u]se all available

traditional breeding and modern technology tools to create maximum value at the farm gate for

our seed customers.”28 We can summarise this vision as innovation focused on improving oil

quality. The product‟s main advantages are its hybrid vigour, leading to top yields, its uniform

growth, its ability to withstand environmental stresses, its early season growth, its resistance to

herbicide and its high-quality agronomic characteristics (crop establishment, plant size,...).29

1.4.3 Cotton: FiberMax®

“A collection of cotton seed varieties offering exceptionally high yield and high fibre quality. In

some cases, the cotton seed is enhanced with specific technologies demanded by cotton

growers.”30 That is the product description Bayer provides for its (hybrid) cottonseed product line

FiberMax® (which includes products such as Ignite®, Oberon®, Prep®, Temik®, and so on). This

seed product line has acquired a 30% market share in the US market and a 33% market share in

Europe, by offering high performance in lint yield and quality, insect resistance traits, herbicide

tolerance traits and has adapted variety of product lines according to geography and industry

use.31 The company wants to maintain and expand its market share and product range, by aiming

“[t]o participate in the improvement of cotton production”32 and by “offering the best global

package to growers: seeds, traits, crop protection, services.”33

1.4.4 Rice: Arize®

With the Arize® product line (including products such as Antracol®, Ricestar®, Confidor®,

Regent®, Whip®, Folicur®), Bayer BioScience addresses the increasing demand for rice with its

hybrid rice varieties. The company tries to offer a “range of hybrid rice seeds adapted to diverse

27

Bayer CropScience: BioScience Agricultural Seed: Canola.

<http://www.bayercropscience.com/BCSWeb/CropProtection.nsf/id/EN_Canola>, 09/07/2008 28

Bayer CropScience: BioScience Agricultural Seed: Canola. 29

Bayer CropScience: BioScience Agricultural Seed: Canola. 30

Bayer CropScience: BioScience Agricultural Seed: Cotton.

<http://www.bayercropscience.com/BCSWeb/CropProtection.nsf/id/EN_Cotton>, 09/07/2008 31

Bayer CropScience: BioScience Agricultural Seed: Cotton 32

Bayer CropScience: BioScience Agricultural Seed: Cotton 33

Bayer CropScience: BioScience Agricultural Seed: Cotton

24

agro-climatic conditions and consumer preferences in the Indian sub-continent, South-East Asia

and Latin America.”34 The product line has hybrid rice commercial activities in India, the

Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Brazil and Pakistan, and focuses on yield preservation, yield

increase and quality traits in specialised rice. Additionally, Bayer BioScience boasts the yield

quality, seed quality, taste and grain cooking quality of its hybrid rice. The vision BioScience has

for the future of Arize® is to “[l]ead the expansion of hybrid rice in the targeted markets of Indian

sub-continent, South-East Asia and Latin America, contributing to food security and improving

crop profitability.”35

1.5 Competitors in the biotechnology market

1.5.1 Market Overview and Positioning

The biotech crop and seed market is a continually growing one. As a result of consistent and

considerable benefits during the first years of commercialisation, farmers are planting more

biotech crops every year. In 2007, for the twelfth consecutive year, the global area of biotech

crops extended its growth: the increase continued at a growth rate of 12%, or 30 million acres,

reaching 282.4 million acres. Approximately 12 million farmers in 23 countries are now growing

biotech crops. In 2007, the global market value of biotech crops was about €10.5 billion,

representing 16% of the €63 billion global crop protection market in 2007 and 20% of the €51

billion 2007 global commercial seed market.

These numbers indicate that the biotech business is one of ongoing growth and commercial

possibilities, in which a number of players want to increase their market share, by increasing sales

and developing new biotech applications. To acquire an insight in the position occupied by Bayer

CropScience and BioScience within this global business, we need to compare Bayer with the

other key players in this sector, e.g. by illustrating the global sales of the top ten agrobiotech

companies:

34

Bayer CropScience: BioScience Agricultural Seed: Rice.

<http://www.bayercropscience.com/BCSWeb/CropProtection.nsf/id/EN_Rice>, 09/07/2008 35


25

Figure 9: global sales of top 10 agrobiotech companies in 200736

The graph shows that Bayer CropScience occupies the third position when it comes to sales in

the agrobiotech industry, which combines both conventional agrochemicals and biotechnologies

and seeds. In order to acquire an accurate view of the position of Bayer BioScience, we need to

take the agrochemicals sales out of the equation, and take only the seed sales into consideration:

Figure 10: Seed sales performance of top 5 companies in 200737

36

Trarbach, Aline: Company sales performance top 10 – Full Year 2007. Bayer position among top 10. internal

presentation, Monheim: Bayer CropScience, 17/03/2008, p.2 37

Trarbach: Company sales performance top 10 – Full Year 2007. p.4

26

Bayer CropScience‟s (3rd place) and BioScience‟s (4th place) position within the global market

is clearly illustrated in these graphs, but the research by Business Intelligence also examined the

market share of the different CropScience subgroups:

Figure 11: Bayer CropScience sales, position and market share among top 10 agrotech companies in 200738

This graph indicates that Bayer BioScience has only a 2% market share and occupies the 4th

position, which can mainly be explained by its absence on the market of soybean and corn, which

are the two major segments in the biotech industry, accumulatively accounting for 60% of the

global seed market (corn 40%, soybean 20%). Monsanto, Syngenta and Dow Agrochemicals (cf.

infra) are active in these two large domains, which largely explains their superior sales and market

share.

1.5.2 Syngenta

Syngenta is, as the graphs in the previous paragraph show, the market leader in the global

agrobiotech business and the third biggest company in the biotech seed business. The company

achieved sales in 2007 of about € 14 million, employs more than 21,000 people in over 90

countries and headquarters in Basel. Syngenta was formed in 2001, as Novartis and AstraZeneca

joined their agribusinesses. The company is active in a broad range of markets and offers a wide

variety of products: herbicides (e.g. Axial®, Callisto®), insecticides (e.g. Actara®, Forca®) and

fungicides (e.g. Amistar®, Bravo®) for crop protection; field crops (Garst®, Golden Harvest®:

38

Trarbach: Company sales performance top 10 – Full Year 2007. p.4

27

mostly corn and soybean), vegetables (Rogers®) and flower seeds (S&G®); seed care products and

turf, garden, home care and public health products.39

1.5.3 Monsanto

As the market leader in the global seed business and the second player in the agrobiotech industry,

Monsanto is a large agriculture company that employs 17,000 people and has its headquarters in

St.Louis. Its business is divided into two segments: agricultural productivity and seeds and

genomics. The company develops and sells crop seeds in cotton (e.g. Bollgard II®, Roundup

Ready® Flex Cotton), corn (e.g. YieldGuard®, RoundupReady®) vegetables (serves customers

through three business platforms) and oilseeds (soybean: Roundup Ready® soybean, and canola:

Roundup Ready® Canola). Additionally, Monsanto produces crop protection traits (e.g.Roundup

Power Max®, Parrlay®). Monsanto, as it is known and operative nowadays, was formed in 2000 as

a subsidiary of Pharmacia, but became an independent company in 2002.40

1.5.4 DuPont

The DuPont agriculture subsidiary is part of the larger DuPont company, a multinational active in

more than 70 countries and with a workforce of 60,000 people. The company occupies the fourth

position in the global biotech business and the third position in the seed market. It is active in

animal health, crop protection, land management, seeds and inoculants, pest management and

green industry. Its seeds and inoculants are developed by the subsidiary Pioneer, which is

headquartered in Iowa, employs 6,500 people worldwide and sells in more than 70 countries.

Pioneer offers seed solutions in alfalfa, canola, corn, mustard, rice, sorghum, soybeans, sunflower

and wheats.41

1.5.5 Dow AgroSciences

Dow AgroSciences is the fifth player in the global seed business and in that department slightly

smaller than Bayer CropScience. The company is based in Indianapolis and came to existence in

1950 as the agricultural unit of The Dow Chemical Company. It offers products in the field of

39

Cf. Syngenta AG: Syngenta global. <http://www.syngenta.com/en/index.html>, 11/07/2008 40

Cf. Monsanto: Monsanto. <http://www.monsanto.com/>, 11/07/2008 41

Cf. DuPont: DuPont Agriculture. <http://www2.dupont.com/Agriculture/en_US/>, 11/07/2008; Pioneer:

Pioneer. A DuPont Company. <http://www.pioneer.com/web/site/portal/>, 11/07/2008

28

agricultural crop protection chemicals (herbicides, fungicides, insecticides,...) such as Sentricon, .

The company is also active in the area of agronomic seeds and traits in corn (e.g. Herculex®),

sunflowers, canola, cotton (e.g. Phytogen®, WideStrike®), alfalfa and soybeans; healthy oils

(Omega-9 oils); and animal health.42

42

Cf. Dow AgroSciences: Dow AgroSciences. <http://www.dowagro.com/homepage/>, 11/07/2008

29

1.6 SWOT-analysis

Internal analysis

Posi

tive

Strengths

o Strong technologies, broadly applicable to

a number of crops:

o Herbicide tolerance with

different active ingredients:

prevent herbicide resistance in

plants

o Disease resistance

o New traits: climatological stress

resistance

o Hybridisation: makes self-pollination

impossible, improving yields by 30 –

40%

o Strong position in cotton seed market:

development of own cotton varieties

o Largest hybrid rice company in the world

o Quality seed

o Part of global Bayer organisation:

assistance and expertise from a very large

group, beyond mere biotechnology

o Strong position in core business areas

(cotton, canola, rice and vegetables)

o Competent and experienced people

Weaknesses

o Restrictive European legislation: limits

development of GMO technology in

Europe

o R&D is performed in Europe, but

commercialisation happens outside

Europe (for legal reasons): time delay,

import and export problems

o Expensive production and salaries in

Europe ( Asia)

o Strong centralisation: makes it difficult to

swiftly react to trends

o No access to or position in the large and

lucrative corn and soybean market

o Little research on and analysis of

(external and internal) customers

o Very high competition, resulting in a

relatively low BioScience market share

Opportunities

o Research and development of new traits:

focused on abiotic and biotic stress,

improved yield

o Licensing and strategic partnerships to

improve position

o Growing population: increased demand

for food and nutrition

o Limited arable land and water calls for

creative biotech solutions

o Environmental and ecological pressures,

e.g. biodiversity, climate change

o Finite character of fossil fuels: energy

security concerns and boom of bio fuels

o Rapidly evolving technologies

o Changing customer needs: farmers

o Geographic expansion: Asia

o Development into new markets and

crops: area increase

Threats

o Lack of own seed companies (corn,

soybean) brings the obligation to license

out; dependency on other companies

o Maladjusted and restricting regulation:

prohibits products with GMOs, which is

impossible to prevent ( biological

material)

o Export could be stopped when authorities

conclude there is a prohibited substance

(GMO) present: liability risk

o Strong competition from huge

multinationals: prevents entry in corn and

soybean market and threatens other crop

markets

Neg

ativ

e

External analysis

30

2. The process of organisational idea generation

2.1 Introduction

In the contemporary volatile and ever-changing global environment, creativity and innovation are

very important. This tendency, which in se applies to the entire society, is perhaps even more

tangible in an organisational and competitive landscape:

Globalization, changes in the workforce, increasing competition, and better informed

customers drive the need for continuous changes in products, services, and strategies.1

Organisations are increasingly confronted with the need to adapt to the market, and come up with

new solutions. Basadur and Hausdorf formulate this as the need for an optimisation of

effectiveness:

Creativity is a necessary requirement for organizational effectiveness. [...] Organizational

creativity means deliberately changing procedures to make new, superior levels of quantity,

quality, cost and customer satisfaction possible.2

This concept of creativity is however quite vague and ambiguous. As researchers have

established, “creativity is multifaceted”3 and can appear in many forms. I would therefore like to

discuss a specific aspect of organisational creativity in this dissertation, viz. idea generation. More

specifically, I would like to focus on the production of ideas in function of new product

development. Organisations can choose several external paths to come to the development of new

products (e.g. market analysis, market observation,...), but they can also address “innerbetrieblich

spezielle Methoden zur Ideengewinnung”4, in which the company‟s employees are encouraged to

formulate new ideas. Toubia illustrated that internal “[i]dea generation (ideation) is critical to the

design and marketing of new products, to marketing strategy, and to the creation of effective

1 Briggs, Robert O., De Vreede, Gert-Jan, Santanen, Eric L.: “Causal Relationships in Creative Problem Solving:

Comparing Facilitation Interventions for Ideation”. In: Journal of Management Information Systems 20 (2004),

p.168 2 Basadur, Min, Hausdorf, Peter A.: “Measuring Divergent Thinking Attitudes Related to Creative Problem

Solving and Innovation Management”. In: Creativity Research Journal 9 (1996), p.21 3 Basadur, Hausdorf: “Measuring Divergent Thinking Attitudes Related to Creative Problem Solving and

Innovation Management”, p.21 4 Müller-Hagedorn, Lothar: Einführung in das Marketing. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1990,

p.107

31

advertising copy”5. Further research has clearly shown that ideation occupies an important place

in organisational creativity, innovation and new product development.

The internship, in which I was “employed” at Bayer BioScience NV for eight weeks, is a

perfect illustration of the idea generation phenomenon. It was namely my task to organise, guide

and lead an ideation workshop for employees of Bayer Belgium. The theoretical approaches and

aspects, on which this chapter will elaborate, could offer an elucidating perspective on the course

and effect of the ideation workshop that was conducted at Bayer, and could provide an insight into

the underlying processes of idea generation, as well as into its results. Therefore, with regard to

the content of the internship, I considered it very useful to analyse the theoretical background of

ideation in organisations. I must however add that in this analysis of the body of research on idea

generation, I will focus mainly on one specific approach to or technique of idea generation, viz.

brainstorming, since this was the technique used during the actual internship workshop. It is

consequently important to keep in mind that when I am discussing group ideation in this chapter, I

am referring to the specific ideation tool of brainstorming, with its specific repercussions on the

idea generation process.

In this chapter, I would like to explore several aspects of the idea generation theory. First of

all, I intend to illustrate the encompassing and underlying cognitive and social psychological

structures of the ideation process, which provide a firm foundation for the more specific elements

of ideation. In this first part, I will divide the idea generation process into three stages. The second

part of this chapter will discuss the problem finding process of ideation, where I would like to deal

with the group ideation issue and the goal-setting technique. Thirdly, I want to take a look at the

actual ideation process, in which I will focus on the method of brainstorming and the effects of

facilitation. Finally, I will elaborate on the final stage of the idea generation, which more or less

precedes the new product development stage, viz. the evaluation of ideas. Before starting with the

analysis, however, I want to stress that this analysis does not offer an exhaustive view of the idea

generation process. In this analysis, I mainly focus on the aspects of idea generation that I

consider relevant to the ideation workshop I conducted during my internship. The large body of

research on this matter provides in this respect additional and extensive analyses of the creative

and innovative thinking theory.

5 Toubia, Olivier: “Idea Generation, Creativity, and Incentives”. In: Marketing Science 25 (2006), p.411

32

2.2 Cognitive and social-psychological framework

2.2.1 Introductory remarks

As I mentioned in the previous section, the concept of creativity is a very complex and versatile

one. It is not the intention of this analysis to go into this concept at length, but rather to observe

which processes, both cognitive and social-psychological, underlie the realisation of the specific

creative process of ideation. However, it would be useful to consider a classification of creativity

that has been suggested by some researchers, viz. into the “Four P‟s of Creativity”6:

Various authors have framed creativity as an attribute of:

o product – some ideas, solutions, and designs are more creative than others;

o person – some individuals are more creative than others;

o press – some physical and social environments produce more creativity than others;

o process – some thinking techniques produce more creativity than others.7

Although this characterisation does not give a definition of creativity, it provides us with an

approach that shows the diversity and complexity of the concept, which cannot be succinctly

summarised and can appear in many forms.

Creativity is, in the sense that it gives way to originality and innovation, the most important

aspect of idea generation, in which novel ideas for new approaches or applications should be

produced. As Toubia claims, two different and separate views have been developed to account for

creativity and, by extension, for idea generation. He makes the distinction between an

unstructured and a structured approach:

Most existing idea-generation tools can be thought of as reflecting one of two views of

creativity. The first view is that participants should be induced to think in a random fashion.

This widely spread belief [is] based on the assumption that anarchy of thought increases the

probability of creative ideas [...]. In contrast, recent papers suggest that structure, and not

randomness, is the key to creativity. This structured view [...] has led to systematic

approaches to idea generation.8

In contrast to what Toubia and other researchers claim, I do not believe that such a rigid

distinction is in order. I rather consider the two aspects, randomness and structure, as being

intertwined and interacting. It is my belief that the processes underlying the ideation processes are

6 Briggs, De Vreede, Santanen: “Causal Relationships in Creative Problem Solving: Comparing Facilitation

Interventions for Ideation”, p.168 7 Ibidem, pp.168-169

8 Toubia: “Idea Generation, Creativity, and Incentives”, p.417

33

structured, but that within these processes free movement of thought and interaction is possible.

This could almost be described as a structured randomness.

In the next section, I will attempt a brief outline of two important processes that build the

foundation of idea generation. First of all, on the individual level, I would like to point to the

cognitive processes; and secondly, on the interacting level, I want to hint at more social and

psychological motives. My analysis does however not exclude the presence of other processes or

motives, but I will limit myself to these two, since I feel that they are of great importance for the

ideation process.

2.2.2 Cognitive framework

As research has shown, there is a “strong linkage between individual cognitive ability and the

ability to be creative, to generate ideas, or to create new knowledge”9. Since idea generation is the

creation of new ideas and thus new knowledge, the cognitive aspect of ideation is very important.

How existing knowledge is used and adapted determines the exploration and birth of new

knowledge. Rietzschl, Nijstad and Stroebe express the same opinion when they state that “the

originality of generated ideas is not a matter of mere chance, but the result of specific cognitive

operations on available knowledge”10.

Idea generation thus clearly underlies cognitive processes of individual members of ideation

groups, but it is also obvious that the cognitive perspective entails more than merely knowledge.

Chand and Runco have shown in their extensive research on the link between cognition and

creativity that many aspects are involved in the “information processing”11: “knowledge, memory,

classification, judgment, and categorization”12. They have developed a model, in which they

describe the different processes and influencing factors in creative thinking:

9 Jung, J.H., Looney, Clayton, A., Valacich, Joseph S.: “The Effects of Individual Cognitive Ability and Idea

Stimulation on Idea-Generation Performance”. In: Group Dynamics: Theory, Research and Practice 10 (2006),

p.3 10

Nijstad, Bernard A., Rietzschel, Eric F., Stroebe, Wolfgang: “Relative accessibility of domain knowledge and

creativity: The effects of knowledge activation on the quantity and originality of generated ideas”. In: Journal of

Experimental Social Psychology 43 (2007), p.935 11

Chand, Ivonne, Runco, Mark A.: “Cognition and Creativity”. In: Educational Psychology Review 7 (1995),

p.243 12

Chand, Runco: “Cognition and Creativity”, p.243

34

Figure 12: “Two-tier model of creative thinking”13

Even though I do not entirely agree with their model, it offers a solid basic framework to

analyse the process of idea generation in a structured way. The first difference between my

approach and the model offered by Chand and Runco, is that the authors define their three

primary factors (problem finding, ideation and evaluation) as “sets of skills”14. In this analysis

however, I will identify them as separate stages in the idea generation process. The second

difference is the fact that the authors regard motivation and knowledge as “contributing, rather

than controlling factors, and in many ways [...] dependent on the primary factors”15. I (and other

researchers with me) am not convinced of this hierarchy but rather of the opinion that knowledge

and motivation are the instigating factors from which the ideation process originates. Knowledge

and motivation are, according to me, the defining cognitive factors in the ideation process, as they

determine the intensity and potential of ideation participants.

