100 years of innovation and counting – can a company live forever?

It is remarkable how rapidly Singapore has advanced in the past five decades. As the year draws to a close, Singapore is on the cusp of entering a new half century of development and change.

Coincidentally, this year also marks my company's centennial anniversary. As I look back at how both Singapore and our organisation have been able to extend their longevity and competitive edge over the decades, I ask myself: Can a company really live forever, and how?

When compared to companies such as Sotheby's which was established in 1744, a century does not seem long. In Singapore, 'centurians' such as Eu Yan Sang, with a strong heritage of over 100 years, have managed to stay relevant in today's marketplace and continuously innovate while staying true to their roots.

Incremental innovation: The key to longevity

One common thread among organisations steeped in a long and illustrious history is innovation, but what makes one more successful over another is the approach and its people. For the automotive industry, bell weathers have seen the value in adopting an incremental approach to innovation.

The practice of taking small but steady steps in innovation is apparent throughout the automotive sector and may well account for the fact that the sector has some of the oldest companies such as Fiat, Opel, Aston Martin, Peugeot, and ZF.

This approach could be applied in other sectors for which Singapore is a commercial and/or research hub such as aviation and manufacturing.

Last year Boeing Chief Executive Jim McNerney declared the end of the era of revolutionary technological 'moon shots' that involved high development costs and carried much risk.

Inspired by incremental product development in the auto and consumer electronics sectors, the world's largest aerospace company decided to hold back investments in moon shots and adapt existing technology to existing plane models.

The new incremental approach to innovation, coupled with efforts to improve processes, saved the company close to US$ 1 billion over the year.

In the manufacturing sphere, incremental innovation has enabled ExxonMobil to create a new plastic, "Exceed and Enable", that is stronger, thinner, and also lighter than typical packaging material.

A series of innovations in polyethylene, which is used for heavy-duty bags, has allowed bag thickness to be reduced by 50% over the past two decades, while at the same time improving both the strength of the product and ease of processing.

This new plastic has the potential to significantly reduce shipping weight to save energy and costs throughout the supply chain. In fact, ExxonMobil's chemical plant in Singapore is its first in the region to produce this material.

It is not unusual for incremental innovation to take years of research and fine-tuning until the product goes to market. One example of this is autonomous driving. When you think about it, the core technology required for 'autonomous driving' has been around for over two decades.

Developing an autonomous vehicle actually involves building on existing automotive technologies such as cruise control, stability, and traction control. Combining this with information technologies such as GPS, radars, camera sensors, etc., companies implementing incremental innovation are able to bring what was previously viewed as visionary and futuristic much closer to reality.

People: Drivers of innovation

The winning combination of an incremental approach executed by people of various skillsets is the basis for innovation.

Employees are the drivers of innovation. It is not enough to simply adopt an incremental approach. You need employees who can navigate through uncertainties and gel the pieces together to see the future.

Their potential or talent extends beyond academic excellence or good managerial skills. At every level of the workforce, there will be people of a particular skillset and personality who can manage change and innovate.

Business leaders need to guard and nurture that innovative mindset within their organisation. For instance, ZF’s annual Graf-von-Soden Invention Award recognises the inventiveness of employees. Awardees are selected from among all ZF patent registrations published during the previous year.

In May 2015, six new employee inventions were awarded from among 909 entries, setting a new record at the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (GPTO).

Another example closer to home is ST Engineering, the only company in Singapore to rank among Forbes 2014 list of The World's Most Innovative Companies. The company uses several platforms to create a culture of innovation and elicit innovative ideas from employees, from annual innovation, idea, and team excellent awards to a biennial THINKOUT session that taps employees' entrepreneurial and creative thinking skills.

One of Asia's largest defence and engineering groups today, the company is proof that the relentless pursuit of innovation will indeed carry an organisation far.

When it comes to innovation, Singapore has a competitive edge. According to the recent Global Innovation Index published this year, Singapore is indeed Asia-Pacific's innovation leader. In the 2015 Budget statement earlier this year, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said that Singapore must reach its next frontier as an economy, with firms driven by innovation.

Can a company, or a nation for that matter, live forever? We are moving beyond SG50, and looking ahead to SG100. For companies to grow and thrive alongside Singapore, every form of innovation counts, and positive transformation does result from investing in innovation.

I can certainly attest to that, and I'll add: Every single good idea is another step along the path to a successful future, of perhaps another 100 years, or more.