'Innovation requires continuous attention'
While the will to innovate is often there, in practice, ideas often remain on the shelf longer than there is room for them. 'There is often simply too little time to be concerned with potential long-term innovations, because the core business demands full attention,' says Dusty Kwee, Senior Innovation Lead at PostNL. 'That's exactly where we come in. It's nice that a business model stands and works, but where should it grow to in 4, 5 or 10 years? And does that also fit with the ever-changing customer expectations and technologies that follow each other in rapid succession? Innovation actually requires continuous attention."
So Kwee works with the innovation team on the necessary discovery processes - sometimes based on technology, but also on the bidding of sustainability, smart cities and opportunities to collaborate with other organizations. 'Then when something happens in the world, such as AI now and blockchain a few years ago, it's too easy to dismiss it as hype. We really try to explore and formulate what exactly is happening. Then we actually álways bring it back to the organization: do we see a match there to take it up together?
"You do something with online, can you help us?
Kwee began his career at PostNL as an intern, after which he was able to make quick strides in the organization. 'Because online was still something relatively new, everything was pretty fragmented throughout the organization. Then you end up in situations where you're competing with colleagues for the same keywords buy up from Google. In the end, we put it all together. Everyone who sth. with online does in one department.
'Innovation requires continuous attention'
While the will to innovate is often there, in practice, ideas often remain on the shelf longer than there is room for them. 'There is often simply too little time to be concerned with potential long-term innovations, because the core business demands full attention,' says Dusty Kwee, Senior Innovation Lead at PostNL. 'That's exactly where we come in. It's nice that a business model stands and works, but where should it grow to in 4, 5 or 10 years? And does that also fit with the ever-changing customer expectations and technologies that follow each other in rapid succession? Innovation actually requires continuous attention."
So Kwee works with the innovation team on the necessary discovery processes - sometimes based on technology, but also on the bidding of sustainability, smart cities and opportunities to collaborate with other organizations. 'Then when something happens in the world, such as AI now and blockchain a few years ago, it's too easy to dismiss it as hype. We really try to explore and formulate what exactly is happening. Then we actually álways bring it back to the organization: do we see a match there to take it up together?
"You do something with online, can you help us?
Kwee began his career at PostNL as an intern, after which he was able to make quick strides in the organization. 'Because online was still something relatively new, everything was pretty fragmented throughout the organization. Then you end up in situations where you're competing with colleagues for the same keywords buy up from Google. In the end, we put it all together. Everyone who sth. with online does in one department.
Thus Kwee became the first point of contact for all online issues. 'I've seen so much come along in all these years. From consumer questions, to international projects. Mostly, I just got a lot of the same questions: 'Dusty, you do something with online, can you help us?' Sometimes they could, but sometimes the resources just weren't there. From that idea, the innovation lab was actually born.
Innovation from the sorting center
The next step was location. That's where Herna Verhagen, CEO of PostNL had an immediate idea. Kwee: 'Herna suggested that PostNL had recently sold a sorting center in Amsterdam to B. Amsterdam. They did sth. with innovation and startups, I was told. That's how we ended up starting in our old sorting center in a kind of pilot.'
That location, then, provided a creativity boost. 'It oozes innovation and entrepreneurship,' Kwee says. 'It gives a totally different vibe than a traditional corporate environment. This then immediately bears fruit when you invite other colleagues to visit: it is in fact a fat, inspiring place where you come up with different ideas. And where you can easily come into contact with other entrepreneurs. That freedom to test things in a creative environment has helped our innovation studio tremendously.'
Not invented here syndrome
'In the beginning, really all ideas were welcome,' says Kwee. Whether they were internal or external ideas, everything was welcome. That soon turned out not to be the right strategy, because an incredible amount of shit in. We soon found out that it had to be more structured: looking at challenges within the organization and working with them to find innovations.'
Meanwhile, the lab, with a total of six employees, works closely with the various business units within PostNL. To ensure that innovations are not only developed, but actually integrated into the organization. We really do it together with the business, because that way you create support. Otherwise you run the risk of not invented here syndrome gets. That runs counter to any kind of innovation.
Suitcase service
In the meantime, the lab has already completed a number of projects. Sometimes successful - and sometimes less. 'One of the first big projects was a luggage service, where PostNL brought and checked in vacationers' suitcases from home to Schiphol,' Kwee says. 'We ended up setting that up with several partners. We then started working as a small startup, then after 2.5 years we got to a sort of point where the service had proven itself with returning customers - but not yet making a profit.'
'Then you're faced with a choice,' Kwee says. 'Do you want to continue investing, or kill you the project? That's also kind of the challenge for all innovation labs. When do you invest? And when do you stop? This project came to an end, but it gave me a positive signal that the entire organization is engaged in learning together. The process has given us a lot to make different choices in the future.
'Always at home with a parcel locker-to-home'
A recent project was the development of the home parcel locker. 'That process actually started three years ago, where we investigated how people want to receive their packages when they are not at home. We then looked at different solutions. Do they want to collect the package from their neighbors? A PostNL point nearby, or still a place around your house? It turned out that a parcel locker, a box at home, people seemed like something.
After half an hour of photoshoping and coding, the landing page was live. 'Under the slogan: always at home with a parcel locker-to-home,' Kwee laughs. 'I then launched a small campaign within the track-and-trace-environment, with a banner and a redirect link to a form. Within half an hour, I got a notification that the form had gone out; within that time, 200 people had already signed up. That was enough information for me to know that there was a pilot in this.
Not ROI, but return on learning
Dusty views the future of innovation at PostNL positively. 'We have had to fight hard for our right to exist, but in the meantime we have shown that we can make speed. Where every business unit should actually always be busy with the return on investment, above all, we can learn quickly and feed back the right information. It's all about return on learning, so as to remove as many uncertainties from the business case as possible. We are a kind of de-risking-machine.
'Sometimes things go down a little bit, and then all the noses are on the core business focused. That is often right, but once you get out of that phase, you need new things and ideas. We have our role to continue to nurture inspiration within the organization and show what's going on in the world around us.