Throughout the further analysis of the idea generation process, I will use the three primary

factors as the framework, as the structure of idea generation, since I consider them to be the three

most important processes or stages of this concept. In the next sections, I will disconnect these

three components from their cognitive connotation, and regard them as stages with a more general

impact on the idea generation process. Before doing so, however, I will succinctly discuss their

cognitive meaning and ramifications in this section.

The problem finding process is the first aspect in the cognitive process of idea generation.

Before the actual ideation can take place, a problem has to be formulated. Chand and Runco

13

Ibidem, p.245 14

Ibidem 15

Ibidem, pp.245-246

Ideation

Procedural

Declarative

Extrinsic

Intrinsic

Motivation

Problem Finding

Evaluation

Knowledge

35

mention that people do not just find of a problem, they “must first identify them, then define them,

and finally, if so inclined, work to solve them”16. It is in this process that the cognitive aspect of

motivation plays an important role. If the motivation to find solutions for a particular problem

comes from within the individual (or group), and is therefore intrinsic, the entire ideation process

can be influenced beneficially:

Of additional relevance [...] is that problem finding may insure that the individual is

intrinsically motivated [...]. If individuals work on a task of their choosing, it is likely that

they will be motivated. They will almost certainly be less motivated by presented problems

than by self-discovered problems.17

The second component is the actual ideation process, or the phase of divergent thinking. A lot

of research has been conducted into the cognitive processes that cause divergent and creative

thinking. The predominant theory in this respect is the theory of associative memory. This theory,

adopted by most creative thinking researchers, claims that ideation starts from an individual‟s

present knowledge: “[o]nly knowledge that is accessible at a given moment will actually be used

for creative performance”18. The fact that an individual builds on that previous knowledge through

associations, and thus gets to new, innovative and creative ideas is the basis of this associative

theory: “idea generation can be conceptualized as a repeated search for ideas in associative

memory”19. In this respect, an individual‟s cognitive ability is a determining factor in the success

of the ideation process, since the origin of creative thinking is the existing knowledge.

The third and final component of Chand and Runco‟s model is the evaluation. Whereas the

ideation process was the phase of divergent thinking, this phase can be considered as one of

convergent thinking. According to Chand and Runco, individuals judge and classify their

ideational efforts in three ways:

[...] (a) evaluation and valuation, the former being critical and the latter being appreciative;

(b) intrapersonal and interpersonal evaluations; and (c) evaluative skills which use

originality and creativity as criteria, and traditional forms of critical thinking which rely on

correctness.20

16

Chand, Runco: “Cognition and Creativity”, p.253 17

Ibidem, p.254 18

Nijstad, Rietzschel, Stroebe: “Relative accessibility of domain knowledge and creativity: The effects of

knowledge activation on the quantity and originality of generated ideas”, p.935 19

Lodewijkx, Hein F.M., Nijstad, Bernard A., Stroebe, Wolfgang: “The illusion of group productivity: A

reduction of failures explanation”. In: European Journal of Social Psychology 36 (2006), p.33 20

Chand, Runco: “Cognition and Creativity”, p.254

36

This convergent phase of judgement and evaluation also clearly draws on the cognitive

characteristics of the individuals, since they use their knowledge, memory and classification

systems to judge the produced ideas.

2.2.3 Social psychological framework

Although a cognitive approach may give an insight into the process of ideation, especially from an

individual‟s point of view, to conclude that this approach alone is enough to explain the complex

process of ideation would be reductionism. I will illustrate this by offering the social and

psychological approach, which is, particularly on group level, another factor that influences the

process of ideation. In this respect I refer to the “input-process-output (IPO)”21 model, which is

discussed by Bolin and Neuman. This model is

[...] based on open systems theory in which group input variables (e.g. member personality,

skill and knowledge) are transformed into group outcomes (e.g. the quality and quantity of

the group product) through group interaction processes such as communication, task

strategy, and effort [...].22

This model also includes cognitive components (e.g. knowledge), but focuses more on the

extra-individual components such as communication and task strategy. The interactive component

is the dominant one in this model, and thus illustrates the complexity of the entire process.

It has not been my intention to provide an exhaustive and conclusive overview of the processes

or structures underlying the ideation process in this section. Since that could be the subject of an

entire dissertation, it is impossible for me to expand on this subject. I did however want to

illustrate two important components (the cognitive and the social-psychological component) that

could account for and explain some of the steps in the process of idea generation, in order to

better comprehend this process. In the next section, I will focus on the specific idea generation

stages. Therefore, I will use the titles of the stages identified by Chand and Runco in their

cognitive approach, but I will detach the components from their original cognitive connotation,

and consider them as umbrella stages in the process of idea generation. The three processes I will

distinguish (problem finding, ideation and evaluation) serve as the structure and framework of the


21

Bolin, Aaron U., Neuman, George A.: “Personality, Process, and Performance in Interactive Brainstorming

Groups”. In: Journal of Business and Psychology 20 (2006), p.566 22

Bolin., Neuman: “Personality, Process, and Performance in Interactive Brainstorming Groups”, pp.566-567

37

2.3 The problem finding process


The previous section has shown that the problem finding process is a stage in which the objective

of the idea generation process is defined and, to an extent, analysed. Within this process, several

choices have to be made by the participants of the idea generation session, choices that will have

far-reaching effects on the course of the ideation process. I will not discuss the actual

identification and definition of the problem in this section. My analysis focuses more on the

model of generating new ideas, and the problem is therefore a priori the invention and

development of new ideas. Consequently, I will not elaborate on that aspect of the problem

finding process.

I will however pay specific attention to three other particular aspects related to the problem

finding process and to the choice for an idea generation approach (as opposed to a problem

solving or decision making approach, which involves different strategies and choices). Firstly, I

will examine the advantages and disadvantages of opting for an individual (nominal) or a group

(interacting) ideation strategy. Secondly, I will elaborate on the concept of the illusion of group

productivity. Thirdly, the effects of a clear goal-setting strategy for the ideation process are

tackled. These three aspects will nuance the problem finding stage and show that even at the

beginning of the creative process, different internal and external factors influence the outcome of

the process, because, as Kurtzberg states, “[c]reativity is a multi-dimensional construct with both

objective and subjective elements”23.

2.3.2 Individual or group ideation strategy

2.3.2.1 Nominal versus interacting groups

An important choice that organisations have to make when they want to initiate an internal idea

generation process, is to engage in this process either by individual creative thinking or by group

(an interacting group) creative thinking. Many researchers have acknowledged the distinction

between a nominal group (where individuals ideate separately) and an interacting group (where

the ideation is a shared, mutual process), and the overall conclusion is that group ideation can

significantly influence the constituents of the group:

23

Kurtzberg, Terri R.: “Feeling Creative, Being Creative: An Empirical Study of Diversity and Creativity in

Teams”. In: Creativity Research Journal 17 (2005), p.61

38

[...] The findings suggest that the group composition cannot only significantly influence the

overall ideational performance of a group, but also that of individual group members.24

With this statement, Jung, Looney and Valacich claim that the group level exerts an influence

on the ideational performance that exceeds the culmination of the group‟s individual creative

abilities. When individuals are brought together to engage in creative, ideational and interactive

activity, the resulting group performs differently than the aggregation of the separate individual

abilities. This does however not mean that group ideation can be entirely disengaged from the

group‟s constituting individuals, as Kurtzberg correctly remarks:

Group potential cannot be independent of individual skills: It is unlikely that highly creative

group products will develop without any individual capacity for novel idea generation, yet

aggregation alone is not the whole story.25

Individual ability still determines the group‟s performance to an extent, but Kurtzberg also

states that this is not the only factor, as “[g]roup creative potential also needs to be defined in

terms of the configuration of skills”26. We can clearly establish that group creativity is not simply

constituted by the culmination of individual abilities, but that the interaction and the group level

create a new dimension, by which the ideational performance is influenced.

Although the previous paragraphs have shown that there is a difference in the performance of

nominal or interacting groups in ideational activities, the potential positive or negative effects on

the performance have not been illustrated. Contrary to popular belief, research has revealed that

nominal groups, i.e. individual ideation, systematically outperform interacting groups when it

comes to the ideation performance, i.e. the production of ideas (both quantitative and qualitative):

Almost 50 years of brainstorming research has consistently shown that, when it comes to

productivity, idea generation might best be left to individuals instead of groups: N

individuals who work alone and whose non-overlapping results are pooled (so-called

nominal groups) produce more and better ideas than N individuals who work in an

interactive group.27

The analysis of previous research has thus illustrated that ideation on group or interactive level

differs radically from ideation on individual level in terms of the productivity of generated ideas.

24

Jung, J.H., Looney, Clayton, A., Valacich, Joseph S.: “The Effects of Individual Cognitive Ability and Idea

Stimulation on Idea-Generation Performance”. In: Group Dynamics: Theory, Research and Practice 10 (2006),

p. 1 25

Kurtzberg.: “Feeling Creative, Being Creative: An Empirical Study of Diversity and Creativity in Teams”,

p.52 26

Ibidem 27

Lodewijkx, Nijstad, Stroebe: “The illusion of group productivity: A reduction of failures explanation”, p.31

39

As the next paragraphs will show, this does not mean that individual ideation should be preferred

to group ideation, since group ideation has both advantages and disadvantages. Research on the

evaluation of ideas (cf. 2.5 The selection and evaluation process, p.48) has even shown that the

productivity advantage should be nuanced.

2.3.2.2 Disadvantages of group ideation

Extensive research has proved that a deficit in productivity of group ideation is observed in

interactive groups when these are compared to nominal ideation groups. Several disadvantages of

the group ideation process, inherent to group interaction, can account for this deficit, and many

investigators have defined these important inhibiting factors:

Research shows that group brainstorming productivity suffers because of group processes

such as free-riding, social-loafing, blocking, evaluation apprehension and downward social

comparison.28

I will succinctly explain each of these disadvantages. First of all, free-riding can reduce

productivity in the group ideation process. Haslam and Wegge define free-riding as the

“deliberate reduction of effort if a person‟s contribution is seen to be unnecessary for the group to

succeed”29. In other words, when participants get the feeling that their contributions are not

substantial enough and that the group can produce sufficient ideas without their help, they could

resign and omit any further contribution. This obviously reduces the ideation potential of a group,

as certain members no longer apply their cognitive ability to generate ideas.

A second inhibitor is social loafing, denoted by Haslam and Wegge as the “unintentional

reduction of work motivation and effort when working collectively”30. This concept is an inherent

and subconscious side effect of working in groups. Individuals automatically reduce their

contribution and effort when working in a group, possibly because they start to rely on other

group members, and subconsciously think that the other group members will compensate for their

own diminished effort.

Blocking or production blocking is another disadvantage of group ideation. Toubia states that

production blocking occurs “when participants are unable to express themselves

28

Brown, Vincent R., Nakui, Toshihiko, Paulus, Paul B., Putman, Vicky L.: “Effects of Task Instructions and

Brief Breaks on Brainstorming”. In: Group Dynamics: Theory, Research and Practice 10 (2006), p.206 29

Haslam, S. Alexander, Wegge, Jürgen: “Improving work motivation and performance in brainstorming

groups: The effects of three group goal-setting strategies”. In: European Journal of Work and Organizational

Psychology 14 (2005), p.404 30

Haslam, Wegge: “Improving work motivation and performance in brainstorming groups: The effects of three

group goal-setting strategies”, p.404

40

simultaneously”31. In interactive group ideation, participants have to wait for their turn to express

certain ideas or elaborations on other participants‟ ideas, thus implying that the time to speak is

limited for each participant. Consequently, researchers assume that participants could forget ideas

if they cannot divulge them immediately, or that they could decide not to share their idea because

they feel the subject has changed. These examples illustrate that production blocking leads to

production loss.

Evaluation apprehension refers to the natural reluctance people feel of receiving (negative)

feedback by peers: fear of evaluation “corresponds to the fear of negative evaluation by the other

participants, the moderator, or external judges”32. This evaluation apprehension could lead to

participants not sharing certain ideas, out of fear that the other ideation participants would receive

the ideas negatively.

The final aspect that could negatively influence group ideation is downward social comparison.

This concept refers to the phenomenon where high-performing members of an ideation group

reduce their effort and motivation when they notice that other group members are performing

worse. These high-performing members then adapt their performance to that of the

underperforming members, which reduces productivity.

Although not all negative repercussions of group ideation are mentioned here, the most

important ones are, and they illustrate that group ideation is not altogether positive. However,

group ideation also has positive characteristics.

2.3.2.3 Advantages of group ideation

The most important positive characteristic of group ideation lies exactly in its nature: group

interaction. As Briggs, De Vreede and Santanen have illustrated, individuals mostly turn to

present knowledge instead of creating new knowledge in problem solving (and, by extension, idea

generation):

A rich literature indicates that people facing large, complex problems tend to think within a

bounded, familiar, and narrow subset of the potential solution space rather than to think

creatively [...]. In complex problem solving, subjects routinely overlook between 70 and 80

percent of the potential solution space [...], and are even unaware they are doing so [...].33

The fact that individuals are more inclined to search for solutions in present knowledge,

counteracts the creative thinking objective of “seeking original ways to reach a goal when the

31

Toubia: “Idea Generation, Creativity, and Incentives”, p.416 32

Ibidem 33

Briggs, De Vreede, Santanen: “Causal Relationships in Creative Problem Solving: Comparing Facilitation

Interventions for Ideation”, p.171

41

means to do so are not readily apparent or previously established”34. The interactive component of

group participation in idea generation can overcome this tendency to focus on familiar knowledge,

as “each group member provides unique knowledge, information, or ideas to the group”35. The

group members can therefore be stimulated by the ideas of others, and thus come to creative and

innovative ideas.

Jung, Looney and Valacich ascribe this positive stimulation to two theories: equity theory and

social matching and comparison. The equity theory “focuses on the perceived performance of one

individual in comparison to others”36. This implies that when a group participant feels that other

participants are performing better, he could experience this as a motivation to increase his effort

and thus improve his productivity. Secondly, social comparison and matching draw on roughly

the same assumptions:

When a person compares himself (herself) with others who are perceived to be

outperforming the individual, self-improvement motives are likely to emerge. [...] Using

this logic, it is more likely that high-quality stimuli will foster a competitive atmosphere,

creating a higher standard of performance.37

In addition to the interactive aspect, which promotes the generation of creative ideas, group

ideation “is used in organizations because it is presumed that it has a variety of benefits such as

group commitment, an opportunity for competition, the advantage of skill variety, and

organizational memory”38. But perhaps even more important than the objective advantages of

group ideation, is its subjective advantage, viz. the illusion of group productivity.

2.3.3 Group forming: illusion of productivity

As we have discussed earlier, the objective results and outcome of ideation generally seem to

favour individual ideation over group ideation when it comes to productivity. Nevertheless,

research has shown that people (in organisations) still perceive group ideation as being more

effective than individual ideation. This phenomenon is called the illusion of group productivity,

and is, according to me, a very important aspect of group ideation.

34

Brophy, Dennis R.: “A Comparison of Individual and Group Efforts to Creatively Solve Contrasting Types of

Problems”. In: Creativity Research Journal 18 (2006), p.293 35 Harrison, David A., Klein, Katherine J.: “On the Diversity of Diversity: Tidy Logic, Messier Realities”. In:

Academy of Management Perspectives 21 (2007), p.27 36

Jung, Looney, Valacich: “The Effects of Individual Cognitive Ability and Idea Stimulation on Idea-Generation

Performance”, p.4 37

Ibidem 38

Brown, Nakui, Paulus, Putman: “Effects of Task Instructions and Brief Breaks on Brainstorming”, p.206

42

A number of aspects can account for this illusion of productivity. First of all, Nijstad and

Stroebe argued that participants of group ideation could mistake ideas of others for their own

ideas, thus increasing their sense of (individual) contribution and productivity, and consequently,

their satisfaction:

[...] group members may be unable to distinguish between ideas they have generated

themselves and ideas generated by other group members. This may lead to memory

confusion and an overestimation of one‟s contribution to the group product, and thus to

higher levels of satisfaction.39

The second aspect is, again, social comparison. As research has illustrated, individuals

compare their performance with the performance of other group participants. Generally,

participants will perceive that “their performance is quite similar to the performance of others [...],

which will reduce uncertainty and result in high levels of satisfaction”40.

Thirdly, the illusion of productivity is induced by the perception of reduced cognitive failure.

As Lodewijkx, Nijstad and Stroebe argued, every ideation process knows instances of cognitive

failure. These are instances where an idea is explored, but no satisfactory conclusion to the

cognitive process is reached. These “unsuccessful searches”41, where no new idea or merely an

old idea is found, are called “failures”42. In group ideation, however, fewer idea searches are

started than in individual ideation, which leads to a reduction of productivity, but also to a

reduction of failures:

The consequence is that the process of idea generation will not always appear easy for

individuals (i.e. they experience more failures), while it will be much easier for group

members. The reduction of failures will cause higher satisfaction for group members than

for individuals.43

The previous paragraphs illustrate that higher satisfaction for group ideation can be explained

by the illusion of productivity, even though individuals ideate more efficiently. I am however

convinced that this illusion is not a negative one, and could, in the long term, be beneficial for the

ideation processes in organisations. As Kurtzberg concludes, the higher perception of creativity

realised by ideation groups, based on misperception of the group‟s performance, can have a

positive impact on organisational creativity:

39 Nijstad, Bernard A., Stroebe, Wolfgang: “How the Group Affects the Mind: A Cognitive Model of Idea

Generation in Groups”. In: Personality and Social Psychology Review 10 (2006), p.189 40

Lodewijkx, Nijstad, Stroebe: “The illusion of group productivity: A reduction of failures explanation”, p.32 41

Ibidem, p.33 42

Ibidem 43

Ibidem, p.34

43

Finally, it is important to elaborate on why perceptions of creativity and positive affect are

critical organizational outcomes, event if independent from more traditional “bottom line”

measures. Internal feelings of creativity can drive extraordinary behaviors in many ways.44

The high satisfaction and positive perception of creativity can “lead to more openness and to

future creative thoughts”45. Whereas an individual in an organisation may not be easily motivated

to start an ideation process on his own (because of the sense that this would not have any results,

the extensive efforts this requires,...), group ideation is much more easily accessible, because of its

group aspect and the illusion of productivity. The resulting high satisfaction can serve as an extra

motivation for future idea generation within the organisation. I am therefore convinced of the

benefits of group ideation, and would prefer it to individual ideation in the context of

organisational creativity.

2.3.4 Setting goals for the ideation process

Research has established that group goal setting for ideation can improve the ideation process, as

production loss (e.g. by social loafing) is counteracted and production gain (e.g. through social

comparison) is promoted. It has long been acknowledged “that goals (intentions) are an immediate

and powerful regulator of human action”46. Litchfield directly connects organisational creativity

(i.e. ideation in organisations in the context of this analysis) to a goal setting strategy:

These ideas form a basis for my argument that a goal-based view can contribute to

organizational creativity and innovation research by offering a framework to match a priori

definitions of a creative idea to the creative context.47

Litchfield states that the goals function as a structure, as an underlying model, upon which

participants of ideation can build their creative performance. However, this does not imply that

simply establishing some general and simple goals will immediately benefit the ideation process.

On the contrary, the goals must be concrete and challenging, in order to show significant results:

It has consistently been found that specific and difficult performance goals lead to better

performance than easy goals or unspecific goal instructions – typified by invitations to “Do

your best”.48

44

Kurtzberg.: “Feeling Creative, Being Creative: An Empirical Study of Diversity and Creativity in Teams”,

p.55 45

Ibidem, p.56 46


group goal-setting strategies”, p.402 47

Litchfield, Robert C.: “Brainstorming reconsidered: a global-based view”. In: Academy of Management

Review 33 (2008), pp.654-655

44

Haslam and Wegge already hint at the positive influence of difficult and specific goals on the

group‟s performance, but the negative influence of the absence of goals should also be mentioned.

