Transformation and innovation are big buzzwords in today's corporate culture. According to a 2020 Garnter report, 60% of businesses mention that digital transformation is a topic of conversation in almost every board meeting. Where you focus your innovation efforts can be just as impactful as your methods of implementation. The end goal is the same: to implement changes that have a positive impact both within your company and in the industry as a whole. So, in this C-Suite viewpoint, we ask you to share your views on how specifically YOUR organization deals with transformation and innovation.

Have you documented your innovation goals along with a dedicated annual budget? Where and how does the process start... and what are the critical success factors that turn great "ideas" into actual implementation?

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Christine Demen Meier
Christine Demen Meier
Managing Director, Les Roches

At Les Roches, embedding a culture of innovation and transformation goes through a holistic approach. The students are not only told the importance of innovation, but are taught and shown, through a great number of ways, why innovation is fundamental for the wellbeing of the hospitality industry, so it becomes natural for them to think improvement. The key element of this approach is named Spark, our on-campus innovation center. With Spark, students, alumni and industry partners develop and test on our campuses new hospitality solutions in our living laboratories and create starp-up in its pre-incubation and incubation center. Spark is embedded across our entire academic curriculum, putting innovation and entrepreneurship at the heart of all our programs, through different projects and activities focused on the key areas that will dictate the future direction of hospitality innovation. They are: AI and face recognition, Robotics, WebApp/ecommerce, AV/VR/XR, Internet of things (IoT), Blockchain, Product technology and Big Data.

To ignite the student's passion for innovation and entrepreneurship, we give them opportunities to work on real-life business consultancy, provided by our industry partners. Among all the startups and industry partners, we are working with companies such as VIMA in the creation of a solution, supported by Artificial Intelligence, to better understand how hospitality employees are perceived by others, and how to ensure their well-being. Another example of project currently in development with Spark is Nevomo, which define and develop the future hospitality customer services & experiences for hyperloop and magrail transportation. In addition, students receive coaching and support on how to research, pitch and plan for a business launch. Les Roches regularly hosts entrepreneurs to share their experiences with students as guest speakers on campus. This proximity with the reality of innovation allows our students to familiarize with the challenges of giving life to innovative ideas.

Our students also took the innovation spirit installed at Les Roches to another level with the creation of Spark Society, a student club where participants organize activities to promote to their fellow students the innovative trends and novelties in the hospitality industry.

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