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O P E R A T I O N S
34-35
THERMO-SPOT: 10
years ALREADY
B R A N D S , P R O D U C T S , I N N O V AT I O N
AN INNOVATION COMMUNITY
Effective coordination of all the Group’s talents, whether
technical, marketing or creative, is the secret of successful
innovation. Groupe SEB strives to cultivate a real community of
innovation, which involves intensive contact between R&D,
marketing and design, as well as sharing the results of projects,
and building bridges between different product domains. It also
means working with outside partners such as laboratories,
competitive clusters like Vitagora in Burgundy, start-ups, universities,
health professionals, major agro-food and other mass
market industrial groups. It was from this perspective that the
Group’s Annual Innovation Days event, held for the second year
running in 2010, brought together this community of experts to
provide extra impetus for its innovation dynamic.
€73 MILLION INVESTED
IN R&D IN 2010
HIGHLY PROTECTED INVENTIONS
There is no good invention without proper protection. Our
Industrial Patents department which supports the work of the
Group’s R&D department, intervenes increasingly up-stream to
protect our new ideas and enable exploration of little-known areas.
Primarily concerned with protection, it saw a busy year in 2010
with the filing of 110 new patents, and 273 so-called Soleau
preliminary patent registrations. At the exploratory stage, it charts
all current research by reviewing new inventions in basic technologies
and their applications. The department also has a more
assertive role which involves virtually barricading our inventions
to protect them from being copied or forged. Last year was also a
very busy year in this area, especially for patents covering the
Actifry, which is much envied around the world.
AN INNOVATION
COMMUNITY
Of 750 PEOPLE
SD
SPOTLIGHT
rINNOVATION AND
SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
Jean-Christophe Simon,
President, Innovation
“Respect for the environment, consumer
health and making our products accessible to
the handicapped are an important feature
of our R&D work. This leads the Group's innovation
teams to explore new avenues, and take
up technological challenges in the use of materials, energy
consumption and ergonomics. Our innovation dynamic gains
momentum from a very active flow of exchange between
marketing, R&D and design teams. It is also
spurred by collaboration with outside experts.
An example is the Group’s partnership with
management, engineering and design schools to
further our understanding of handicap in the area
of cooking, and take this into account.”