As Litchfield argued, unclear or vague goals (or, as Litchfield refers to them, expectations) inhibit

successful ideation. Like Haslam and Wegge, he pleads for a much clearer goal framework to

improve ideation:

These questions reveal that expectations for creative ideas are often vague and complex.

Observers may frequently agree on creative ideas after the fact [...],but designing successful

interventions to improve idea generation requires a more precise tailoring of our

expectations in advance.49

With regard to the ideation performance the previous paragraphs show the importance of

setting goals for the ideation process. But even though the benefits of goal setting are multiple and

efficient, e.g. “increased effort, high persistence, task focusing, development and use of

appropriate task strategies”50, there are also risks of group conflict involved. Individual group

members‟ goals can conflict with the “self-set group goals”51 or the imposed group goals, and this

can “complicate predictions regarding the impact of goal-setting manipulations by an (external)

authority”52. It is therefore, despite the many advantages of group goal setting, still necessary to

proceed with caution and analyse all possible goals in advance, before expressing them explicitly

to the ideation group members.

2.4 The ideation process


In this section I will discuss the actual product and group effort of the idea generation process: the

ideation session. As I have already mentioned, in this phase of divergent thinking, the intention is

to generate as many ideas as possible regarding a certain topic (possibly more elaborately defined

by specific goals). Even though this phase is an important one in the idea generation process, it is

impossible to separate it from the other two phases (problem finding and evaluation stage), since

48



Litchfield: “Brainstorming reconsidered: a global-based view”, p.649 50



Ibidem 52

Ibidem

45

they are closely intertwined through a network of interactions (as Chand and Runco‟s model of

creative thinking illustrates (cf. 2.2.2 Cognitive framework, p.33)).

Two important aspects of the ideation process, viz. brainstorming and facilitation, will be

elaborated in the following paragraphs. Although there are many possible techniques to use in an

ideation session, I will limit myself to brainstorming for two reasons: it is the most frequently

used ideation technique and it is the technique that was used in the ideation workshop during my

internship.

2.4.2 Brainstorming as an ideation tool

Of the many techniques used to intervene in the ideation process (e.g. synectics, brainwriting,

attribute listing, Delphi, abstraction method,...), brainstorming is the best-known and most

frequently used. It was developed in 1939 by Alex F. Osborn and has since been used in

numerous ideation seminars. Berry, Block and Taylor have defined the purpose of brainstorming:

The purpose of brainstorming is to free individuals from inhibition, self-criticism, and

criticism by others in order that in response to a specific problem they may produce as many

different ideas as possible. The assumption is that the larger the number of ideas produced,

the greater the probability of achieving an effective solution.53

This illustrates that the brainstorming technique embodies the atmosphere of divergent

thinking, as individuals are encouraged to produce as many new and different ideas as possible,

and the end product is “the sum of all of the non-redundant ideas produced by the group in the

allotted time period”54. In order to achieve the goal as well as possible, thus producing a large

amount of innovative and creative ideas, Osborn determined four rules inherent to the

brainstorming process: quantity is preferred to quality, criticism and judgement are postponed,

every idea is welcome and elaborating on ideas of other people is encouraged.

The first rule, quantity precedes quality, refers to the belief (which has also been supported by

relevant research) that the production of a large quantity of ideas will automatically generate and

increase the number of qualitative ideas. During the brainstorming session, participants are

encouraged to express all ideas and to focus as much as possible on quantity, since quality will

follow inevitably.

53

Berry, Paul C., Block, Clifford H., Taylor, Donald W.: “Does Group Participation When Using Brainstorming

Facilitate or Inhibit Creative Thinking?” In: Administrative Science Quarterly 3 (1958), p.24 54

Bolin, Neuman: “Personality, Process, and Performance in Interactive Brainstorming Groups”, p.568

46

Secondly, Osborn devised a rule that stipulated that all criticism or judgement should be

avoided, or at least deferred to another stage (the evaluation stage, cf. 2.5.2 The concept of idea

evaluation, p.48), away from the ideation process. This rule was developed to reduce the impact

of evaluation apprehension. By eliminating all criticism, the participants of brainstorming sessions

do not have to fear that other members of the group will slate their contributions, which reduces

the inhibitions to express an idea.

Thirdly, generation of wild and seemingly far-fetched ideas is encouraged. Every idea is

welcome, and should be expressed during the brainstorming session, via free association. The

underlying rationale of this rule is that the wildest ideas often produce the best ideas, or at least

offer a basis for further associations and to find less wild, more realistic ideas.

The final rule encourages elaboration on the ideas of others. This rule most of all builds on the

interaction between participants, and the assumption that participants can stimulate other members

of the group, thus creating an entirely new level of idea production. Every participant is therefore

free to take an idea, expressed by another group member, and develop other applications or

approaches to this idea. The last two rules build on the two fundamental ways to develop ideas:

exploration and exploitation. Exploration refers to wild ideation, starting an entirely new idea line

out of nothing, so not building on previous ideas of group members, whereas exploitation implies

that group members start from an idea, which has already been formulated by a participant, and

build from this idea to elaborate and offer new insights. Toubia phrases this difference as follows:

If several streams of ideas have been established in an idea-generation session, a participant

has a choice between contributing to one of the existing streams and starting a new stream.55

The four rules of the brainstorming model offer a theoretical approach for an optimal

performance and productivity of the ideation session. The previous section (cf. 2.3.2.2

Disadvantages of group ideation, p.39) has shown that in reality, many other cognitive and social

processes come into play and can interfere with the theoretical aspect, and even inhibit or reduce

group productivity. Nevertheless, I feel that brainstorming is still one of the most effective

methods of an ideation process and can, additionally, contribute to organisational creativity.

2.4.3 Facilitating a brainstorming session

Earlier in this analysis, I discussed the importance of an (external) goal setting for the ideation

process, in order to motivate the participants, by offering them clear, challenging and specific

55

Toubia: “Idea Generation, Creativity, and Incentives”, p.412

47

expectations. The concept of facilitation is in this context inextricably intertwined with the setting

of goals. The facilitator is an external subject, who guides and leads the brainstorming session,

without participating in the ideation or group interaction. This facilitator can function as a bridge

between the organisation‟s objectives and employee creativity, and translate the organisation‟s

goals to the brainstorming participants. Litchfield emphasises the importance of the perception of

management support for ideation to stimulate employee creativity, and in this respect, the

facilitator has an important role to play:

[...] the effects of management expectations for creativity on employees‟ creative behavior

were mediated by employee perceptions of management behaviors to initiate, support, and

recognize creative efforts.56

The fact that organisations actively organise ideation sessions and employ facilitators to

motivate and support the ideation process, can function as a catalyst for future employee ideation

efforts. Even if this were the only function of facilitation, it would still be a useful management

tool for organisational creativity.

But facilitation does not only influence motivation and effort on the macro level of

organisational creativity (e.g. through clear goal setting), it also improves the creative efforts on

the micro level, within the actual ideation session. Briggs, De Vreede and Santanen have

established that the ideation process could experience barriers, slow down and even stop without

appropriate facilitator interventions. This interventions or stimuli could push the group members

into a new direction, which could allow them to continue the ideation process:

One simple way to overcome these barriers is to deliver external stimuli to the problem

solvers as they work. Additional context-relevant stimuli (such as hints provided by a

facilitator) may help the problem solver activate frames that may not lie in the direct path of

automatic spreading activation and explore vastly different areas of their knowledge

network, thereby avoiding the experience of being “stuck in a rut”.57

The facilitator can in this way secure the continuous flow of ideas and thus increase the

satisfaction and comfort level of the group, which will in turn lead to a better productivity, or at

least to a positive attitude towards the creative thinking process.

To achieve this motivational and interventional goal, the facilitator can use different

techniques. Nijstad and Stroebe have for example expressed several instructions to improve the

interactive ideation group‟s efficiency and productivity:

56

Litchfield: “Brainstorming reconsidered: a global-based view”, p.650 57

Briggs, De Vreede, Santanen: “Causal Relationships in Creative Problem Solving: Comparing Facilitation

Interventions for Ideation”, p.177

48

If one wants to stimulate productivity and generate many ideas, it is wise to keep groups

with verbal idea sharing small and, if necessary, split up larger groups. [...] People should be

encouraged to pay attention to another‟s ideas because these generally are stimulating.

People should also be discouraged to engage in off-task discussion or explaining of ideas

[...]. Also, short breaks are helpful, and productivity can be enhanced considerably when

one distinguishes subcategories of a larger problem. Finally, to preserve working memory

capacity, external storage of ideas (e.g. flip-over or notepad) might be helpful.58

This rather long enumeration of instructions offers an elucidating view of the impact a

facilitator could exert on the ideation process. It is therefore a concept of great importance in

brainstorming theory, but has been, in my opinion, mostly overlooked by research up until now.

2.5 The selection and evaluation process


The evaluation stage is the last step in the process of idea generation, and is characterised by the

transition of divergent thinking to convergent thinking. In this stage, all of the ideas that have

been generated throughout the ideation session are collected, selected and evaluated, after which a

distinction regarding idea quality can be made. Especially for the possible later product or service

development, this evaluation is important, because it offers an insight into which ideas could be

used to enter into further R&D. For the participants of the idea generation process, this evaluation

(whether or not they take part in the evaluation themselves) is useful, because they see that their

efforts and performances are processed and could lead to actual applications.

In this section, I will discuss two aspects of the evaluation process. First of all, I will address

the matter of the concept of idea evaluation in the ideation process. Here, specific attention will be

paid to the question whether the evaluation stage should be incorporated in the ideation session or

if the evaluation should be separated from the ideation. Secondly, I will comment on the approach

of Dean, Hender, Rodgers and Santanen, who propose a construct for idea evaluation.

2.5.2 The concept of idea evaluation

The evaluation by individuals or groups of ideas generated by individuals or groups is inevitably a

subjective process. First of all, evaluators are faced with the problematic notion of what

constitutes a quality idea. Traditionally, research has shown that an idea is deemed qualitative and

58

Nijstad, Stroebe: “How the Group Affects the Mind: A Cognitive Model of Idea Generation in Groups”, p.211

49

creative when it combines two characteristics: uniqueness and feasibility. These characteristic

themselves are however quite vague, and other requirements for a quality idea cannot be

excluded. Dean, Hender, Rodgers and Santanen have tried to offer a more conclusive definition of

a quality idea, which I will discuss in the next section.

In addition to the subjective definition of a quality idea, there are various other evaluative

processes influencing idea generation. Runco and Chand discern three different types of these

processes59: evaluation (critical) and valuation (appreciative), intrapersonal and interpersonal, and

evaluative skills “which use originality and creativity as criteria”60. It is clear to the authors that

these multi-levelled evaluative processes involve a high level of subjectivity:

The idea that judgments about creativity are [...] at least partly voluntary is further support

for theories showing the active role of individuals in their own development and

information processing.61

These arguments indicate that upon comparison of evaluative processes and their results, i.e.

the selected quality ideas, the fact that what is a good idea for one individual might not be so for

another individual, should be kept in mind. It is therefore difficult to judge particular and different

idea evaluations objectively.

In addition to the difficulty of detaching evaluation processes from their individual evaluator‟s

preferences and personality, another choice within the evaluation process must be made. The

facilitator and the organisation that initiate the ideation session have to decide whether or not to

include the evaluation into the ideation. A lot of research has been dedicated to this aspect of the

idea generation theory, and different opinions have been expressed. First of all, there are many

researchers who claim that including evaluation into the ideation process is detrimental to this

process, because it invokes evaluation apprehension. The fear of being evaluated at the end of the

ideation session might block the production of participants.

Contrary to this opinion, other scientists have shown through research that adding evaluation to

the ideation might produce positive results. Nijstad, Rietzschl and Stroebe established that,

whereas the productivity in nominal groups lies higher than the productivity in interactive groups,

this difference in performance could be erased by an effective evaluation, included in the ideation

process:

59

Chand, Runco: “Cognition and Creativity”, p.257 60

Ibidem 61

Ibidem, p.259

50

Although idea selection is not an intellective, but a judgmental task, group discussion

clearly can improve the selection process.62

[...]

It appears that interactive groups indeed managed to overcome their productivity loss by

making an effective selection.63

Even though both opinions on the order of ideation and evaluation produce solid arguments, I

am more inclined to subscribe to the strategy of bringing ideation and evaluation together.

Regardless of the potential effect this distinction can have on the productivity of the ideation

(whether the outcome of quality ideas is better with the distinction ideation-evaluation or without

it), I feel that including evaluation is an important aspect, especially for the participants‟

satisfaction and future attitude towards creativity. I feel that when participants get the chance to

look back on their production at the end of the ideation session, to contemplate and discuss their

performance, and then to evaluate and select their, admittedly subjective, best ideas, they will be

more satisfied with the entire idea generation process. This will consequently be reflected in their

position towards creative thinking. So even if it does not produce tangible results, the

psychological result and effect could be considerable.

2.5.3 Strategies for idea evaluation

After considering the different levels of evaluation and the question whether or not to include

evaluation in ideation, I would now like to focus on one specific approach to evaluate ideas, viz.

the method of Dean, Hender, Rodgers and Santanen. Obviously, their approach is not the only one

in defining requirements for idea evaluation, but in order to give an introduction, I want to take

their theory as an example, because it encompasses many aspects of what could constitute a

quality idea. They start by describing four dimensions of idea creativity or quality (based on

definitions of MacCrimmon and Wagner):

62

Nijstad, Bernard A., Rietzschel, Eric F., Stroebe, Wolfgang: “Productivity is not enough: A comparison of

interactive and nominal brainstorming groups on idea generation and selection”. In: Journal of Experimental

Social Psychology 42 (2006), p.245 63

Nijstad, Rietzschel, Stroebe: “Productivity is not enough: A comparison of interactive and nominal

brainstorming groups on idea generation and selection”, p.249

51

o Novelty: an idea is most novel if nobody has expressed it before.

o Workability: An idea is workable if it does not violate known constraints or if it

can be easily implemented.

o Relevance: An idea is relevant if it satisfies the goals set by the problem solver.

o Thoroughness: An idea is thorough if it is worked out in detail.64

This definition already delineates four key components of a quality idea, but these components

still require refinement, which the authors attempt to provide by adding subcategories to the four

components. I will very succinctly enumerate these subcategories, in order to illustrate that the

parameters for defining and evaluating a quality idea are very complex. Under novelty, the

authors identify rarity (uniqueness), originality (ingeniousness) and paradigm relatedness (~

trend-setting).65 Workability is subdivided into acceptability (non-violation of constraints) and

implementability.66 Relevance has two subordinate categories: applicability (does the idea apply

to the imposed problem) and effectiveness.67 Finally, specificity can be regarded as consisting of

clarity, completeness and implicational explicitness (is the idea elaborately described).68

After establishing their multidimensional measure model, they also provide scales and

constructs to rate each idea according to the different components, thus arriving at a score for each

idea, referring to the idea‟s quality. This model illustrates that evaluating an idea is not a

straightforward matter; many components have to be taken into consideration before a judgement

can be made. The set of components proposed by the authors could offer an interesting initial

criterion to sift through the myriads of ideas. However, I am not completely convinced that their

method of rating the ideas according to their compliance with the components is enough to result

in an actual and accurate collection of the best ideas of an ideation session. Further research is

required to confirm or falsify this opinion.

2.6 Conclusion

In this explorative analysis of the body of research and literature of the idea generation process, I

have tried to make a selection of important and influencing factors of this process. It is however

64

Dean, Douglas L., Hender, Jillian M., Rodgers, Thomas L., Santanen, Eric L.: “Identifying Quality, Novel and

Creative Ideas: Constructs and Scales for Idea Evaluation”. In: Journal of the Association for Information

Systems 7 (2005), p.650 65

Dean, Hender, Rodgers, Santanen: “Identifying Quality, Novel and Creative Ideas: Constructs and Scales for

Idea Evaluation”, pp.658-659 66

Ibidem, p.661 67

Ibidem, p.661-662 68

Ibidem, p.662

52

impossible to provide an all-encompassing view of this broad field of science, and I have

therefore opted to represent and analyse those aspects, which were relevant for the ideation

workshop of the internship. Nevertheless, it has become clear that the process of idea generation,

both on micro-level (cognitive and social processes and motives) and on macro-level (the

different stages in the ideation process, the actual resulting ideas), is a very complex and versatile

field, which continually, and perhaps even increasingly (given its current importance in the

organisational context), requires scientific exploration.

53

3. Case study: an internship at Bayer BioScience NV

3.1 Introductory remarks

This chapter will be devoted to a detailed description of the eight weeks of my internship at Bayer

BioScience, in which I was incorporated in the communications department of Bayer BioScience

and responsible for a particular project. The internship can therefore be divided into two parts: a

primary assignment and several secondary assignments. Consequently, this division is reflected in

this chapter, which consists of two sections: a section where the primary assignment of the

internship is discussed, and a section in which the secondary assignments are treated.

In the first part of this chapter, I will discuss my primary assignment during the internship, viz.

the organisation and guidance of an ideation workshop. I will commence by describing the

background and general objective and structure of the project. Secondly, I will systematically (and

mostly chronologically) elaborate on the specific tasks I performed to bring the workshop to a

satisfactory end. In that respect, I distinguish three phases of activity: a preparatory phase, the

actual workshop phase (which is a rather short phase, since the workshop was performed on one

day), and the campaign roll-out phase. I prefer a systematic approach to a chronologic one,

because this provides a clearer general overview of the assignment. I do however have to mention

that some subtasks of phases (especially in the preparatory phase) were performed simultaneously

and arbitrarily, and not always in the order described here. I have chosen this approach for reasons

of structure, and because the simultaneous nature of executing certain tasks did not have a

fundamental effect on the tasks themselves.

In the second part of this chapter, I will succinctly deal with some secondary assignments I

performed during the internship. Whereas the ideation workshop was a project mostly separated

from the normal everyday activities of the communications department, these secondary tasks did

belong to the regular communication activities. I have divided these activities into two main

categories: translations and editorial contributions.

54

3.2 Primary assignment: the ideation workshop

3.2.1 Background and setting

The concept of the ideation workshop that was held during my internship has to be seen in the

perspective of a global innovation initiative by Bayer AG, viz. the Triple-i program. The Triple-i

project revolves around three concepts: inspiration, ideas and innovation. With this project, Bayer

AG wants to stimulate and motivate its employees to engage in creative thinking and to break silo

thinking, thus creating a creative corporate culture. In order to achieve this goal, the Triple-i

program was started as a very general project: every employee of the global organisation Bayer

AG was offered the chance to generate and formulate spontaneous ideas on any particular subject

that could be of interest to Bayer AG. They could submit the ideas on a website, designed for this

purpose. This first stage of the Triple-i project, which was launched in 2007, has already resulted

in more than 3,000 ideas. The submitted ideas are subsequently evaluated by the different Bayer

subgroups, to determine their potential for further development.

Whereas the first stage of the Triple-i project was a spontaneous and individual ideation

process, Bayer AG now wants to turn to the method of guided idea generation, in order to be able

to direct and determine the ideation process more considerably. This stage would be conducted in

the form of workshops, where cross-functional teams get the opportunity to explore a certain

Bayer business area, resulting in a shortlist of ideas (that could potentially lead to new products or

services). The workshop, conducted during the internship, was organised to generate ideas for

Animal Health, the first subgroup that is subjected to this guided ideation. It was the intention to

generate insights, ideas and solutions regarding animal owners‟ main needs for the health and

well-being of pets as well as challenges in pets care.

