For the team at Marine Biotechnology Products, an everyday production challenge became a new business opportunity. Their project, Tuna Wangs, transforms tuna recovered from rejected cans into flakes for animal feed. The idea earned the team first place in the Business Innovation category, along with the overall Innovation Award.
“Every day, thousands of rejected cans of tuna were being sent to landfill, despite containing perfectly usable raw material. We knew there had to be a better way. Working with Princes Tuna, we can now recover and repurpose nearly nine tonnes of tuna a month. Not only are we reducing waste, but we are also entering a new market in animal nutrition, with exciting growth opportunities for MBP,”the team explains.
At HealthActiv, the challenge was closer to the customer. Faced with growing demand for faster deliveries, the team developed REACH, a rapid delivery service for essential medicines in the Port Louis area. The project took home the award for Customer Experience.
“Customers increasingly expect to receive their medicines quickly, particularly when their needs are urgent. We saw this as an opportunity to improve our service and give them another reason to choose HealthActiv. REACH is already making a difference, with more orders, higher sales and improved customer satisfaction in the Port Louis area,” says the HealthActiv team.
Meanwhile, Froid des Mascareignes focused on making its day-to-day operations run more smoothly. Its project, Pulse, winner of the Operational Excellence category, improves coordination between the unloading, sorting and storage of fish, helping teams work more efficiently throughout the process.
The Jury’s Prize went to Ground2Air for Flow, a digital solution that has significantly reduced the time spent preparing work schedules.
“In aviation, every minute matters. Our teams used to spend nearly 30 hours a week preparing schedules. With Flow, that time has dropped to less than three hours, freeing them up to focus on what really matters: delivering excellent service to airlines.”
Now in its sixth year, the IBL Excellence & Innovation Award has attracted 116 project submissions since its launch. What began as a competition has grown into a programme that also helps employees develop and strengthen their ideas. Through workshops on topics such as customer experience and business models, teams are encouraged to challenge their assumptions, refine their proposals and assess how their solutions could work in practice.
“What stands out this year is the determination of our teams to tackle real challenges and find better ways of doing things. Their ideas are improving how we work today while opening up new possibilities for tomorrow. We are also seeing a clear progression from one edition to the next. Projects are becoming more mature, solutions are taking shape, and teams are starting to build entirely new business models around their ideas,” says Delphine Lagesse, Group Strategic Innovation and Excellence Executive at IBL.
This focus on innovation as part of everyday business was also explored during a conversation between Patrice Robert, Deputy Group CEO of IBL, and Dr Anouchka Sooriamoorthy, Corporate Philosophy Practitioner, at the final.
“Innovation is essential to the future of a diversified group like IBL. Markets are changing, expectations are evolving, and we need to keep questioning how we do things and where new opportunities lie. Our ability to innovate depends on our people: their curiosity, their willingness to take initiative and their commitment to making things better. That is how we will remain competitive, continue to grow and create lasting value,” said Patrice Robert.
Through the IBL Excellence & Innovation Award, the Group continues to encourage employees to think differently, develop their skills and turn ideas into solutions that benefit its businesses, customers and communities.
