05 September 2024, Israel: ICL has channeled the Olympic spirit by adopting the theme of “winning” as a company-wide annual innovation competition theme. Employees were invited to come up with creative solutions to further the company’s strategic goals of global food security, environmental protection, and sustainability. The competition generated some amazing ideas and each winning team sent a representative to the Paris Olympics!
Harnessing Innovation as a Strategic Driver
ICL has always had a deep commitment to innovation. The company’s dynamic approach to problem-solving and providing creative solutions to unmet needs has powered ICL’s growth over the last century, from a small desert-based mineral exploration enterprise to a global corporation with dozens of active operations and over 12,000 employees worldwide.
Over the last decade, ICL began to put innovation on a formal and systematic footing and to develop an energetic culture of internal innovation. Programs like ICL’s internal innovation accelerator BIG (Business Innovation for Growth) give every employee direct access to a simple structure where they can submit new ideas for independent evaluation. The best ideas are assigned to business units that have the resources and expertise to launch them as viable projects.
The Power of the “Winning” Theme
ICL opted for the theme “Winning” for its 2024 innovation leadership competition. The concept of winning is simple, bold, and powerful, and it epitomizes the thinking behind the competition. ICL was looking for a unifying force that would inspire employees to think big, unleash their creativity, and collaborate across departments. Winning is about turning strategic goals into actionable realities.
The theme of winning also relates directly to the underlying goals of food security, environmental protection, and sustainability. These are issues that directly affect every human being on the planet. Every innovation that makes a practical difference counts as a victory. The 2024 competition really succeeded in encouraging employees to look beyond their day-to-day roles and contribute to achieving the bigger strategic goals!
Employee Empowerment and Engagement
Any company that wants to build a culture of dynamic innovation needs to get three fundamentals right:
Give employees simple, transparent, and well-resourced structures for innovation.
Accept that not every innovation will succeed and eliminate all fear and stigma associated with failure.
Acknowledge and reward individual employees and teams who innovate successfully.
One of the advantages of ICL’s approach to internal innovation is that it breaks down silos and transcends corporate divisions and structures. Employees who invest time and effort in creating great ideas know that they will get the credit for them. ICL understands how important it is not only to reward innovation but to reward it publicly and send the message that anybody can reap the rewards as a successful innovator.
Celebrating Success and Rewarding Innovation
The theme of winning clearly resonated across ICL because the 2024 competition attracted an impressive level of employee involvement. There was a genuine enthusiasm to submit ideas and the range, quality – and superb teamwork – behind the submissions was genuinely exciting. Some of the most innovative winning efforts involve groundbreaking developments in sustainable agriculture, advanced crop nutrition, and new frameworks for measuring environmental impact.
Each winning team nominated a representative to attend the Paris Olympics as a reward. All team members are celebrating their shared success with public recognition of their ground-breaking innovation. ICL is already planning a new competition for later in the year. The prize will be a trip to the carnival in Brazil with full hospitality.
Fostering a Culture of Continuous Improvement
The current industrial and financial ecosystem is more dynamic and volatile than at any previous time in human history. The massive industrial and agricultural revolutions of previous centuries already seem slow-paced compared to the roller coaster ride of technological change that was unleashed with the invention of the internet.
Artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, robotics, big data and cloud, emerging 6G technologies, and countless niche technologies are driving – and demanding – a culture of constant innovation. Put simply: Companies that can’t innovate won’t survive.
ICL is at the forefront of structured innovation and intends to maintain its place as a leader. The 2024 theme of winning has driven employee engagement in the wider process of innovation and boosted the company’s culture of innovation at every level. To drive innovation, every employee has to become a leader.
Creating a Passion for Innovation and Experimentation
ICL is dedicated to achieving some major goals at a strategic level. These include the United Nations’ Second Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger. ICL is also committed to protecting the environment, implementing sustainability and circular economies across all its operations, products, and services, and forging links with local communities through volunteer projects and programs.
These are bold and ambitious goals and are not easy to implement – even for a global corporation with ICL’s considerable material resources and outstanding people. The key to the company’s ongoing success (quantified through its annual ESG report) and to achieving future targets, is the exceptionally high caliber of ICL employees, and their passion for innovation.
The company recognizes innovative potential as a powerful latent force but understands that for innovative energy to be effective, it has to be brought to the fore, nurtured, and directed through proactive leadership and well-resourced programs.
This year’s Winning competition and a range of localized competitions and programs continue to develop a real passion for innovation. Crucially, the innovative spirit is aligned with ICL’s wider business goals. It is producing actionable ideas that match the company’s overall strategy and are driving all of ICL’s divisions forward in a competitive market environment.
The passion for innovation, sparked by initiatives like the 2024 Innovation Theme of the Year ‘Winning’ provides employees a framework to realize their highest professional potential and to excel as part of a team — often outside the parameters of their daily role. The overall benefit for the company is enormous and ICL is taking major strides towards achieving its long-term vision, both for its businesses and for the planet!
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