The previous paragraphs show the general and global framework of the project. The Bayer AG

group had a general vision to organise these workshops, to further promote their employees‟

creativity. Obviously, this general perspective has to be translated to and implemented on a local

level, which already brings us closer to the workshop at Bayer BioScience. Bayer AG opted to

organise an Animal Health ideation workshop in the most important countries (with regard to

Bayer‟s presence in these countries) and then to move to the smaller countries. It is in this context

that a workshop was planned for Bayer Belgium, i.e. for different employees of the Bayer offices

in Ghent, Brussels, Antwerp, Tielt and Astene. The internship and its content have to be situated

on this level, since I was responsible for the organisation of this particular ideation workshop.

55

3.2.2 Preparatory phase

3.2.2.1 Introductory remarks

The preparatory phase was the longest phase of the internship, and also the time period in which I

additionally executed most of the secondary assignments. The fact that this phase of preparation

started at the beginning of the internship and lasted until the the day of the workshop accounts for

its length: from the 21st of April to the 5th of June. In this period, several preparations had to be

made, and I have, for the sake of this dissertation, distinguished three substages: getting

acquainted with the subject, logistic and practical preparations and the construction of the

workshop agenda. In the next paragraphs, I will discuss each of these substages at length.

3.2.2.2 Getting acquainted with the subject

When I started the internship at Bayer BioScience, I had very little knowledge of the company

and of the project at hand. The first stage, getting acquainted with the subject, was therefore a

very crucial one. Since I was going to organise and lead an ideation workshop about Animal

Health, it was very important to gain extensive knowledge of both the ideation process and the

department of Animal Health. The first week of my internship was therefore dedicated to perusing

and studying the information I was given by my supervisor, Mrs. Ingrid Cazaerck.

This very elaborate information consisted of a description of the Animal Health department

(general information, business areas, products, definition and evolution of the market, etc.),

information on the Triple-i project (objectives, methods, preliminary results, etc.) and a large

amount of information on the subject of ideation workshops (definition of ideation, structure of

the ideation process, techniques of ideation, etc.). Especially this last aspect of the information

and introduction I received was a crucial and necessary support for the internship assignment,

since I had never been confronted with organisational ideation. Bayer AG had also anticipated this

problem and recognised the need for their employees to receive training before actually

organizing an ideation workshop. In this respect they had consulted an external organisation, SIT

(Strategic Innovative Thinking). This Israeli company had conducted a train-the-trainer

workshop, in which the Triple-i champions (the people responsible for the organisation of the

workshop in the respective countries) were instructed on how to facilitate ideation workshops,

what techniques and brainstorming exercises to use, and how to plan the workshop. It was

Mrs.Cazaerck who attended the train-the-trainer workshop, and since I was not present at this

initiation to ideation workshops, Mrs.Cazaerck first had to introduce the subject to me. So before

the entire package of information Mrs.Cazaerck received during the train-the-trainer workshop

was handed to me, I had a meeting with Mrs.Cazaerck in which she explained the concept of the

56

Workshop

planning

Topic Selection

(Subgroup supported

by Triple-i)

• Selection of area of

interest - the topic

where ideation will be

fruitful for Bayer

• Typically requires

some upfront research

and discussions

• Plan the workshop

• Prepare the

workshop content,

especially by

clarifying the topic

and by creating

topic specific

stimuli

Idea refinement (Subgroup

support by Triple-i)

Follow-up of

local ideas

Ideation event(s)

Ideation Clustering

Ranking

• Generate many

ideas

• Cluster, filter and

enrich ideas

• Short-list top ideas

• Document the results

and submit top ideas

to Triple-i

electronically

• Decide which ideas

to follow-up locally

• Work-out top ideas into

business propositions

• Use expert input

• If appropriate run more

focused ideation

workshops

project in general terms, offered a first time frame and some practical aspects, and gave an

account of her experience of the train the trainer workshop. After this introductory and expository

meeting, all of the background information was transferred to me, and I had to analyse and study

it, to get a first idea of what was intended.

For elaboration on the concept of ideation, Bayer did not just rely on the support offered by

SIT, they had done their own research on ideation as well. The result was an extensive and

accurate presentation, in which the most important aspects of ideation where discussed. This

included a schematic view of how Bayer envisaged the structure of the ideation workshops,

conducted by the different local entities:

Figure 13: Generic structure of ideation workshops1

This structure reflects the general theoretical views on ideation and embodies the concept of

organisational idea generation, where ideas are generated to be developed into new products.

Bayer identified four stages, which more or less correspond with the stages I discussed in the

previous chapter. With respect to the ideation theory, two decisions within this structure are

important and require further explanation. First of all, both the first and the last stage are

1 Bayer AG: Triple-i ideation workshops. How to plan and how to run them? Internal presentation, Leverkusen:

Bayer AG, 2008

57

performed by the global organisation, and not on local level. This is symbolised by the different

colour of the stages. Both the topic selection (~ problem finding) process and the idea

development process are dealt with on a global level, which are quite logical decisions. As the

ideation theory has shown, the idea generation process functions better when clear (external) goals

and expectations are created. In this case, it was Bayer AG that decided on the area of ideation:

Animal Health. The specific goal, which could perhaps have been more specific and challenging,

was to generate ideas for potentially new products and services for this Bayer subgroup. Since

these goals were the same for every workshop organizing country, the goals were set globally.

Furthermore, this approach ensured the uniformity of the workshop goals.

The second striking approach to the ideation structure is the specific role of evaluation. As we

can deduce from the figure, an initial evaluation is included into the actual ideation process

(which is also the approach I would advocate myself), and is thus performed on local level. But

Bayer also added a fourth stage, in which the ideas submitted to Bayer headquarters would be

evaluated once more, resulting in a final follow-up and possible development. I do support this

double evaluation, because it offers a first (subjective) evaluation by the ideation participants

(providing high participant satisfaction, as the previous chapter illustrated), in combination with

an external (and more objective) evaluation.

The ideation structure that Bayer provided at the start of my internship, laid the foundation for

the approach of the entire project. It indicated a clear structure and framework for the organisation

of the workshop, and defined the different parts of the process I would have to complete.

Additionally, the background information on the Triple-i project and the Animal Health

department built the necessary knowledge to start the project. My analysis and study of the

provided information also resulted in a schematic summary, in which relevant information was

listed systematically and succinctly (cf. Appendix 1). This summary was the natural outcome of

the first step of my internship and the project, a step in which I worked up the subject of the

project.

3.2.2.3 Logistic and practical preparations

As the outline of the workshop (its goals, objectives, techniques and content) had been established

in the first step, the next important and time-consuming step in its preparation were activities of a

practical nature. These preparations were very versatile, and covered all aspects of the

organisation of an all-day seminar: finding and inviting participants, fixing an appropriate location

(and lunch), setting a date, acquiring all supporting materials (flipcharts, markers, notes,...),

arranging incentives (pens, notepads, etc. for every participant),... These practical aspects, though

they may not always require a large creative effort, were very important for the organisation of the

58

workshop, since they had to ensure the logistic framework necessary for the success of the idea

generation session. In the next paragraphs, I will succinctly elaborate on how I dealt with the most

important preparatory tasks, for which I received a lot of support from the people of the

Communications department.

The most important practical task in preparation of the workshop was finding participants for

the workshop. As the analysis in the previous chapter has shown, the participants of an ideation

group define to an extent the ideation quality. It was therefore important to find participants with

complementary cognitive abilities and a positive attitude towards ideation. Bayer had also

developed a profile for these participants: communicative pet lovers. In order to create a versatile

and complementary group, participants were to be recruited from the different Bayer facilities in

Belgium (Brussels, Antwerp, Tielt, Astene and Ghent). Before my internship, the Community

Council Communications BeLux, a work group of Bayer BeLux Communications employees, had

had a meeting on the workshop organisation. In this meeting, they decided that for every Bayer

subsidiary in Belgium, one person was responsible to find two candidates. The initial idea was to

form a workshop consisting of some fifteen participants. It was my task to contact the designated

people and contact and invite the potential participants.

In reality, this did not go as smoothly as planned. In fact, it was probably this part of the

internship that proved to present most difficulties. First of all, the people who had to find

participants within their company, had not yet started this when I contacted them. Secondly and

consequently, it was not easy to find participants, because many of the potential participants could

not fit the workshop into their schedule. We were even unable to find participants from the

Brussels departments, except for an employee of Animal Health, who would also give a

presentation on Animal Health (to introduce the workshop subject to the other participants). In the

end, we were able to find nine employees and participants, to whom I sent an invitation. But that

was not the end of our difficulties; the day before the workshop, the two Tielt (Bayer Sheet

Europe) participants had to cancel their participation due to production problems. This meant that

there were only seven participants left (out of an initially expected fifteen). Nevertheless, the

workshop took place as planned, even with fewer participants than expected. Group idea

generation theory has even established that productivity is higher for smaller groups (cf. supra), so

with hindsight, I might even say that the small number of participants was a good thing. In this

stage of contacting and inviting people, I received a lot of support from the Communications

department. They told me who I needed to contact and how I should go about, and Mrs.Cazaerck

regularly sat down with me, to check the status of this part of the project. Because of the fact that

finding participants was a crucial element for the workshop, adequate support was of paramount

importance.

59

When I stated that finding and inviting participants was perhaps the most important aspect of

the project (and especially for the ideation session, of course), I do not want to underestimate

other aspects of preparation. An important preparatory task was organizing the logistics of the

workshop, i.e. the location, lunch and workshop aids. For these aspects, I worked closely together

with Mrs. Gregoire, Communications responsible of Bayer Antwerp (Bayer MaterialScience),

since it was decided that the workshop would take place in a conference room at Bayer Antwerp. I

did however, as requested by Mrs.Gregoire, investigate the possibility of an external location, but

this proved to be suboptimal. Therefore, I contacted Mrs.Gregoire to reserve the conference room

(which I had visited on a first exploratory visit to Bayer Antwerp, where I sat down to discuss the

general aspects of the workshop with Mrs.Gregoire) and to order the lunch for the participants

(since it was an all-day seminar). Mrs.Gregoire thus took care of the reservation of the conference

room and lunch. In addition to location and lunch, the workshop aids had to be arranged. I needed

two flipcharts, a whiteboard, a beamer and sound installation and a specific table arrangement. All

of these aspects were taken care of in coordination with and by Mrs.Gregoire, because these

aspects were present in Antwerp.

A third aspect of preparation were the immediate requirements for the workshop. These were

mostly small details and tools, such as sufficient idea collection forms (cf. infra), operator cards

(cf. infra), manipulated product cards (cf. infra), markers, a laptop, etc. These rather small

workshop aids were all taken care of by me, and did not really take up much time or work, but

were nonetheless important elements in the preparation. In addition to these tools, Mrs.Cazaerck

had already contacted the Triple-i headquarters, to acquire gadgets and gimmicks as an incentive

for the participants. I then got in touch with the headquarters once more, and they subsequently

sent notepads, pens, post-its, lanyards and a number of cuddly toys (in the form of dogs), which

could be given to the participants. As ideation theory has shown, such incentives do not

necessarily increase productivity, but on a psychological level, we felt that the participants would

appreciate the gesture.

These three elements were, according to me, the most important preparatory tasks for the

workshop. In these tasks, the practical and logistic aspect was obviously dominant, but they also

entailed a lot of specific communication with all types of people in the company (communication

managers, participants, Triple-i managers, ...), and therefore I needed to discuss them at length. It

is also on this level that I received most support from the Communications department of Bayer

BioScience, because of the sometimes delicate nature of the task (contacting other employees,...).

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3.2.2.4 Construction of the workshop agenda

The third and final part of the workshop preparation was the construction of the workshop agenda

and content. Obviously, this was a very important task, since a thorough preparation of the

workshop content would have a determining effect on the success of the workshop. Therefore, I

invested a lot of time and work into this task.

As I have already mentioned, a large part of the information I received came from a specific

external agency, viz. SIT. This Israelian company is specialised in organisational innovative

thinking, and was therefore consulted by Bayer to instruct, guide and support the different global

ideation workshops of Bayer. They organised, as I have already explained, the train the trainers

workshop, in which the concept of ideation workshops was explained and techniques were

illustrated. Additionally, the participants of this introductory workshop received a lot of

background information, which was handed to me. This information included a potential

workshop agenda (with several brainstorming exercises), supporting materials (idea collection

forms, operator cards,..), tips for facilitation, presentations, etc. The content of the workshop I

organised was based entirely on the proposed workshop agenda by SIT. They had worked out an

agenda for an entire day (from 8.30 am to 5.30 pm), with all of the necessary exercises and

facilitation instructions. I then adapted this agenda to fit within our time frame (from 8.30 am to

4.30 pm), and translated the entire agenda, since the workshop would be conducted in Dutch. This

resulted in the workshop agenda I was going to use in the ideation workshop (cf. Appendix 2).

Every single step of the workshop was registered in this agenda, with additional instructions on

how to explain an exercise and with supporting video material (to illustrate and offer a humorous

view). The information and tools provided by SIT did still have to be processed, since they were

not sufficient for my workshop. I had to analyse, evaluate and adapt the exercise of the agenda to

the specific context, and translate the agenda and all the supporting documents and tools, since the

workshop would be held in Dutch.

After the processing of the information, the workshop agenda was established, but not all

aspects of the workshop exercises, as proposed by SIT, were clear. Therefore, I got in touch with

the employees of SIT. For every workshop organiser Bayer had reserved four hours of additional

phone training by SIT. In this phone training with an Israelian employee of SIT, Mr. El Gad, I was

offered the opportunity to ask questions regarding every aspect of the workshop. I systematically

ran through the entire agenda with him, thus acquiring additional support and instructions for

every part that was not entirely clear. After these four hours of telephone training, the workshop

agenda was slightly altered and finished, and I felt confident enough that its content would be

sufficient for a successful ideation workshop.

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The final part of the entire preparation phase was studying and practising the workshop agenda

and content. This was of huge importance, since the workshop contained a presentation of several

hours (with the group exercises as breaks from presentation, of course). So I had to know exactly

what to say, how to say it and when to say it, because the timing of the workshop was important.

It was also important to master workshop confidence: I had to exhume confidence, in order to

translate this to the participants. So in the final few days before the workshop, I reserved a

conference room, and practised the entire workshop several times, so that I knew every detail and

exercise, and was aware of the proper time schedule. Of course, I knew it was possible that the

time schedule would not be followed rigidly at all times, but it was nonetheless important to be

able to control the time, because this was an important aspect of leading the workshop. After this

final phase, which was completed in the final days preceding the workshop, the actual workshop

could take place.

3.2.3 Ideation workshop at Bayer Antwerpen

3.2.3.1 Introductory remarks

As I have already mentioned, the workshop took place in a conference room at Bayer Antwerp, on

the 6th of June. We (Mrs. Cazaerck and me) arrived early to arrange the room configuration (I

opted for a number of chairs in a circle, with tables surrounding these chairs, to allow the

participants to move to a table during exercises), to set up the laptop and beamer and to take care

of other general preparations. When these preparations were finished and the participants had

arrived, the workshop could start.

In this section, I will succinctly discuss the different brainstorming exercises, how they were

conducted, and how they can be connected to the ideation and brainstorming theory.

3.2.3.2 Introduction and first acquaintance

The first part of the workshop was the introduction. In this introduction, I presented myself, the

goals and the agenda of the day. The connection with the ideation theory is very clear: setting

specific goals in advance, even though they are set externally, is considered to be very important.

Furthermore, in addition to the goal of generating ideas for new Animal Health products or

services (especially for pets: cats and dogs), these goals were also connected to the rules of

brainstorming: nothing is impossible, every idea is welcome, no idea should be criticised. This

introduction showed the participants what was intended, and how the goals should be reached (in

terms of the types of ideas they should produce).

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The second part of this first workshop stage was allowing the participants to get to know each

other. This approach can also be explained in function of the ideation theory, as group attitude and

atmosphere are very important. It made people look for things they had in common, thus creating

a link between them and possibly improving further ideation. Furthermore, the participants were

asked to do this. All other exercises for that matter were conducted in pairs, which has proved to

enhance ideation outcome: research has shown that the best results of group ideation are acquired

when working in dyads. I can conclude that this first stage was an important one in building the

foundation of an effective workshop.

3.2.3.3 Animal Health presentation

A second introductory step was the presentation of Animal Health, performed by an Animal

Health employee. This presentation expanded the participants‟ knowledge of Animal Health,

focused the participants‟ attention on the workshop subject, and might even have activated certain

knowledge in the participants‟ minds. Again, this aspect is reflected in the ideation theory, as

knowledge and knowledge processes are very important aspects of the idea generation process.

3.2.3.4 Top of mind exercise

The first actual ideation exercise of the day was a top of mind exercise. In this exercise, the

participants were offered the opportunity to divulge ideas they had already had for new products,

services or solutions for Animal Health. In this session, the idea collection form (cf. Appendix 3)

was introduced. On this form, which was developed by SIT and translated by me, the participants

could systematically write down their structured ideas, paying attention to certain categories

(name of idea, author of idea, idea‟s characteristics and benefits). This exercise allowed the

participants to think about the workshop subject for the first time, in a free and unstructured way,

in order to become familiar with the ideation principles.

3.2.3.5 I like/don’t like exercise

The second brainstorming exercise was the I like/I don‟t like exercise, in which a structured

approach with specific and challenging goals was taken. I invited the participants to form a circle

and throw a ball around. Every time someone got the ball, they had to say what they liked about

their pet, or what they did not like about it. I wrote these sentences down, and afterwards we

worked to find solutions or improvements for them. The participants first got the chance to think

freely, but in a second stage they were pushed into certain directions by specific goals, offered by

operator cards (cards with specific instructions, e.g. “Prevent it from happening”, “Enhance its

effect”).

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3.2.3.6 Accidental discovery exercise

The third exercise of the day was an exercise that drew on free associations of the mind, as

described extensively in ideation theory. I gave the participants an explanation on how ideas could

spring from unexpected or unwanted events. Subsequently, they were offered manipulated

product cards, in which an existing product was modified. The participants then had to find

entirely new products or services, starting associations from the specific card. This way,

challenging goals were presented to the participants, and they were encouraged to generate wild

and free ideas.

3.2.3.7 Well-being exercise

The final exercise was the well-being exercise. This exercise focused on another approach to

generating ideas. I started this brainstorming session by making the participants sum up parts of

the human body and subsequently think of existing products in different segments (health care,

personal care and well-being) for these human body parts. After forming these lists, the

participants were asked to think of ways to take the existing human products and translate them

into new ideas for products or services for humans.

All of the mentioned idea generation and brainstorming exercises clearly drew on the same

principles of idea generation theory: offering specific goals and instructions and trying to get to

new and untouched parts of knowledge, through stimulated associations. I therefore conclude that

the ideation workshop was effective, in that it used known and established techniques to provide

and improve participant productivity.

3.2.3.8 Ranking and evaluation of ideas

After the idea generation sessions and exercises, the ideas (in total, some 40 ideas were produced)

were collected and evaluated. Every participant was offered a number of stickers they could attach

to the ideas of their preference. This way, the participants had the chance to reflect on their

productivity, and look back on ideas they and other participants had produced. Even throughout

the workshop, sharing of and thinking about ideas was encouraged. At the end of every exercise, I

let (as SIT had advised) every dyad succinctly present their ideas to the group, thus creating the

illusion of group productivity and velocity. Even though this ranking had no significant relevance

for the idea follow-up, I felt that it was an important and satisfying aspect for the participants,

since they could reflect on their ideas and productivity. Additionally, this may even have offered a

subjective belief that their judgement would be taken into account and have an effect. I am

therefore convinced that including evaluation in the ideation process is a positive factor of the


64

After the evaluation of the ideas, the participants were rewarded with the toy animals that were

sent by the Triple-i headquarters and a final exercise was conducted to conclude the day. Every

participant had to express a wish for their pet. At the end of this final exercise, I thanked the

participants for their cooperation, ensured them that their ideas would be analysed and possibly

developed and ended the workshop.

