pdf (22.8 MB) - METRO Group
pdf (22.8 MB) - METRO Group
pdf (22.8 MB) - METRO Group
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<strong>METRO</strong> GROUP : ANNUAL REPORT 2011 : BUSINESS<br />
→ GROUP MANAGEMENT REPORT : 6. INNOvATION MANAGEMENT<br />
609<br />
6. Innovation management<br />
as a retail and wholesale company, MeTRo GRoUp does not<br />
conduct research and development in the strictest sense of<br />
the term. Rather, we practise systematic innovation management.<br />
after all, new concepts and technologies help our sales<br />
divisions to better meet customers’ needs and respond to<br />
their shopping habits. Moreover, innovations help us to make<br />
processes more efficient along the entire supply chain, including<br />
programmes undertaken in collaboration with suppliers<br />
and industry partners. By employing this approach, our innovation<br />
management supports the long-term profitable growth<br />
of our Company.<br />
Innovation management at MeTRo GRoUp is systematically<br />
organised: we continuously identify customer needs, market<br />
requirements and trends as well as relevant technological<br />
and conceptual innovations. We jointly develop, test and<br />
evaluate innovations with internal and external partners.<br />
should they meet our expectations, we will introduce them<br />
into our stores. In the process, MeTRo aG provides our<br />
companies with sufficient resources, for example, in the<br />
form of testing facilities.<br />
In terms of a <strong>Group</strong>-wide dialogue, employees responsible for<br />
innovation at the internal IT service provider MeTRo sYsTeMs<br />
work closely with specialists in the sales divisions. as a<br />
result, relevant knowledge and qualifications can be created<br />
and shared within the <strong>Group</strong>. Furthermore, it is assured that<br />
the innovations that are developed, address customers’<br />
needs and the specific requirements of the sales divisions. In<br />
introducing new concepts and technological innovations, we<br />
conduct an open, constructive dialogue with external partners.<br />
These partners include consumer groups and labour<br />
unions. We are a member of national and international organisations<br />
in order to support the development of standards.<br />
In 2011, we carried forward projects already launched and<br />
augmented them with other programmes from the sales divisions.<br />
The goal continues to be to successfully introduce new<br />
concepts into everyday business practices, to use innova tive<br />
technologies in stores and warehouses as well as to expand<br />
their use in cooperation with suppliers and business partners.<br />
The focal points of these efforts are cutting-edge<br />
information and communication technologies (ICT) and<br />
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), through which products<br />
and product movements can be registered without con-<br />
→ p. 122<br />
tact in IT systems. one additional focal point is mobile<br />
shopping – access to our products through such mobile end<br />
devices as smartphones.<br />
working relationships with external partners<br />
as early as 2002, we launched the MeTRo GRoUp Future<br />
store Initiative. More than 75 partners from the academic<br />
world, the consumer goods industry as well as the service<br />
and ICT sector are currently members of this alliance. Working<br />
together with these partners, we test innovative solutions<br />
in our efforts to address the operating challenges faced by<br />
the sales divisions. The focal point of the partnership, which<br />
was successfully continued during the reporting year, is<br />
always customers and their needs.<br />
a central testing platform for the initiative is the MeTRo GRoUp<br />
Future store in Tönisvorst, a city in the German state of north<br />
Rhine-Westphalia. The store is a Real hypermarket in which<br />
the sales division has been testing new concepts and technologies<br />
with the assistance of the partners of the MeTRo GRoUp<br />
Future store Initiative since 2008. Innovations that prove<br />
themselves in the Future store are gradually introduced by<br />
Real and in some cases even by Metro Cash & Carry.<br />
Mobile shopping<br />
one of the critical challenges facing retailing concerns changing<br />
customer shopping habits, which are shaped by such megatrends<br />
as mobility and digitalisation. MeTRo GRoUp is<br />
addressing these trends as part of its innovation management.<br />
In particular, the increasing use of smartphones facilitates new<br />
ways to approach and retain customers. In the process, socalled<br />
apps, software programmes with limited functions that<br />
are directly tailored to the users’ needs, are gaining importance.<br />
MeTRo GRoUp and its sales divisions offer a myriad of<br />
these applications for various platforms, including for ios,<br />
apple’s popular operating system. With Real’s app, for ex ample,<br />
customers can create electronic shopping lists, check on<br />
discounted items and get directions to the nearest Real hypermarket.<br />
In 2011, this free application was installed on smartphones<br />
more than 820,000 times. Users downloaded our “Das<br />
Gute essen” (eat good food) cookbook app more than 430,000<br />
times during the reporting year. It provides access to more than<br />
500 recipes as well as sustainability-related information.<br />
The Metro Cash & Carry wholesale stores have also de-<br />
veloped their own smartphone applications. The “MeTRo ein-
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