* By David Ulloa Walker
Just as salmon swim against the current to return to their place of origin, it is also necessary to return to the basics, to the fundamental principles that govern natural phenomena, and from this understanding to move on to the search for practical solutions to the challenges that afflict society and, more specifically, the companies that try to solve them in order to gain market space.
Basic and applied science are complementary, but the former is the basis for the latter. Sometimes the urgency for results and the anxiety for commercial success lead us to skip steps and lose focus on the basics, the fundamentals that underlie the phenomena or processes being studied, and this is when patience and perseverance are necessary allies.
Innovation, as a successful result of applied science, is what allows companies to generate value to sustain themselves over time in a changing environment, but they must be faithful and consistent with what defines these processes. The temptation for companies to label themselves as innovative is great because it is an attribute valued by the market, and in a digital world, visibility and approval are magnets to wear what is fashionable.
The same is true for other concepts or qualities that are socially attractive and trendy, such as: energy efficiency, circular economy, sustainability, animal welfare, including some more classic and equally valid ones such as carbon footprint, blue revolution, green or environmentally friendly technologies, renewable energies, carbon neutrality. All of these concepts have in common a concern for the environment and respect for nature, and are often cited in the business world.
At the end of the last century, Peter Drucker anticipated the fundamental role of aquaculture and was a visionary for his time. In his extensive work on leadership and business management, he wrote that innovation is based on discipline and methodical work rather than sudden inspiration.
Within the global aquaculture industry, the salmon industry is a leading player and is dedicated to providing high quality and healthy protein for human consumption and is therefore subject to a variety of demands from the food market and stakeholders, including governments, shareholders, suppliers, customers, local communities, NGOs, employees and others.
In this context, it is important to understand that sustainability is environmental, social and economic, and that it is only possible to be responsible with the environment and the surroundings if companies are economically viable.
Therefore, in a world where aquaculture is a reality, and in particular the salmon industry is one of the most prominent, Chile is part of this leadership, being the second world producer, being for the local economy, the main exporter of food, representing 7% of total exports and contributing with 2.1% to the National GDP (Central Bank of Chile).
This position brings with it great responsibility, which is why innovation based on science is the key to a better industry. As a manager of a technology supplier (Imenco Aqua), I will focus my analysis on this segment. Technology companies are constantly looking to differentiate themselves, to add value to their products and services, to be preferred by customers, as a condition to stay relevant in a highly competitive world.
Innovation can be at the product, process, or business model level, and can be disruptive or incremental. Researching the state of the art and how to patent new developments is an increasingly necessary and recommended practice.
In my constant quest to explore, study and analyze the environment, I am concerned to see that some companies, in order to remain visible, fall into the temptation of simply using concepts such as innovation as a label. In a recent talk I attended as part of the audience, I was struck by the fact that this is more common than one might think and extends to other industries.
It has been written about in a somewhat harsher and more categorical way, with a powerful and critical message such as “Innovation can be theater”, an article by Steve Blank, something we should reflect on, as marketing can be seductive, but at the same time integrity must be maintained, innovation is not something superficial.
Technology companies have to deal with the challenge of bringing solutions to market and innovation. The former is the responsibility of the commercial area: marketing is measured in terms of sales, and all efforts are focused on the present, on what sells today.
Innovation, on the other hand, is focused on the future, on what will be sold tomorrow, it requires different times, its own leadership or governance, to make real innovation, it requires a strategy, resources, with appropriate personnel, it is a long-term task, with discoveries, successes and mistakes, the latter as Thomas Edisson rightly said, not failures, but that he had discovered 999 ways not to make a light bulb.
There are also emblematic cases where the result of an innovation comes from another industry, such as the invention of the zipper to close large packages, which was then transferred to the clothing industry, and many others where they are achieved simply by “accident”, such as in the medical field, which was the origin of Viagra.
Returning to the concept of the title about innovating against the current, it is an analogy to reinforce the idea of “swimming” against the current trend, although marketing forces push to be perceived as innovative, this will only be meritorious and real if it is the consequence of a systematic work, based on scientific knowledge, tests and validations that give technical support to the value proposition of the products and services offered in the market.
One way to innovate is to learn from and imitate nature (biomimicry) to solve technological challenges. A clear example of this is the countercurrent mechanism present in salmon respiration in the uptake of oxygen dissolved in the water at the level of the secondary lamellae, where the blood circulates in one direction and the water in the opposite direction, which is a highly efficient transfer mechanism that has been imitated and applied in various devices, to mention one, the heat exchanger.
I have given this example not by chance, because in an intensive culture system, dissolved oxygen is a critical variable and having devices (diffusers) that efficiently transfer this gas is something that has a positive impact on the growth and welfare of the fish. In this particular case, the same principles of innovation mentioned above apply to oxygen diffusers.
At Imenco Aqua we have worked on systematic, methodical, standardized and scientifically based tests to validate our solutions, and I have no doubt that most of the current developments on the market have also moved from an initial innovation phase to commercial products.
What I have been critical of, however, is when, for commercial purposes, applications, attributes, properties, even scopes beyond what these products were designed for, are exceeded. A concrete example is some of the publications or marketing campaigns about the properties of nanobubbles that go beyond the strictly technical, even omitting relevant contexts when compared to other technologies. In science, magical results such as the metaphor of products that claim to be “silver bullets” are not part of scientific rigor.
In summary, the invitation is to return to the essence, to the science that underpins technological progress. Although this is a slow and longterm process, it always bears fruit, and the most important thing is that this way of working generates confidence “inwards”, towards all those who participate in a company and are witnesses of this effort, as well as “outwards” towards the customers who are the users.
Paradoxically, working in a laboratory, test bench or any research unit does not require thinking about marketing (although successful cases are destined for the market), it only requires sticking to the results and findings, in the end you have to do the right thing because it is the right thing to do.
As Simon Sinek postulates in his book The Infinite Game, companies must have a purpose, a just cause that goes beyond results, where excellence allows all players (companies) to remain relevant, transcendence goes beyond profits, it is to generate benefits for all. That is why it is good to swim against the current, not to go against others, but simply to return to the origin, to what motivates and drives us to achieve our goals.
* David Ulloa Walker.
Ph.D. in Aquaculture, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso.
General Manager Imenco Aqua Chile.
Photography: Imenco Agua.