3.2.4 Workshop roll-out

The final stage of my assignment, which took up the last week of my internship, was the roll-out

phase of the ideation workshop. This stage consisted of wrapping up the ideation workshop, by

collecting all the ideas, listing and elaborating them and finally submitting them to the Triple-i

headquarters, where they would be extensively analysed and evaluated. This resulted in an

elaborated ideas list, consisting of 30 original new ideas. The ideas were thus collected in a

document (cf. Appendix 4) and sent to Triple-i, which indicated the end of my assignment.

3.2.5 Assignment evaluation

Before I can commence with an evaluation of my assignment and my performance, I would first

like to emphasise the fact that I had no experience at all before starting the assignment, neither in

a professional environment, nor in the field of idea generation theory (or practice, for that matter).

It can therefore not be considered as a comparative evaluation, but rather as an experiential

evaluation, which focuses more on the challenges of the assignment and what I have learned from

it.

The first aspect of my assignment that I would like to include in my evaluation, is the versatile

nature of the task. As I have illustrated in the description of the assignment, there were three

phases of the assignment, each with their specific challenges and each requiring a different

approach and different skills. The preparatory stage included an analysis and study of a large body

of information, contacting and conferring with a number of employees and arranging all sorts of

practical details. The second stage, the actual guidance and lead of the workshop, addressed a

number of other skills and techniques, especially on the level of communication with the

participants. In the roll-out stage I had to summarise and structurally report the end product, i.e.

the resulting ideas, which required analytical skills. I can therefore conclude that my assignment,

and by extension my internship, showed me and involved a wide variety of different tasks and

communication strategies (especially in contacting and finding potential participants), which I

65

consider as a very important part of an internship, especially regarding the fact that this was my

first professional experience.

Secondly, I would like to highlight the support I received during the internship. In this respect,

I would first like to mention the extensive information that Bayer had gathered, to support the

facilitation and organisation task of the workshop. The background information on the subject of

ideation and workshops was very accurate and helpful, and included many of the aspects I have

discussed in the chapter on idea generation (cf. supra). But this was of course general support,

attributed to all organisers of ideation workshops at Bayer. I therefore want to stress separately the

individual support I received during the assignment.

In regular meetings I explained to my supervisor, Mrs. Cazaerck, what I was doing, what

progress I was making, what still had to be done, etc. She offered me advice where necessary and

provided me with support whenever I needed it (especially with regard to certain decisions (e.g.

which person to contact, what approach to use in an e-mail,...) in which I needed the help of

someone who knew the company background and corporate culture). Inversely, I specifically

want to mention instances where I was denied explicit support, because I consider these moments

as important and beneficial parts of the assignment. I naturally tend to lack some assertiveness,

and therefore sometimes experienced difficulties to take action in contacting people and urging

them to find participants. But because of the fact that Mrs. Cazaerck insisted that I should perform

these tasks myself and was thus forced to do so, I feel that I learned from this and maybe even

gained some assertiveness. The same goes for the actual lead of the workshop, which implied

natural inhibitions for me: to exert authority over people I did not know and who had worked at

Bayer for many years, did present some problems with regard to assertiveness. But I was forced to

overcome these inhibitions, since I had to take the lead of the workshop. The fact that I had the

responsibility to organise and lead this workshop, mostly through individual effort, did prove to

be an effective experience.

The flipside of the fact that this was my first experience with an ideation workshop, is that I

feel that I did not exploit the group‟s potential completely. It is my opinion that at certain points, I

should have motivated and stimulated the participants more to produce new ideas. I instead think

that I sometimes remained a little too passive during the brainstorming sessions and did not

sufficiently focus the group‟s attention on the ideation task at hand. It is therefore possible that the

group‟s productivity suffered slightly from my facilitation and could have generated more ideas

with a more experienced facilitator. But this is probably somewhat natural since it was the first

time I led a workshop of this kind.

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In general, I feel that the assignment, and my performance in it, were very instructive in getting

acquainted with many aspects of corporate life and culture in general, and, more specifically,

organisational creativity.

3.3 Secondary assignments


In addition to my primary assignment, the ideation workshop, I also was employed in several

other, smaller tasks. Between the different stages of the workshop, there were several periods in

which the workshop preparations did not consume all of my time, and I therefore received several

other tasks. I can roughly divide these tasks into two parts: translations and editorial contributions.

In the following paragraphs, I will discuss the results of these tasks.

3.3.2 Translations

The translations I made during my internship can be divided into two categories. First of all, I

translated some documents for the supporting services of Bayer BioScience NV, regarding

general aspects such as security, safety, risk, etc. These translations were minor tasks, but I

nevertheless mention them, and I have included an example in the appendix (cf. Appendix 5).

Secondly, I made translations of two scientific articles for the company magazine

(We@Bayer), a magazine for all Bayer offices in Belgium. In each of the monthly editions of this

magazine, a number of articles from Bayer‟s scientific magazines (Report and Research) are

translated and published. I translated two of these articles, one on LCD displays and one on

diabetes (cf. Appendix 6). I then sent the articles to Mrs.Gregoire, because the magazine is mainly

written and controlled by Bayer Antwerp.

3.3.3 Editorial contributions

In addition to the translations (some for Bayer BioScience internally, and some for

We@Bayer), I wrote some editorial contributions for We@Bayer from the perspective of Bayer

BioScience. Every subsidiary of Bayer in Belgium has its own section in the company magazine,

in which they get the chance to report about their own company. So my editorial contributions

were written for the Bayer BioScience pages of the company magazine We@Bayer. In this

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respect, I wrote two articles, one on the subject of Secretary‟s Day and one interview with the

company‟s CEO. The first article dealt with how secretaries experience their job and the gratitude

they receive, in combination with the concept of Secretary‟s Day. In the second article, the

interview with the company‟s CEO, the focus of the article was on the combination of the CEO‟s

double job: as head of the legal department and as head of the entity Bayer BioScience NV. Both

articles are included in the appendix (cf. Appendix 7 and 8). I also wrote a report of the workshop

I conducted, which appeared in the company magazine as well, but in the general pages. This

article was a short summary of the workshop and is also included in the appendix (cf. Appendix

9). All of these articles were written in Dutch, and were edited and controlled by Mrs.Cazaerck

and Mrs.Gregoire. The subsequent result was then published in We@Bayer.

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Conclusion

In this dissertation, I have described the content and results of my internship, starting from an

elaborate description of the company where I was employed (Bayer BioScience NV) and a

thorough analysis of the idea generation theory. These first two chapters shed a different light on

my internship, offering a broader background to the ideation workshop I conducted during my

internship. The insights into the corporate structure and culture allowed for a more thorough

understanding of the corporate atmosphere in which I was immersed for eight weeks, and the

theoretical analysis on idea generation supported and elucidated the content of and strategies used

during the ideation workshop.

As I have already mentioned, the importance of my internship as a first professional experience

cannot be underestimated. To function in a company is entirely and radically different from the

theoretical and academic environment of a university education. Consequently, the impact of my

internship has been very considerable and far-reaching on a professional level. I have acquired

and developed several skills that can only be learned from actual professional experience. The

tasks I performed during the internship also exposed my strengths and opportunities, aspects I can

build on, and I have also learned more about the direction I would like to go into in my further

professional career. In that respect, the internship has, through its versatile and multi-faceted

character, initiated me in many aspects of professional life and atmosphere, which is a

considerable advantage with regard to the future.

Furthermore, I have been faced with certain aspects of my professional character that require

improvement. My internship has indicated that I still have work to do in the area of assertiveness,

as I experience natural inhibitions to be completely self-assured and confident in the contact with

other people. This relative lack of assertiveness was in part due to my status as a (mere) intern,

who had to contact a number of employees who had been working at the company for many years,

which, in my perception, immediately created a type of distance I did not completely succeed in

overcoming. It has become clear that this is an aspect I will have to work on to improve in the

future, both on professional and personal level (since these are, in the context of assertiveness,

inextricably intertwined).

It is difficult to directly connect the program of the Master in Multilingual Business

Communication to my internship, since the task of my internship differed from any course I have

received this year. Idea generation and its related techniques, implications and results were not

explicitly treated, which makes a direct comparison difficult. However, the concept of ideation

69

workshops can be compared to the theory and practice we received in business communication in

the course of the year. Communication is a key component of any corporate process and an

innovation and ideation process is no exception to this rule. I definitely benefited from the

extensive practical and theoretical courses on business communication to bring my internship

assignment to a satisfactory end.

Additionally, the year of Multilingual Business Communication has functioned as a bridge

between the very theoretical, academic education of my initial study of Germanic Languages and

the practical, hands-on assignment of the internship. The first acquaintance with a business

environment and communication projects was made during this year, which decreased the gap

between education and employment, in casu an actual internship in a company. In this respect, the

year of Multilingual Business Communication was a good preparation for the internship and, by

extension, for an eventual professional career.

Nevertheless, there are certain aspects of the internship and of professional communication that

are not present in the program. Of course, it is impossible to include all aspects of business

communication in the program, but I feel to an extent that certain aspects are overrepresented in

the program (several guest lecturers talked about very similar things), and perhaps some are

underrepresented. In the concrete context of my internship, I specifically think of internal

communication on a very personal, almost intimate level. Communication with employees on a

daily basis, either by telephone, e-mail or conversation, is a very important aspect in every

company‟s internal communication. It is of course a very difficult and subjective subject, and due

to its specific and interpersonal nature very complex to give courses or theory on, but it is an

important topic nonetheless. I therefore think that this could be added to the program (though I

cannot propose a way to introduce it), because it would benefit the students, especially in the

context of their internship. But the elements of criticism and suggestions to improve the course as

mentioned above do not throw even a light shadow on the altogether very positive experience of

my internship and the study preceding it.

70

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73

Bayer AG: Profile and Organization. <http://www.bayer.com/en/Profile-and-Organization.aspx>,

01/07/2008

Bayer CropScience: BioScience Agricultural Seed: Canola.

<http://www.bayercropscience.com/BCSWeb/CropProtection.nsf/id/EN_Canola>, 09/07/2008

Bayer CropScience: BioScience Agricultural Seed: Cotton.

<http://www.bayercropscience.com/BCSWeb/CropProtection.nsf/id/EN_Cotton>, 09/07/2008


<http://www.bayercropscience.com/BCSWeb/CropProtection.nsf/id/EN_Rice>, 09/07/2008

Bayer CropScience: BioScience. Integrated solutions for the farm and beyond.

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Bayer CropScience: Crop Protection. Leadership through balance and innovation.

<http://www.bayercropscience.com/BCSWeb/CropProtection.nsf/id/Crop-Protection>,

04/07/2008

Bayer CropScience: Environmental Science. Offering solutions to control pests and weeds

efficiently and to improve the quality of life of professional users and consumers.

<http://www.bayercropscience.com/BCSWeb/CropProtection.nsf/id/Environmental-Science>,

04/07/2008

Bayer CropScience: Facts and Figures.

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Bayer CropScience: Our Company.

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04/07/2008

Bayer CropScience: Strategic Objectives.

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07/07/2008

Bayer CropScience: Sustainability and Commitment. Our commitment to product stewardship.

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Bayer CropScience: Vision and Values.

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>, 04/07/2008

Bayer HealthCare: Facts and Figures.

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>, 04/07/2008

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cument>, 04/07/2008

Dow AgroSciences: Dow AgroSciences. <http://www.dowagro.com/homepage/>, 11/07/2008

DuPont: DuPont Agriculture. <http://www2.dupont.com/Agriculture/en_US/>, 11/07/2008

FlandersBio: Bayer BioScience.

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30/06/2008

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30/06/2008

75

Appendix

Appendix 1: Initial summary of project concept p.76

Appendix 2: Workshop agenda p.86

Appendix 3: Idea collection form p.96

Appendix 4: Excerpt of collected and elaborated ideas p.97

Appendix 5: Examples of translations of documents of Bayer BioScience NV p.100

Appendix 6: Translations of articles p.101

Appendix 7: Article on Secretary‟s Day for We@Bayer p.105

Appendix 8: Interview with CEO Bayer BioScience for We@Bayer p.106

Appendix 9: Report of AH workshop for We@Bayer p.108

76

Appendix 1

Workshop Animal Health

Triple-i Animal Health:

Het concept

- Proces rond innovatie: iedereen (dus internationaal) kan ideeën formuleren rond de meest

uiteenlopende onderwerpen. Reeds meer dan 3.000 ideeën zijn op deze manier en in de

eerste fase van het project aan de breinen van de Bayer-medewerkers ontsproten.

- De tweede fase van het project is specifieker en gestuurder georiënteerd. Hier wordt in een

eerste luik de afdeling Animal Health onder de loep genomen, waarbij een selectie van

enkele werknemers middels een workshop ideeën rond nieuwe producten of applicaties in

het veld van (huis)dierengezondheid genereert. Er wordt in detail stilgestaan bij

verschillende afdelingen (in casu AH) om zo de ideeën van de werknemers, die zich nu al

hoofdzakelijk rond de uitbreiding en afleiding van bestaande producten centreert, nog

meer in de richting van concrete realisaties in specifieke deelgebieden te sturen.

Animal Health

- De basisgedachte is “ideeën ontwikkelen ter verbetering van de gezondheid van

gezelschapsdieren, van huisdieren dus. Het Triple-i project richt zich eerst op deze

afdeling, omdat men zich wil concentreren op klantgerichte sectoren, eerder dan B2B

sectoren.

- Goede ideeën worden beloond (deelname in het succes van een product als dat uiteindelijk

de markt bereikt). Vooral creativiteit en haalbaarheid van een voorstel worden in

overweging genomen.

- Twee grote marktsegmenten binnen de “huisdierensector”:

o Companion Animal Products (CAP)

Emotionele en menselijke relaties

Welzijn van het gezelschapsdier

Levenskwaliteit voor eigenaar en huisdier

Overdracht van ziektes

Bescherming en veiligheid van en voor de eigenaar

o Food Animal Products (FAP)

77

Industrie en handel

Welzijn van dieren

Kosten-baten, winstgevendheid

Veilig en betaalbaar voedsel

Klantenzorg

Milieubewustzijn

Bescherming en veiligheid

Publieke zorgen

- De CAP farmaceutische markt kan onderverdeeld worden in twee segmenten: bestaande

en onontwikkelde:

o Bestaande segmenten:

Anti-inflammatoire middelen (NSAID‟s: Non-Steroidal Anti-

Inflammatory Drugs) en Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) worden een

steeds matuurder segment, waar innovatie nog vooral bereikt kan worden

enerzijds door intense Direct-To-Consumer advertering die de kwantiteit

verhoogt of anderzijds door nieuwe productklassen

o Onontwikkelde segmenten:

Indicaties (~ gebruiksvoorwaarden) met weinig tot geen alternatieven tot

behandeling

Gekarakteriseerd door significante onvervulde noden en gebruik van off

label menselijke producten (medicijnen)

Voornamelijk geriatrische aandoeningen zoals kanker, chronisch nierfalen

(CRF), artritis en atopische dermatitis.

Sterke groei wordt verwacht wanneer innovatieve, specifiek voor AH

ontworpen behandelingsopties beschikbaar worden

- Bestaande Bayer AH productgamma:

o Parasiticides:

Advantage: griep-, hartworm- en lintwormbestrijding (spot-on)

Advantix: vlooien-, teek- en muggenpreventie (spot-on)

Advocate: griep-, hartworm- en lintwormbestrijding

Droncit

Drontal

Drontal flavour plus

Kiltix

Profender: ontworming voor katten (spot-on)

78

Bolfo: flea collars, spray, powder,…

o Anti-infectiemiddelen:

Baytril: bestrijding van bacteriële pathogenen

o Farmacologische middelen:

Hyonate/Legend: therapie voor gewrichtsziekten bij paarden

o Zorg/Supplementen:

Bay-O-Pet: tandhygiëne, oorspoeler, bevochtigende spray

- Waarom Animal Health:

o De markt voor huisdierenparafernalia is momenteel zeer sterk groeiend, huisdieren

worden meer en meer beschouwd als volwaardige familieleden. De markt

gezondheid van en de zorg voor huisdieren haalde in 2006 een wereldwijde omzet

van 4,3 miljard euro, met een voorspelde jaarlijkse groei van 4,6% tot 2018. Bayer

AH haalde in 2006 55% van zijn totale omzet uit dit groeiende segment. De

intense groei van deze markt valt te verklaren door de veranderende relatie tussen

huisdier en baas(je); we zien een evolutie naar een meer emotionele, sentimentele

en zelfs fanatieke relatie, waar veel aandacht wordt besteed aan de noden van het

dier.

o Binnen Animal Health zijn er verschillende productsegmenten, waarvan de

voornaamste parasietdodende-, anti-infectie-, farmacologische- en OTC-producten

zijn.

Parasietdodende producten vormen de grootste groep; parasieten vallen het

huisdier extern (bijvoorbeeld vlooien, muggen,…) of intern (vb. hartworm,

lintworm,…) aan.

De tweede groep zijn de anti-infectieproducten. Deze producten bestrijden

bacteriële ziektes zoals oorinfecties of rabies.

Farmacologische geneesmiddelen zijn werkzaam tegen andere belangrijke

ziektes (bijvoorbeeld Hyonate voor artritis bij paarden). Het merendeel

van de vorige drie categorieën zijn enkel verkrijgbaar op voorschrift, en

komen dus via de dierenarts bij de eigenaar van het huisdier.

Daarnaast is er eveneens een segment dat producten bevat die in

huisdierenwinkels of supermarkten zonder voorschrift verkregen kan

worden (over-the-counter). Deze producten worden door Bayer op de

markt gebracht onder de paraplunamen Bolfo en BayoPet. Deze producten

kunnen door de gebruiker aangewend worden in het bereik der

79

parasietenbestrijding of der zorgproducten (zoals shampoos of

voedingssupplementen).

o Ook binnen de huisdierensector spelen zich de laatste jaren enkele bepalende

trends voor de ontwikkeling van deze markt af. De verhoogde levensstandaard en

daarmee gepaard gaande maatschappelijke fenomenen zoals vergrijzing,

zwaarlijvigheid, urbanisatie, milieubewustzijn, milieuveranderingen,

biotechnologie, enz… heeft ook zijn gevolgen voor huisdieren. Deze veranderende

leefgewoonten zullen namelijk ook ruimte scheppen voor nieuwe producten,

diensten en oplossingen binnen de huisdierenmarkt.

Verbeterde medische zorg en verzorging door de eigenaar zorgen ervoor

dat honden en katten langer leven. Dit resulteert uiteraard ook in

leeftijdsgebonden ziektes (bijvoorbeeld gewrichts-, hart- of leverziekten,

of zelfs kanker).

Meer en meer honden en katten lijden aan overgewicht (een dier heeft

overgewicht wanneer het gewicht van het dier 20% boven de normale

toestand ligt). Deze zwaarlijvigheid gaat meestal gepaard met excessieve

slijtage van de gewrichten, cardiovasculaire problemen, degeneratie van de

lever of diabetes.

Ook allergiegerelateerde huidaandoeningen behoren tot het alledaagse

leven van honden en katten. Deze gaan meestal samen met ernstige jeuk

en kunnen leiden tot een rode huid en zelfs infecties.

Diabetes is eveneens een veel voorkomende ziekte bij huisdieren en kan

het dier, wanneer het niet behandeld wordt, fataal worden. Vooral oudere

en zwaarlijvige honden worden door deze aandoening getroffen.

