Have you ever wondered what a corporate innovation lab actually does? Let’s show you!
Dear friends,
Have you ever wondered what it’s like building prototypes for the independent innovation lab one of Switzerland’s most prominent SMEs?
Well look no further as we take you on an adventure into how we work, play and learn at Ricolab, the independent, radical innovation lab of the Swiss SME Ricola.
This blog will show you how we innovate by building and testing new business opportunities and creating knowledge together with the members of our community. In all our work, we build on the rich heritage of Ricola while embracing the life-changing potential of innovation. We place our work at the intersection of Herbs and Technology (thus the title of this publication) and within this we are interested in five verticals — food-technology, health-technology, agriculture-technology, values & beliefs and spaces.
Based on four-month innovation sprints, we aim to test new business ideas within those verticals that embody our values. We thus want to make sure that all the ideas we test help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs are the vision of a better, more equitable and more sustainable world by 2030 that all countries of the world agreed upon in 2015. We believe that entrepreneurship and business can be a force for good, and for change — as we focus on the long-term future. Not only is this a strategy that has sustained our mother company for 85 years- but it’s a $12 trillion USD market opportunity.
So… Why this blog?
Through testing new business opportunities we learn a lot and we feel that some of it is also of interest to a wider audience, which is why we’d love to use this publication to share some of it with all of you. And yet, we of course don’t have all the answers, not by a long shot. That is why we also want to learn from people who are experts in their fields and we want to, all together, become part of an ecosystem.
This ecosystem is very diverse as on our journey we strive to understand herbs and their potential with new technologies from many different angles. These various approaches and angles reflect the amazing people we have worked with on our journey and this blog is a way to share some of the insights we gain with a wider community of interested people.
We see this as a platform on which we invite people from our community to write about topics connected to Herbs and Technology. All contributions reflect our wish to mainstream discussions around Herbs and Tech and our philosophy to listen to all relevant voices, even if we do not necessarily agree with their point of view.
So what can you expect from this publication?
A lot of cool things. We want to provide a platform for a wide range of posts on technology and herbs and how they can be used for the greater good from an eclectic mix of authors with various backgrounds, viewpoints and visions for the future! Apart from our guest authors’ wide-ranging visions and contributions, we will also occasionally let you know about our learning journeys as a lab within and outside our innovation sprints.
So if you’re curious about Herbs and Technology, our innovation verticals, cross-cutting expert research, innovation, and what we’re working on here at the lab: Subscribe!
And as we move forward — we’ll be continuously testing our approach and content, to make sure we publish things you love and can learn from and we want to learn from you too! So if you’re an expert, startup- or are just passionate about the potential of Herbs and Technology — get in touch — we want to hear from you! Also get in touch if you have any meaningful ideas and content that could add value to our blog, we may even feature you!
So help us build a meaningful community, spread the word, the love and the herbs — and let’s start this exciting journey together!
Herbs & Love,
The Ricolab Team
(Beni, Eva, Rasmus & Tatjana)
