The battery car

Companies can eliminate the chaotic “fuzzy front-end” of innovation by treating it as a structured business discipline with clear strategy, dedicated teams, and systematic approaches rather than relying on random creativity and aimless experimentation.

Organizational ambidexterity is the ability to simultaneously balance day-to-day operational efficiency (exploitative innovation) with long-term uncertain innovation projects (explorative innovation), requiring companies to manage all four quadrants of the innovation matrix to remain competitive and future-proof.

TRIZ theory demonstrates that innovative problem-solving can be systematic and predictable by identifying how similar challenges have been solved across different industries, allowing companies to adapt existing solutions rather than reinventing them from scratch.

CREAX helped Bekaert identify new market opportunities for metal foam by systematically mapping the material’s properties, discovering novel applications across industries, and evaluating market potential to transform an expensive aerospace material into profitable solutions for automotive, construction, and manufacturing sectors.

This example demonstrates cross-industry innovation by combining existing technologies from different sectors (lithium sulfur batteries from energy storage, fuel-up-at-home services from traditional automotive, and replaceable battery systems from power tools) to create a novel solution for electric vehicle charging infrastructure challenges.

CREAX proposes four practical rules to reduce electric vehicle production costs: use cheaper materials and technologies (like LFP batteries and EPP foam bumpers), reduce the number of parts through system integration, design parts for multiple uses (like symmetrical doors), and optimize for faster production processes.

Companies must adopt a balanced 3-Horizon product development strategy (short-term refinement, medium-term adjacent innovation, long-term disruption) while leveraging AI-driven consumer insights and agile methodologies to accelerate development cycles and stay competitive in rapidly changing markets.

CREAX analyzed 54,000 academic papers using AI and identified 70 distinct types of innovation, revealing that innovation has evolved from simple incremental improvements to a complex, cross-organizational discipline requiring strategic management across technological, digital, sustainable, people-centered, and ecosystem-based approaches.

The mobility industry is undergoing a revolutionary transformation driven by three key technologies—electrification (especially solid-state batteries), modular skateboard platforms, and autonomous vehicles—leading to mobility-as-a-service models that will fundamentally reshape urban transportation, logistics, and daily life by 2050.

The agri-food industry is undergoing rapid disruption driven by sustainability demands, health consciousness, and technological advances, creating opportunities for new entrants who can adapt quickly to changing consumer preferences while established players struggle to innovate fast enough, leading to cross-industry convergence and the emergence of new product categories like nutricosmetics and nutraceuticals.