Ten slotte hebben huisdieren een proper en gezond gebit nodig. Wanneer

voedselresten op de tanden achterblijven, kan dit leiden tot onwelriekende

gassen die tandvlees en tanden beschadigen.

o De hierboven omschreven problemen vormen zeker uitdagingen die tot mogelijke

oplossingen, suggesties, of ideeën kunnen leiden Ze zijn echter voorlopig enkel

dat: suggesties. Het ideeënproces wordt dus met andere woorden de vrije loop

gelaten, er wordt enkel gesuggereerd dat dit mogelijke denksporen zijn.

o Vanuit Bayer worden wel enkele potentiële vragen gelanceerd, die als vertrekpunt

of platform kunnen dienen om tot het genereren van ideeën te komen:

Ken je enkele Animal Health producten en heb je ideeën over wat

verbeterd of compleet anders gedaan zou kunnen worden?

80

Zou je andere (verschijnings)vormen van reeds bestaande geneesmiddelen

of geneeskundige toepassingen verkiezen?

Wat voor producten zijn er momenteel niet waarvan je vindt dat ze wel in

het productgamma zouden moeten worden opgenomen,

Van welke producten denk je dat ze in de toekomst belangrijk(er) zullen

worden?

Welke producten die ook al bestaan in de sector van de menselijke

geneeskunde zou je ook voor je huisdieren willen zien?

Welke soort producten van Bayer Animal Health zou je willen kopen?

Welke producten zouden goed passen bij Bayer Animal Health?

De workshop: Inhoud en begeleiding

Inhoud

Voor aanvang van de workshop

- Eventueel: bundeltje met “huiswerk”:

o Met een eigenaar van een huisdier praten en enige vragen stellen (routine van hun

huisdier, wat hen het meest bevalt aan hun huisdier, wat moeilijk is aan het

bezitten van een huisdier,…)

o Met een medewerker van AH praten en naar zijn mening over noden binnen de

markt vragen; eveneens vragen of hij wil deelnemen aan de toekomstige workshop

als een expert op het gebied van de inhoud en om de resultaten samen te vatten

o Zichzelf situeren binnen de verschillende groepen eigenaars van huisdieren

o De bundel aandachtig doornemen en eventuele ideeën die spontaan opborrelen al

neerschrijven

- Achtergrondinfo rond workshops (cd-rom sit)

- Plannen van de workshop: 7 stappen

o Onderzoek naar het onderwerp van de workshop: wat zijn de key elementen

waarvoor en waarrond de ideeën zullen (moeten) gegenereerd worden? Eventueel

een overzicht van belangrijke (voorgaande) inzichten

o (Selecteer een gekwalificeerde facilitator) en bepaal de benadering van de

workshop. Zorg voor een uitgebalanceerde mix tussen het ontwikkelen en

formuleren van ideeën en de evaluatie ervan. Identificeer duidelijk hoe het

resultaat van de workshop er uit zou moeten zien en hoe je te werk zal gaan na

diens afloop.

81

o Deelnemers vinden en briefen. De deelnemers zouden bij voorkeur open,

communicatief en gemotiveerd om deel te nemen moeten zijn. Ervoor zorgen dat

de deelnemers weten waarover de workshop gaat en wat van hen verwacht wordt:

“the workshop will be exciting but also hard-work with some follow-up to do”.

o Datum en locatie vastleggen.

o Structureer de workshop en stel reeds een rudimentaire versie van een tijdsschema

op. Volgende elementen komen normaliter voor in de workshop (de tijd die ervoor

wordt uitgetrokken kan variëren):

Korte inleiding tot Triple-I, overlopen agenda en onderwerp

Uiteenlopende en diverse fases van het ontwikkelen van ideeën

Fases ter verduidelijking, visualisering en samenbundeling van ideeën

Fases ter evaluatie en rangschikking van ideeën

Opstellen van een lijst met een aantal “top”-ideeën; overleggen over

mogelijke follow-up acties

o Inhoud van de workshop voorbereiden, zoals bijvoorbeeld:

Gedetailleerder onderzoek naar bepaalde aspecten van het onderwerp.

layout and axes of maps you will be using

Lijst met enkele trigger questions om de “vloed” aan ideeën te

bestendigen

Eventueel een soort van voorbereiding vragen (cf.supra)(eigen observaties

of onderzoek in verband met het onderwerp, al eigen ideeën)

Logistieke zaken met betrekking tot de eigenlijke workshop regelen en

klaarzetten (vb. beamer, illustratiemateriaal,…)

Workshop zelf

- Idealiter: een aantal experts van Animal Health zijn aanwezig (is het de bedoeling dat ze

actief participeren of eerder observeren?)

- Eventueel: “Crazy pet ideas” als zachte opener… (zie cd-rom sit)

- Drie fases in de workshop:

o Formuleren en ontwikkelen van ruwe, onbewerkte ideeën

Gebruiken van bepaalde instrumenten, technieken (tools) om zoveel

mogelijk ideeën te verkrijgen.

Individuele initiële ideeën verzamelen op ideeformulieren of –kaarten.

Ideeënproces kan individueel of in kleinere subgroepen plaatsvinden.

o Samenbrengen en groeperen van deze ideeën

82

Identieke of zeer gelijkaardige ideeën verwijderen

Ideeën die buiten het bereik der redelijkheid (out-of-scope) liggen of

andere ideeën niet kunnen verrijken verwijderen

Ideegroepen vormen door gelijkgestemde ideeën en ideeën die gezien

kunnen worden als deel van een grotere oplossing bijeen te brengen en te

bevatten; hiervoor betekenisvolle groepsnamen formuleren.

Ideeën verrijken en verfijnen door additionele informatie te verzamelen

die door de deelnemers ten berde gebracht wordt

Het groeperen van ideeën kan individueel of in kleinere subgroepen

plaatsvinden.

o Rangschikking en selectie

Beslissen welke ideegroepen beter lokaal dan via Triple-i opgevolgd

worden

Selecteer de beste Triple-i ideeën, normaliter tussen de 5 en de 10:

wanneer met kleine subgroepen gewerkt wordt, kan dit aanleiding geven

tot een gradueel proces waarin de groepjes hun ideeën aan elkaar

voorstellen alvorens overgegaan wordt tot de selectie van het kruim der

ideeën.

Voor het rangschikken en selecteren van ideeën kunnen een aantal

technieken gehanteerd worden.

- Leiden van de workshop:

o De rol van facilitator: Begeleidt de deelnemers doorheen het gehele evenement.

Zorgt ervoor dat mensen de tijdsgrenzen respecteren en dat de resultaten

geregistreerd worden.

o Kennismaken en eerste creatieve ideeënronde: laat iedereen zich voorstellen,

eventueel gecombineerd met een “opwarmingsspel”. Eerste creatieve ronde:

deelnemers kunnen hun initiële ideeën, die ze mogelijks al eventjes met zich

meedragen, uiten en laten registreren. Deze eerste sessie brainstormen is van

belang omdat ze de deelnemers zo voorbereidt op het ontwikkelen van ideeën.

o Bepalen en (laten) eerbiedigen van enkele grondregel, zoals bijvoorbeeld afzetten

van gsm‟s, terugkomen na pauzes op de afgesproken uren, alle ideeën duidelijk

neerschrijven, meer voortbouwen op ideeën dan louter bekritiseren (wat kan beter,

hoe zou het wel werken,…?), … De regels en het tijdsschema van de workshop

zouden ten allen tijde voor de deelnemers zichtbaar moeten zijn, bijvoorbeeld op

hun flip chart.

83

o Gebruiken van gepaste instrumenten en technieken ter bevordering van het

ideeënproces

o Workshop documenteren: Alle ideeën die tijdens de workshop naar voren komen

zouden op specifiek daarvoor ontworpen ideedocumenten neergeschreven moeten

worden, om zo het samenbundelen van ideeën te vergemakkelijken. Dit wordt

normaalgezien gedaan door de deelnemers zelf. De facilitator zou er wel voor

moeten zorgen dat de individuele ideeën en hun relatie tot een bepaalde groep

ideeën geregistreerd wordt. De ideeën worden ook, na de workshop, in een

elektronisch jasje gestoken (Excel-file). Daarnaast moeten belangrijke punten van

discussie tijdens de workshop en de opvolging erna op de flip chart van de

facilitator weergegeven worden.

o Samenvatting van de resultaten. Elk idee moet een duidelijk gedefinieerde “Idea

Champion” hebben.

- To run a succesful workshop:

o Voorbereiding:

Onderwerp

Objectieven

Verwachtingen afstellen

Achtergrondinformatie verwerven (criteria)

De sessie plannen (script)

Logistieke elementen

Tijdsschema

Locatie

Ondersteunend materiaal

Uitnodiging

Deelnemerslijst (richtlijnen voor selectie)

Succes beoordelen

Instrumenten en technieken voor de workshop

- Brainstorming:

o Er gelden enkele basisregels voor deze techniek:

Één idee per ideeblad. Korte en duidelijke beschrijving (± een halve zin).

Er kan ter verduidelijking een eenvoudige schets bijzitten;

Laat de vrije stroom van ideeën toe. Gelijk welk oordeel wordt verplaatst

naar een latere fase. Enkel vragen ter verduidelijking van de werking van

het idee worden toegelaten;

84

Kwantiteit brengt kwaliteit voort: alle ideeën zijn welkom op dit moment,

want wilde ideeën leiden regelmatig tot bruikbare. Vooral kwantiteit is

hier van tel, aangezien dit tot een hogere waarschijnlijkheid van het

ontdekken van kwaliteit leidt.

Ideeën kunnen gecombineerd, verfijnd of met elkaar meegedreven worden.

Belangrijk is de synergie verkregen door de kruisbestuiving van ideeën.

o Als het idee aan het uitdoven is of de groep meer en meer in de richting van

evaluatie opschuift, kunnen bepaalde stimuli gebruikt worden (vb. trigger

questions, beelden,…). Je kan ook een serie korte brainstormsessies rond een

gekozen onderwerp organiseren vanaf het begin.

o Na de brainstorming fase worden de ideeën samengebundeld. Gelijkaardige en

buitensporige ideeën worden terzijde geschoven.

o Clusters van ideeën worden geëvalueerd. Dit wordt gevolgd, indien nodig, door

specifieke brainstorming fases over bepaalde interessevelden.

o Op het einde worden de ideeclusters gerangschikt en wordt een besluit gevormd

over de te volgen follow-up acties.

- Day-in-the-life: de deelnemers verkennen de activiteiten van een klant om opportuniteiten

voor nieuwe producten en diensten te identificeren.

- MECE mapping:

- Semantische intuïtie

- Osborne checklist:

- “Zes denkende hoeden”:

- Selectie en rangschikking van ideeën:

Na de workshop

- Idea Champions

- Een gedetailleerd verslag van de workshop een week na afloop ervan communiceren

- Follow-up-meeting

Essentie van Triple-i ideeën: vijf categorieën op het ideeënblad

- Voor welk product of welke dienst zie je een noodzaak binnen de markt? Een korte maar

duidelijke beschrijving van wat Bayer aan toekomstige klanten kan aanbieden, eventueel

al gecombineerd met de opsomming van enkele voordelen.

- Wie zou dit product of deze dienst kunnen gebruiken? Een innovatie is steeds gericht op

klanten die er waarde aan hechten. Vandaar is het nuttig om reeds vroeg te beseffen wie

85

de potentiële klanten zijn, om zo een beeld te krijgen van de potentiële grootte van de

markt en de voordelen voor de klant te identificeren.

- Welk voordeel biedt dit product of deze dienst aan de klant? Beantwoordt het product aan

de noden van de klanten, en betreft het een nood die tot op heden niet vervuld wordt…

- Hoe valt jouw business-idee te rijmen met Bayers expertise?

- Heb je al een technische oplossing voor het probleem bedacht? Dit kan helpen bij de

(technische) verfijning van een potentieel nieuw product.

86

Appendix 2

Tijdstip Onderwerp "Anker" Opmerkingen Media Min

8:30 Introductie Introduceer jezelf, de doelen en de agenda van de dag. Bereid een

flipchart voor met

alle informatie

5

8:35 Kennismaking Toon videoclip (1 min) Wij zijn ervan overtuigd dat

het belangrijk is bij innovatie om mekaar eerst te

leren kennen. Het zou dus leuk zijn mochten jullie

rechtstaan en een partner in deze kamer vinden die

je niet of het minst van allemaal kent en die niet

naast jou zit. 1. Maak (kort) kennis met elkaar. Vind

drie zaken die je gemeen hebt met elkaar en die

waarschijnlijk niemand anders in deze ruimte met

jullie deelt (geef hen ca.2 minuten). 2. Laat ons er

enkele van verzamelen (dit zou ongeveer 20 minuten in

beslag moeten nemen). Vraag: Wat is er verschillend

aan de manier waarop jullie kennisgemaakt hebben?

Verklaar de logica achter de oefening: Zoeken op

verschillende manieren laat ons "nieuwe informatie"

vinden, die we voorheen nog niet beseft hadden.

Zoals een nieuwe zoekmachine, een nieuwe google.

*** Optie: vind zaken die je gemeen hebt met je

huisdieren, of karaktereigenschappen van een huisdier die

jullie allebei appreciëren.

Videoclip: Do you

know who I am

20

87

8:55 Introductie AH Achtergrond informatie die je wil delen in verband met

Triple-i en Animal Health.

Presentatie 20

9:15 Naar wat voor

soort ideeën

zijn we op

zoek.

In deze ideeënvormende, -creërende workshop

zullen we proberen zoveel mogelijk ideeën te

verzamelen. Om dit verder te verklaren zou ik twee

filmpjes willen tonen. Toon "Don't judge too quickly".

Laat mensen dus hun ideeën en gedachten uitdrukken,

zonder te vlug te oordelen. Anderzijds: Toon "Heineken

blind dog". We willen ideeën verwelkomen die, voor

zover je kan bedenken, haalbaar zijn en een

doelpubliek hebben.

Filmpjes: "Don't

judge too

quickly"

"Heineken blind

dog"

5

9:20 Logica achter

"Top-of-mind"

ideeënsessie

De logica achter de volgende sessie is om zoveel mogelijk

te halen uit bestaande ideeën die deelnemers reeds gehad

hebben, en om mensen de kans te geven hun geest vrij te

maken en plaats te maken voor nieuwe gedachten/ideeën.

Het laat de facilitator ook toe uit te leggen wat de beste

manier is om een idee naar voren te brengen.

0

9:20 "Top-of-mind"

ideeën

We zouden willen beginnen met het verzamelen van

ideeën die jullie reeds bedacht hebben voor zaken

waar Bayer voor zou moeten gaan.

0

9:20 Neem een kleine 5 minuten om je ideeën op te

schrijven. Zoek nu iemand op met wie je vandaag

nog niet gesproken hebt en ga samen zitten. Deel en

bespreek je ideeën.

15

88

9:35 Kies binnen je "koppel" de 2 à 4 beste ideeën,

waarvan je denkt dat ze echt heel goed zijn. Schrijf

ze neer op het volgende document. Introduceer

ideeformulier. Benadruk dat ze de naam van het idee in

blokletters zouden moeten schrijven. De vuistregel om

te besluiten of een idee goed is, is wanneer je de

volgende vragen kan beantwoorden: kan je het idee

visualiseren? Is er een goede reden om dit idee in de

praktijk om te zetten?

Deel de

ideeformulieren

uit

15

9:50 Verzamelen van

ideeën

Verzamel de namen van de ideeën en leg het

"ideeformulier" ernaast. Geef het idee een nummer.

***Je kan ook de

ideeën onmiddellijk

verzamelen op de

flipchart

10

10:00 Koffiepauze Rond 10:00 15

10:15 Logica achter

"Ik vind leuk/ik

vind niet leuk

dat"-sessie

Het doel van de volgende sessie is met ideeën op de

proppen komen die verband hebben met zaken die een

"top of mind" positie innemen bij eigenaars van

huisdieren. Het gaat om dingen die ze belangrijk vinden.

Als het dingen zijn die ze niet graag hebben, zouden ze

een manier kunnen vinden om ze te verbeteren. Als ze ze

daarentegen wel graag hebben, zouden ze een manier

kunnen zoeken om deze dingen langer te laten duren of

om de ervaring zelfs te versterken.

Je kan dit ook

meer gedetailleerd

doen, "Ik heb

graag/ik heb niet

graag" in een

specifiek veld van

onderzoek

0

10:15 Begin van de

sessie

Alle eigenaars van huisdieren hebben dingen die ze

appreciëren en dingen die ze minder appreciëren aan het

"baasje-zijn". Laat ons even kijken naar twee videoclips

die net dit illustreren en ons mogelijks zullen inspireren.

"Don't like"-

Hovinko; "What

I like" - Bud

light.

5

10:20 "Ik vind leuk/Ik

vind niet leuk-

kring

Laat ons rechtstaan en een kring vormen. Vorm de

kring (logischerwijs).

1

89

10:21 "Ik vind leuk/Ik

vind niet leuk

dat"-kring

We gaan nu een bal naar elkaar gooien. Degene die

de bal vangt moet iets zeggen voor hij de bal naar

iemand anders gooit. De dingen die we gaan zeggen

na het vangen van de bal vullen twee zinnen aan: 1.

Positief: Wat ik leuk vind aan een huisdier hebben

is... en vul aan. 2. Negatief: Wat ik niet leuk vind aan

een huisdier hebben is... en vul aan. Als je geen

huisdier hebt kan je deze zinnen in verband brengen

met dingen die je leuk of niet leuk vindt aan een

vriend of een buur zijn van iemand met een huisdier.

Voor we beginnen zou ik graag twee vrijwilligers die

geen huisdier en een mooi handschrift hebben willen

vragen mij te assisteren. We gaan het volgende

doen: we gaan de bal gooien, de eerste persoon die

deze bal vangt vervolledigt de zin "Wat ik leuk

vind...", en de volgende die de bal vangt vervolledigt

de zin "Wat ik niet leuk vind..." We blijven de bal

heen en weer gooien en wisselen tussen positieve

en negatieve zaken bij elke worp.Terwijl je nadenkt

over wat te zeggen, schrijf ik op de flipchart wat de

vorige persoon net gezegd heeft.

Begeleid het gooien

van de bal zodanig

dat de deelnemers

effectief switchen

tussen "Ik vind

leuk/ik vind niet

leuk". Als je

iemand hebt die je

assisteert, kan die

persoon

opschrijven wat

gezegd wordt,

anders kan je twee

vrijwilligers vragen

dit te doen

14

10:35 Werken aan de

"Ik vind niet

leuk dat"-items

We gaan beginnen met de negatieve zaken die jullie

gezegd hebben en we gaan nadenken over een

manier om ze op te lossen of toch tenminste minder

onaangenaam te maken. Om dit te doen gaan we

jullie in "koppels" verdelen. Verdeel de groep in

koppels. Nummer de zinnen op de lijst. Nummer de

koppels en verdeel de zinnen over de koppels. Denk na

over ideeën die de situatie kunnen verbeteren, en die

Bayer dan kan implementeren.

15

90

10:50 Tweede ronde:

gebruik

operator cards

Geef elk koppel een operator card. Elk van deze kaarten

levert algemene richtlijnen in verband met wat je moet

doen met en in een ongewenste situatie. Deel de operator

cards uit. Gebruik de kaart om in je koppel na te denken

over ideeën om met het onderwerp om te gaan. Na 5

minuten:Stoppen. De kaarten in wijzerzin

opschuiven. Meer ideeën genereren. De kaarten

opnieuw opschuiven. Nog meer ideeën genereren.

Schrijf je beste ideeën neer op een ideeformulier.

Verdeel operator

cards

15

11:05 Verzamel de

ideeën

Neem even de tijd om binnen je koppel één idee te

kiezen dat je zou willen presenteren. Afhankelijk van

de tijd, kan je vragen meer of minder ideeën te

presenteren. We gaan hier uit van elke persoon die één

idee presenteert tot, als de tijd het toestaat, drie ideeën

per persoon. Optie: verzamel de ideeën op de flipchart.

25

11:30 Werken aan de

"Ik vind leuk

dat" items

Nu gaan we werken aan de positieve zaken die jullie

vermeld hebben, en dit door te zoeken naar

manieren om ze nog beter te maken. We zouden de

tevredenheid die je eruit haalt willen vergroten, of

toch zeker langer laten duren. We gaan dit doen aan

de hand van nieuwe operator cards die jullie zullen

krijgen. Laat elk paar een onderwerp kiezen uit de

"Ik vind leuk dat"-lijst die op het bord staat. Laat de

deelnemers een kiezen. Tracht te vermijden dat twee

mensen hetzelfde onderwerp kiezen, of wijs gewoon een

onderwerp toe aan elke groep.

10

91

11:40 Herhaal

dezelfde fases

als bij de "Ik

vind niet leuk

dat"-lijst

1 ronde: onmidddellijke ideeën. 3 volgende rondes:

gebruik de operator cards. Werk aan een ander

onderwerp, schrijf de ideeën op een idea collection form.

Verzamel de ideeën. Dit zou ongeveer een uur moeten

duren.

65

12:45 Lunchpauze 30

13:15 Op naar de

Triple-i

kampioen

Het doel van deze sessie is nieuwe ideeën uitlokken,

ideeën die enkele van de vooronderstellingen die mensen

hebben over de productlijn van Bayer AH kunnen

doorbreken. De oefening is opgesteld uit eenvoudige

stappen, maar de deelnemers zouden assistentie en

aanmoediging kunnen gebruiken. Je hebt 10 kaarten

waarop telkens een voorbeeld van een gemanipuleerd

productprototype staat, samen met enkele instructies

omtrent hoe je het moet ontwikkelen tot een idee.

Sommige manipulaties zijn moeilijker om te ontcijferen,

andere zijn eenvoudiger. Je hoeft ze niet allemaal te

gebruiken, je kan ook dezelfde kaart aan verschillende

koppels geven. Voor elk van de kaarten moet je zelf een

mogelijk voorbeeld van een product bedacht hebben,

zodat je, als dat nodig zou zijn, het duo kan aanmoedigen

door hen ervan te verzekeren dat er een idee mogelijk is

(als ze volledig vast zitten kan je hen op weg naar je eigen

idee helpen, maar daag hen dan uit om een ander idee te

vinden voordat ze opgeven en een andere kaart nemen).

Materiaal voor deze oefening: kaarten van gemanipuleerde

producten.

0

92

13:15 Start van de

sessie

Vele goede ideeën zijn per vergissing ontstaan.

Weten jullie hoe de Post-it uitgevonden is? Hoe

Chocolate Chips cookies uitgevonden zijn? Vertel het

verhaal. We kunnen zien dat er iets gebeurd is met

deze producten. Ze zijn beide ontstaan vanuit een

zekere "manipulatie" per vergissing en werden zo

iets nieuws. Om met nieuwe ideeën op de proppen

te komen, hebben wij reeds enkele manipulaties op

producten uitgevoerd voor jullie. Deze manipulaties

gebeurden met opzet, en dus niet willekeurig. Er zijn

veel manieren om met nieuwe ideeën naar voren te

komen, en de gemanipuleerde voorbeelden van

"producten", die jullie zullen krijgen, zijn op enkele

van deze manieren ontwikkeld. Jullie uitdaging, en

in deze sessie wil ik jullie wel degelijk een beetje

uitdagen, bestaat erin het gemanipuleerde product

te nemen, en, gebruik makend van je eigen

creativiteit, de vraag die op de kaart staat te

beantwoorden om van daaruit ideeën voor een echt

product te laten ontspringen.

"Post-it" verhaal

"Chocolate chips

cookie" verhaal

videoclips:

"Pepsi-Elephant

tower", "NFL

season is here"

15

13:30 Creatie van

ideeën

Verdeel de groep in duo's. Elk duo krijgt één kaart. Jullie

krijgen tien minuten om de eerste ideeën te

formuleren, gebruik makend van de eerste kaart. Na

10 à twaalf minuten: We gaan er mee ophouden-

schrijf de ideeën die je bedacht heb neer op een

Idea Collection Form. Ruil de kaarten om: vraag elk

duo om hun kaart aan het duo aan hun rechter zijde

te geven. Neem 7 minuten om ideeën te formuleren

met de nieuwe kaart.

20

93

13:50 Verzameling

van ideeën

Verzamel de ideeën - help de deelnemers hun idee te

verbeteren waar nodig (ongeveer 10 à 15 minuten). Laat

elk duo één idee presenteren.

40

14:30 Koffiepauze 15

14:45 Logica achter

de "Welzijn"-

oefening

Het doel van de volgende sessie is kijken naar de

manier waarop wij mensen het liefst met elkaar

omgaan, en laat ons erdoor geïnspireerd worden om

aan dingen te denken die we kunnen doen om zorg

te dragen voor onze huisdieren. De truc zit 'm in een

systematische benadering hiervan, vertrekkende

van menselijke organen, over bepaalde

producten/behandelingen, tot nadenken over de

specifieke vorm die deze producten kunnen krijgen

wanneer je denkt aan een huisdier.

0

14:45 "Welzijn"-

oefening

Bedankt iedereen. We gaan naar onze volgende

sessie. In deze sessie zouden we manieren willen

zoeken waarop wij onszelf verzorgen en ons

hierdoor laten inspireren om manieren te vinden

waarop we voor het welzijn van onze huisdieren

kunnen zorgen. Sommige ideeën zijn overigens

reeds bedacht. Om systematisch te werk te gaan

zullen we beginnen bij het maken van een lijst van

menselijke organen. Gebruik een lijst die je op voorhand

voorbereid hebt, of creëer ze samen met de groep.

Verdeel de groep in duo's nadat de lijst gemaakt is.

10

94

14:55 "Welzijn"-

oefening

Kies in je duo voor een lichaamsdeel en creëer een

lijst van producten die voor dit lichaamsdeel

gebruikt worden voor: 1. Gezondheidszorg

(bijvoorbeeld oogdruppels, fitness centers,

voedingssupplementen,…). 2.Persoonlijke zorg

(bijvoorbeeld shampoo, hand lotion,...). 3. Welzijn

producten/activiteiten (bijvoorbeeld make-up

(gezicht), handschoenen (handen), massages,...).

Tabel met het

gekozen orgaan:

welzijn,

persoonlijke

hygiëne en

gezondheidszorg

10

15:05 "Welk type ben

ik"-oefening

Laat de deelnemers een vragenlijst invullen om te

bepalen welk soort huisdiereneigenaar ze zijn. Als

dat niet mogelijk is kan je ook elk type aan een

deelnemer toewijzen en vraag hen dat type te zijn

voor de rest van de oefening. Zorg ervoor dat alle

segmenten vertegenwoordigd zijn.

Niet noodzakelijk;

je kan dit ook op

voorhand laten

maken of de

oefening doen los

van het type

eigenaar

0

15:05 "Welzijn"-

oefening

Bepaal in elk team een nummer 1 en een nummer 2.

Nummer 1: hou de lijst op die je zonet gecreëerd

hebt. Nummer 2: jij functioneert als de

huisdiereigenaar (vanuit de vorige opgave). Tracht

samen zoveel mogelijk ideeën te verzinnen die

overeenkomen met het type eigenaar dat nummer 2

aanneemt. Neem enkele ideeformulieren en gebruik

ze om je favoriete ideeën op te schrijven.

5

15:10 Creatie van

ideeën

Nummers 2: sta recht en schuif één duo op in

wijzerzin. Stel je persoonlijkheid voor aan je nieuwe

partner. Geef hen enkele seconden. In je duo: zoek

samen naar producten op de lijst die relevant zijn

voor je huisdier, denk na over welke

vorm/toepassing van dit product ideaal is voor deze

suggestie.

verwissel om de 5

minuten van

partner, in 3

ronden

20

95

15:30 Verzamel de

ideeën

30

16:00 Rangschikking

van de ideeën

Nu gaan we de ideeën rangschikken. Geef elke

deelnemer 5 stickers. Ieder van jullie heeft vijf

stickers ontvangen. Gebruik de stickers om te

stemmen voor het idee dat jou het meest beviel, of

verdeel ze om te stemmen voor enkele ideeën.

Geef elke

deelnemer 5

stickers

20

16:20 Slotoefening Vraag iedereen in een cirkel te gaan staan voor een

afsluitende oefening, en laat iedereen zijn laatste wens

van de dag uitdrukken. Begin met: Ik wens dat mijn

huisdier…

10

16:30 END Einde om 16.30 0

96

Appendix 3 Ideeformulier

Naam van het idee – Titel

Korte Beschrijving

(Welke kenmerken heeft het, wat doet het, hoe zou je het visualiseren: vorm, kleuren, geur, belangrijkste kenmerken)

Één goede reden waarom het zou moeten gerealiseerd worden

(vb. Het is uniek, het beantwoordt aan de volgende nood:…, het geeft een competitief voordeel,…)

Je naam Datum

SIT®

for Bayer AH

97

Appendix 4

Elaborated ideas: Workshop AH June 6, 2008

Idee 1

Step 1: Describe your idea: What problem or non-existing product/service have you identified?

Name of the idea: Advantage Shampoo

Authors of the idea: Yves De Backer (ANDBY), An Van Hamme (BBANH), Michèle Gregoire

(ANGMI)

It's a type of shampoo with the same characteristics as "Advantage", but with the added element that

it washes the dog at the same time

Step 2: Customer/Market: Who could use your product or service? Could you perhaps

describe the market?

The customers who now buy advantage and shampoo for pets could benefit; they are offered with a

one-stop-shopping solution

Step 3: Customer Benefit: What benefit would the customer gain?

the customer kills two birds with one stone: the product washes the pet and treats it against flu,

tapeworm and heartworm.

Step 4: Bayer Fit: How could your business idea fit in with Bayer's expertise?

Bayer already has the product 'Advantage', and can work from there to develop the 'advantage

shampoo'

Relevant for: Corporate

Idee 2


Name of the idea: Dry Wash

Author of the idea: Kristine Reynaert (csrek), An Van Hamme (bbanh)

98

Powder or pellets that can be placed or put on the dog to make bad scent and dirt disappear



pet owners who want their dog to be clean and who don't want their dog to smell bad


- no more bad smell in the house

- easy to apply

- pleasant for dog and owner

Personal Data?

female

First name: Ann

Last name: Van Hamme

Your Notes-ID: bbanh

I agree, that my idea can be published

in Bayer media

Idee 3


Name of the idea: Eye paps

Author of the idea: An Van Hamme (bbanh), Yves De Backer (andby)

Tissues to remove tear fluid from the corner of the dog's eye; the tissue could also be designed to

prevent this tear fluid from sticking in the corner of the dog's eye



owners of dogs that have a lot of dried up tear fluid in the corner of their eyes and who want their

dog to be rid of this


99

(dried up) tear fluid in the corner of the dog's eye is gone and possibly even prevented; the product

would also be easy to apply

Personal Data?

male

First name: Yves

Last name: De Backer

Your Notes-ID: andby

Idee 4


Name of the idea: Earspray

Author of the idea: Yves De Backer (andby), Kristine Reynaert (csrek), An Van Hamme (bbanh),

Ingrid Cazaerck (csczi)

An ear spray for dogs, which cleans the ears and works preventive or as a cure against:

- ear infection

- itch

- parasites



owners of dogs with ear problems (itch, infection, parasites) or just owners of dogs who want to

prevent ear trouble for their pet


- heightens the quality of life of the dog

- easy to administer

- very hygienic method

- not difficult to use, user-friendly

Personal Data?

female

First name: Kristine

Last name: Reynaert

Your Notes-ID: csrek

100

Appendix 5

DECLARATION OF DECONTAMINATION

In order to protect the personnel that have to transport or repair vehicles, it is necessary that all components and equipment are free of biological, chemical, or radioactive contamination. Site Services or external companies can only accept those components and equipment that are:

- Adequately CLEANSED and DECONTAMINATED; - Accompanied by this declaration of decontamination, filled out and signed by an authorized

person.

DATA EQUIPMENT/COMPONENTS

Article(s) (type / description):

Serial number(s):

DECLARATION

The equipment does not have to be decontaminated, for reasons of:

The equipment has been cleansed and decontaminated by means of:

I hereby confirm that all the information in this declaration is complete and accurate.

The equipment and components have been adequately decontaminated and cleansed.

There are no biological, chemical or radioactive remnants that could threaten the safety

or health of the person working with the equipment or components.

Name (in capital letters): Date:

Function (in capital letters):

Signature:

Destination original: site services

Add a copy of the completed declaration to the equipment that is leaving the company.

101

Appendix 6

Voorkomen is beter dan genezen

Diabetes: wie vroeg weet dat hij tot een risicogroep behoort, maakt een goede kans om type 2 van

deze ziekte te vermijden. Je levensstijl veranderen is belangrijk, en Bayer HealthCare heeft een

hulpmiddel ontwikkeld dat hierbij kan helpen. Nu al wordt dit middel in enkele landen preventief

gebruikt.

Om dit artikel volledig te lezen heb je ongeveer vijf minuten nodig. In die tijdspanne zal wereldwijd

bij 60 mensen diabetes vastgesteld worden, en nog eens 30 mensen zullen sterven ten gevolge van

diabetes. Twee schokkende statistieken die gebaseerd zijn op recente berekeningen van de

„International Diabetes Federation‟ (IDF).

De omvang van diabetes, die nu op ongeveer 245 miljoen patiënten over de hele wereld geschat

wordt, heeft de Verenigde Naties ertoe aangezet actie te ondernemen. De Algemene Vergadering van

de Verenigde Naties keurde resolutie 61/225 op 20 december 2006 goed. Deze resolutie erkende

diabetes als een “chronische, slopende en dure ziekte, verbonden met ernstige complicaties, die

ernstige risico‟s voor families, lidstaten en de hele wereld inhouden.” De resolutie heeft 14

november, dat al sinds 1991 Werelddiabetesdag is, tot een dag van de Verenigde Naties uitgeroepen.

Een goede 90% van de mensen met diabetes hebben type 2 van deze ziekte, waarbij het lichaam wel

nog insuline produceert, maar dit niet meer naar behoren functioneert. In de regel merken de

getroffen personen bij het begin van de ziekte niet dat er iets mis is, aangezien er geen symptomen

zijn. Er zijn echter wel erkende risicofactoren, zoals obesitas, gebrek aan lichaamsbeweging en een

voeding zonder groenten en fruit. Om diabetes te vermijden bij personen op wie deze factoren van

toepassing zijn, moet snel actie ondernomen worden. Dat is ook wat Corinna Hartmann (fictieve

naam) gedaan heeft. Ook al is ze nog maar 23, de belastingsbeambte in opleiding uit Dresden woog

in mei 2007 106 kilogram. Zelfs regelmatige fitnessbezoeken hadden geen effect, en daarom zocht

ze professionele hulp. Zo stootte ze op het cursusaanbod van een lokaal adviescentrum voor

voedingsgewoonten. Twee maanden lang woonde ze wekelijks de sessies geleid door dieetassistente

Mandy Selzer bij. Deze sessies gaven haar een introductie tot de stofwisseling van het lichaam, en

tot hoe bepaalde zaken het glucose-evenwicht beïnvloeden. “Veel mensen weten bijvoorbeeld niet

hoe belangrijk het is om genoeg water te drinken”, aldus Selzer. Bij anderen is het belangrijker om

schadelijke gedragspatronen te analyseren, zoals waarom ze de drang voelen om zich ‟s avonds aan

chips en chocolade tegoed te doen. Met de hulp van Selzer ontwikkelde Corinna Hartmann in de

zomer van 2007 een alternatief eetplan. Ze drinkt nu veel meer water en eet meer fruit en groenten.

Ze gaat ook terug naar de fitness, maar volgt een uitgekiende combinatie van uithoudings- en

spiertraining.

Sommige deelnemers aan de lessen van Mandy Selzer zijn rechtstreeks door hun dokter

doorgestuurd, omdat een zogenaamde „prediabetes‟ bij hen is vastgesteld. Dit is een toestand waarbij

het lichaam niet langer in staat is om glucosemoleculen, die na een maaltijd in de bloedsomloop

terechtkomen, naar de cellen te brengen, wat tot een tijdelijke verhoging van de bloedsuikerwaarde

leidt. Dokters noemen dit verschijnsel gestoorde glucosetolerantie (IGT: „impaired glucose

102

tolerance‟), en het wordt beschouwd als de voorloper van diabetes. Het goede nieuws is dat als de

ziekte vroeg ontdekt wordt, de getroffenen actie kunnen ondernemen om het risico dat ze effectief

diabetes krijgen te verminderen. “De beste manier om diabetes te genezen is in de eerste plaats ze te

voorkomen”, zegt dr. Peter Schwarz, die de eenheid „Preventie en Verzorging van Type 2 Diabetes‟

van de universiteit van Dresden leidt. Hij schat dat “het preventieve effect van het veranderen van

levensstijl en van een vroege interventie door medicatie bij risico-individuen 25 tot 60% kan

bedragen.” Samen met andere wetenschappers publiceerde dr. Schwarz in 2007 een artikel in het

medische tijdschrift „Sächsisches Ärzteblatt‟, waarin ze stellen dat de vermindering van het

cardiovasculaire risico waarschijnlijk nog groter is. Hij schat dat er alleen al in Saksen ongeveer

500000 mensen met prediabetes zijn. Deze mensen betrekken in preventieprogramma‟s, zoals het

voedingsprogramma van Mandy Selzer, is de belangrijkste opdracht.

Dankzij zijn praktijkervaring werkt dr. Schwarz op dit ogenblik ook voor de Europese Unie. Hij is

een van twee experts die werken aan een project in Brussel, getiteld „IMAGE‟, dat een

gestandaardiseerd preventieprogramma moet ontwikkelen. Huidige schattingen leggen het aantal

mensen met diabetes in de EU op 53 miljoen. Systematische klinische studies hebben uitgewezen

wat efficiënte preventiemaatregelen kunnen zijn, zoals prof. Jean-Louis Chiasson van de universiteit

van Montreal in een recent artikel aantoonde. “Het is duidelijk dat aanpassingen van de levensstijl de

eerste stap moeten zijn”, stelde dr. Chiasson in zijn artikel. Deze veranderingen impliceren meer

lichaamsbeweging, een betere voeding en een vermagerprogramma. Maar studies hebben ook

bewezen dat het nemen van bepaalde geneesmiddelen het risico op de ontwikkeling van diabetes kan

verminderen. Geneesmiddelen kunnen gebruikt worden wanneer enkel gedragsveranderingen niet

het gewenste resultaat bereikt hebben. De Canadese wetenschapper vindt dat er niet genoeg

onderzoek is gedaan om te onderzoeken in hoeverre veranderingen van levensstijl en gebruik van

geneesmiddelen elkaar kunnen aanvullen.

Op basis van de resultaten van voorgaande studies en de nevenwerkingen van verschillende

geneesmiddelen, komt de wetenschapper tot de conclusie dat, wanneer veranderingen van levensstijl

niet efficiënt zijn, “de substantie acarbose de eerste keuze zou moeten zijn als supplementaire

behandeling”. Acarbose is het actieve bestanddeel van het diabetesgeneesmiddel Glucobay® van

Bayer HealthCare. Het heeft al in 25 landen de toelating om voor de behandeling van prediabetes

gebruikt te worden. Zo ook in China, waar de Internationale Diabetes Federatie (IDF) het aantal

diabetespatiënten op bijna 40 miljoen schat. Enkel in India zijn er nog meer mensen getroffen.

Daarom is efficiënte preventie een zeer hoge prioriteit in deze opkomende economische macht. “Met

een nieuwe studie willen we onze kennis over de efficiëntie van acarbose bij het voorkomen van

zowel diabetes als recurrente cardiovasculaire ziektes uitbreiden”, aldus dr. Thorsten Petruschke, die

deze studie voor Bayer HealthCare begeleidt. Diabetes is vaak de oorzaak van een latere hartaanval

of beroerte, wat de reden is waarom experts het globale cijfer van sterfgevallen ten gevolge van

diabetes op bijna 4 miljoen schatten. In de vier jaar durende studie, die in 2011 eindigt, zijn 7000

mensen met prediabetes opgenomen. Hun gezamenlijk profiel: ze zijn allemaal minstens 50 jaar en

hebben al een hartaanval gehad.

In de tussentijd verheugt Corinna Hartmann zich al op de eerste resultaten van haar nieuwe dieet en

fitnessregime. Ze weegt al 16 kilo minder, en daarmee voelt ze zich niet alleen veel beter; ze heeft

door haar gewichtsverlies ook haar risico op diabetes beduidend verminderd.

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Makrolon® van hoge zuiverheid laat LCD-beeldschermen oplichten

Televisieschermen in groot formaat

Flatscreen-tv‟s hebben in de laatste twee of drie jaar hun weg naar menig woonkamer gevonden,

maar conventionele kunststoffen brengen momenteel een einde aan hun groei: de dunne diffuser

sheets‟ die bij de productie gebruikt worden hebben de neiging om krom te buigen. Een

onderzoeksteam van Bayer MaterialScience heeft nu een heel zuivere vorm van Makrolon® met

uitstekende optische eigenschappen ontwikkeld, dat ook bij extra grote beeldschermen zijn vorm

behoudt.

Tv-schermen zover het oog reikt: de kamer in gebouw R 79 in Krefeld-Uerdingen waar dr. Claus

Rüdiger en dr. Gunther Stollwerck werken, is volgestouwd met hoogtechnologisch elektronica-

materiaal. De twee specialisten zijn echter geen tv-verslaafden, ze zijn vooral geïnteresseerd in de

interne activiteit van moderne „flatscreen‟-tv‟s. Op een tafel staat ongeveer een dozijn van de dunne

monitors – volledig naakt en zonder behuizing – zorgvuldig in plastic folie gewikkeld en

opeengestapeld zoals fotolijsten. Rüdiger is een chemicus, Stollwerck een fysicus, maar hun

laboratorium lijkt meer op een elektronica-werkplaats: een massa elektronische componenten, en

rekken vol kleine laden, allemaal zorgvuldig voorzien van etiketten zoals “aansluitingen”,

“weerstanden”, “condensatoren”, … De twee mannen werken samen om de grote „flatscreen‟

schermen zo helder mogelijk te laten schijnen.

Stollwerck neemt een monitor en legt hem bedachtzaam op de laboratoriumtafel. Dan trekt hij een

paar witte stoffen handschoenen aan en begint de monitor uit elkaar te halen. Eigenlijk heeft het

apparaat op de tafel weinig gemeen met de tv‟s en radio‟s in de winkels. Het donkere scherm aan de

voorkant en ook het „liquid crystal display‟ (LCD) scherm met zijn elektronica ontbreekt. Voor

Stollwerck staat wat men een „backlight unit‟ (BLU) noemt, het achterste deel van een LCD-tv dat

voor het licht zorgt. De „backlight unit‟ is een hoogtechnologische „sandwich‟ die bestaat uit dunne

laagjes plastic film en een diffusiescherm. Stollwerck verwijdert de ene laag na de andere– vier

witte, semi-transparante schijven, waarvan de dikste niet meer dan 2mm breed is. Dan wordt de

achterwand van de monitor blootgelegd – een witte, zeer reflecterende plastic schaal, waarin 16

potlooddikke fluorescerende tubes zitten. “Als de fluorescerende tubes onmiddellijk achter de LCD

monitor zouden zitten, zouden we een zeer onevenwichtige helderheid van het tv-beeld krijgen. De

tubes zouden erdoor schijnen als heldere strepen”, legt Rüdiger uit.

Dit betekent dat het licht op voorhand verspreid moet worden, en daartoe dient het diffusiescherm.

De verscheidene filmlaagjes bundelen en polariseren het licht, zodat zoveel mogelijk

quantumdeeltjes rechtstreeks door het LCD naar het oog van de kijker zouden komen. Het

verraderlijke hieraan is dat het homogeniserende diffusiescherm een optisch obstakel vormt en licht

absorbeert. De verzwakking van het licht door deze component moet daarom minimaal zijn, en dat is

net waar de twee wetenschappers aan werken. Rüdiger ontwikkelt de diffusieschermen en Stollwerck

test ze. Het LCD team werd recent versterkt door fysicus dr. Günther Walze, die optische simulaties

gebruikt om onderzoek te doen naar de volgende generatie diffusieschermen. Klaus Meier en dr.

Heinz Pudleiner, die aangepaste types diffusiefilm ontwikkelen, zijn ook zeer nauw verbonden met

het team.

Vier jaar geleden zouden de onderzoekers nooit gedroomd hebben dat ze op een dag bezig zouden

zijn met tv-schermen, omdat Rüdiger altijd op andere manieren betrokken was bij plastic. Hij is een

specialist in Makrolon®, een zeer veelzijdig polycarbonaat van Bayer. Rüdiger heeft er verscheidene

nieuwe producten mee gecreëerd: door het type additief te veranderen, heeft hij transparante

schermen om machines te beschermen of felle, transparante schermen voor design-architectuur

uitgevonden. Ook het dak van het nabijgelegen treinstation in Krefeld is bedekt met Makrolon®.

Meerdere duizenden kleine plastic panelen worden voortdurend getest, in zijn laboratorium of buiten

104

in verweringstests. Sommige daarvan zijn zelfs te vinden in Florida, waar het materiaal tien jaar

tropische hitte moet weerstaan zonder geel te worden of broos te worden.

In 2003 kwam een volledig nieuw specimen aan in zijn laboratorium. Een collega had hem een

stukje film uit de kunststof PMMA (polymethylmethacrylate) van de „backlight unit‟ van een

„flatscreen‟ scherm opgestuurd. De begeleidende vraag was even kort als veelzeggend: “Kunnen we

dit ook met Makrolon doen?” PMMA is al lange tijd een gevestigde waarde in de productie van LCD

monitors, bijvoorbeeld in computers. Het wordt gebruikt voor de diffusieschermen of –panelen in de

BLU. Maar nu het formaat van LCD-tv‟s steeds blijft groeien, bereikt PMMA stilaan zijn grenzen.

Want hoe groter het scherm, des te vroeger buigt het diffusiescherm door. Het gevolg is dat storende

schaduwen op de monitor verschijnen en dat de helderheid niet meer uniform is. Experts noemen dit

gebrekkige „dimensiestabiliteit‟. Het probleem wordt versterkt door de hoge temperaturen (> 80° C)

in de BLU. Vakmensen zijn het erover eens: een diagonale schermgrootte van 42” is de limiet voor

PMMA. Makrolon® daarentegen heeft een veel hogere dimensiestabiliteit en kan met gemak

temperaturen tot 120° C aan.

Maar in 2003 wist niemand of het polycarbonaat in staat zou zijn om aan de hoge optische eisen van

een „LCD-backlight‟ te voldoen. Rüdiger begon verscheidene Makrolon® -schermen uit zijn collectie

te testen en te vergelijken met PMMA. De eerste tests waren ontgoochelend. Zijn standaard

Makrolon® liet bij diverse metingen weliswaar evenveel licht door als PMMA, maar toen hij een

diffusiescherm onder de „filmsandwich‟ van de „backlight unit‟ plaatste, daalde de helderheid

drastisch. Rüdiger en zijn collega‟s vonden de oorzaak vlug: de functie van de filmlaagjes is

gebaseerd op het principe van lichtrecyclage. Alle ongewilde lichtquanta worden weerkaatst naar de

reflector aan de achterwand van de televisie, vanwaar zij opnieuw op dezelfde reis gestuurd worden.

Tijdens dit „optische heen en weer‟ worden de lichtquanta omgeleid en kunnen bij hun tweede

poging ongehinderd door het systeem dringen.

Het licht wordt echter steeds zwakker wanneer het meerdere keren heen en weer schiet door het

Makrolon®-diffusiescherm. Daarom moest Rüdiger de optische kenmerken van de Makrolon®

verbeteren. Dit was buitengewoon moeilijk omdat een diffusiefilm niet alleen uit Makrolon® bestaat,

maar ook minuscule pigmenten bevat waarop het licht van de fluorescerende tubes wordt verspreid.

Rüdiger en zijn team testten honderden verschillende samenstellingen van Makrolon®, vermengd

met verschillende pigmenten, en varieerden de grootte van de partikels keer op keer. Het resultaat

bleef echter ontgoochelend – de helderheid verhoogde, maar slechts tot 80% van die bij PMMA.

Toen zette Rüdiger de beslissende stap: in plaats van gekende samenstellingen van Makrolon® te

testen, opteerde hij dit keer voor een speciaal type carbonaat “dat nog nooit eerder in deze vorm

gebruikt was”. Het werkte en de helderheid klom tot 102 %. Dat was de doorbraak. Toen had

Rüdiger een materiaal met stabiele afmetingen dat zelfs betere optische kenmerken had dan PMMA.

Intussen heeft Rüdiger, door herhaalde optimalisatie, 105 % bereikt. En zo schijnen „flatscreens‟ uit

polycarbonaat nog feller dan die uit PMMA. “We zijn wereldwijd een van de weinige producenten

die het robuuste polycarbonaat in deze kwaliteit kunnen maken.”

Rüdiger en zijn collega‟s waken nu over een hele reeks diffusiesamenstellingen in hun laboratoria.

Het Makrolon® wordt geproduceerd in Map Ta Phut in Thailand en geperst tot schermen bij Bayer

Sheet Korea, omdat Azië veruit de meeste „flat screens‟ produceert. In Stollwercks testlaboratorium

worden deze „units‟ dan bedekt met diffusieschermen uit Makrolon®. Hij onderzoekt of de

helderheidswaarden door Rüdigers samenstellingen verbeterd kunnen worden. Afhankelijk van het

aantal lampen of de structuur van de BLU zal altijd een ander polycarbonaat optimaal zijn. Op het

einde wordt getest of de diffusieschermen het licht echt homogeen verspreiden en de gewenste

helderheid brengen. Dit gebeurt door een meettoestel gecreëerd door Andreas Lyding: een robotarm

met een licht- en kleursensor scant de verlichte BLU van binnen volgens een gegeven patroon.

De volgende generatie diffusieschermen zal nauwelijks nog pigmenten bevatten, maar zal het licht

doelgericht naar het LCD-scherm leiden door een micro-oppervlaktestructuur. De gestructureerde

diffusieschermen verhogen dus de vrijheid van design en verminderen tezelfdertijd de kosten. Bayer

Sheet Korea voorziet al twee grote tv-producenten van de eerste generatie van het nieuwe materiaal

en bestrijkt zo een groot deel van de markt voor LCD-tv‟s. “De toekomst van Makrolon voor LCD-

tv‟s ziet er veelbelovend uit”, zegt Rüdiger.

105

Appendix 7

Secretaressedag bij Bayer BioScience: een collectief gebeuren

In de laatste tien jaar is het beroep van secretaresse sterk veranderd: niet enkel de opdrachten

evolueerden, maar ook de naam (management assistant). Het zou er bijna op gaan lijken dat enkel

„Secretaressedag‟ ongewijzigd is gebleven. Op 17 april traden de secretaresses weer even uit de

schaduw van hun bazen. We@Bayer legde het oor te luister bij vier secretaresses van Bayer

BioScience …

In de huidige bedrijfscontext ziet het beroep van secretaresse er helemaal anders uit dan 10 jaar

geleden: het uitvoerende werk maakt meer plaats voor een veelheid aan creatieve en uitdagende

taken. “De nadruk ligt veel meer op meedenken met de baas, zowel aanvullend als zelfstandig”, zegt

Sabine Claeys van het departement communicatie. Ook Secretaressedag heeft bij Bayer BioScience

een andere invulling gekregen. Vanuit het bedrijf wordt een halve dag voor de management

assistants georganiseerd, waarin de ongeveer 20-koppige administratieve ploeg samen gaat eten. De

traditionele en eerder individueel georiënteerde bloemetjes en pralines worden zo vervangen door

een collectieve ervaring. “Op die manier kan je eens met collega‟s uit andere afdelingen praten, met

wie je anders weinig contact hebt”, aldus research management assistant Malika De Beir. Dit

initiatief wordt door de secretaresses heel positief onthaald, maar sluit uiteraard een bijkomende actie

van de directe baas niet uit: “Een kleine attentie van de baas is ook altijd leuk”, verduidelijkt Ann

Guilbert uit de IP-afdeling. Toch wordt de Secretaressedag vooral als een extraatje gezien, en komt

de appreciatie nog steeds meer uit het dagdagelijkse werk. “Als je een goede samenwerking en

verstandhouding met je baas hebt, volgt de waardering tijdens het werk zelf wel”, besluit Anne-

Marie Popelier van het juridisch departement.

106

Appendix 8

André Roef: “Leiden is voor een groot deel dienstverlening aan de medewerkers”

André Roef is zowel afgevaardigd bestuurder van Bayer BioScience N.V. alshoofd van het juridisch

departement van de BioScience subgroep van Bayer CropScience. Een gesprek over deze

combinatie, die in de praktijk heel wat inspanning vergt, maar ook voordelen en uitdagingen biedt.

In welke mate vallen de twee aspecten van uw job met elkaar te vergelijken?

“Strikt genomen hebben de twee functies niet echt iets met elkaar te maken, maar het is wel handig

dat ik als hoofd van de juridische dienst weet hoe een vennootschap juridisch gezien geleid moet

worden. Dit is belangrijk omdat je als afgevaardigd bestuurder een aantal aansprakelijkheden hebt.”

De combinatie van beide functies heeft voordelen en uitdagingen. Zijn er elementen uit beide

functies die u helpen bij het vervullen van de andere functie?

“Het leiden van een vennootschap en het leiden van een juridisch departement vertoont uiteraard

gelijkenissen. Op dat vlak had ik dus wel al wat ervaring, wat een voordeel is. Het komt erop aan een

groepsgevoel te creëren, je open te stellen voor de vragen en bezorgdheden van je medewerkers en

hen te coachen waar nodig. Als hoofd van de juridische dienst ben ik bovendien betrokken bij alle

strategische beslissingen binnen BioScience, wat me toelaat de medewerkers van Bayer BioScience

N.V. te informeren en de lokale projecten te kaderen in het groter geheel.

Omgekeerd kom ik als afgevaardigd bestuurder ook veel in contact met politieke en administratieve

overheden. Dat helpt soms om te trachten de regelgeving met betrekking tot onze activiteiten in de

goede richting te sturen.

Anderzijds is deze combinatie ook een uitdaging, omdat meer dan de helft van de medewerkers hier

bezig is met wetenschappelijke activiteiten. Ikzelf heb geen achtergrond als exacte wetenschapper,

en dat ervaar ik ook wel als een gemis.”

Hoe slaagt u er, ondanks de hoge werkdruk, in het overzicht te behouden?

“Wat het bestuur van de vennootschap betreft heb ik een aantal medewerkers die mij goed terzijde

staan, zoals HR, planning en controlling, communicatie en facility management. Zij bereiden heel

wat zaken voor, en brengen mij via regelmatige brainstormingsessies op de hoogte van wat reilt en

zeilt op hun gebied. Op het juridische vlak heb ik een aantal taken moeten overdragen aan andere

juristen en heb ik zelf ook een tandje moeten bijsteken. We houden eveneens maandelijks een

telefoonconferentie met het volledige juridische team, dus ook met alle buitenlandse juristen.

Iedereen geeft er een overzicht van zijn activiteiten van de laatste maand en er wordt ook van

gedachten gewisseld.”

Voor uw juridische job bent u vaak op zakenreis. Hoe valt dit te rijmen met het dagelijkse bestuur?

“De mensen die mij dagelijks bijstaan volgen het voor een stuk op, zoals ik daarnet aanhaalde. Maar

ook de moderne communicatiemiddelen laten je toe op de voet te volgen wat er gebeurt; ik krijg van

overal e-mails. Fysieke aanwezigheid is echter nog altijd belangrijk, omdat je beschikbaar moet zijn

voor de medewerkers. De taak van afgevaardigd bestuurder is eigenlijk voor een groot deel een

107

dienstverlening naar de medewerkers toe. Het is belangrijk om geen afstand te creëren. De

medewerkers moeten bij je terecht kunnen als ze problemen of voorstellen hebben. Mijn deur staat

altijd open, dus ze kunnen binnenspringen als ze met een probleem zitten. En dat geeft ook de

grootste voldoening, als je iets kunt doen waardoor de medewerkers tevreden zijn en optimaal

kunnen functioneren.”

Tot slot: wat drijft u om de twee functies te blijven combineren?

“Mijn belangrijkste drijfveer is dat ik wil proberen om de toptechnologie die hier in dit Vlaams

bedrijf is ontstaan, verder uit te bouwen en te commercialiseren op internationaal vlak ten behoeve

van onze aandeelhouders. Dit creëert direct en indirect welvaart in deze streek. Bovendien vind ik

het erg belangrijk dat onze medewerkers het hier naar hun zin hebben en dat ze elke dag met plezier

komen werken.”

108

Appendix 9

Triple-i workshop Animal Health in Antwerpen

Op vrijdag 6 juni vond in Antwerpen een Triple-i workshop voor Animal Health plaats. Bayer

Antwerpen stelde zijn deuren open voor een aantal medewerkers van de Bayer-vestigingen in de

BeLux. De bedoeling van de workshop was ideeën te genereren voor potentiële nieuwe producten

en diensten voor de gezondheid en het welzijn van huisdieren.

Tijdens de workshop werden de werknemers en fervente dierenliefhebbers gestimuleerd om door

oefeningen en brainstormsessies hun creativiteit de vrije loop te laten. Een presentatie van Animal

Health maakte bovendien duidelijk wat er al op de markt was, wat een extra uitdaging werd om

vernieuwend uit de hoek te komen. Zo kwamen een 40-tal ideeën voor mogelijke producten of

diensten voor huisdieren (meer bepaald honden en katten) uit de bus.

De workshop kaderde binnen het concernwijde „Triple-i‟-initiatief. Dit staat voor „inspiratie, ideeën

en innovatie‟ en heeft de bedoeling het innovatiepotentieel van alle Bayer-medewerkers wereldwijd

te benutten om nieuwe businessopportuniteiten te genereren. Waar in een eerste fase van het project

de ideeën over elk mogelijk onderwerp vrij konden worden gepost, wordt er in deze tweede fase veel

gerichter gewerkt door wereldwijd workshops te organiseren. Animal Health is de eerste afdeling

waarop deze werkwijze wordt getest. Andere afdelingen zullen zeker volgen.

Dankzij enthousiaste deelnemers en leuke interacties werd de workshop een dag vol inventiviteit.

Het zal zeker een aanzet zijn voor de deelnemers om in de toekomst vlugger met nieuwe ideeën op

de proppen te komen. Alvast bedankt iedereen voor de inzet!

the process of idea generation. · cognitive and social-psychological approach to idea generation,...

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