Innovation by Contivation-My experience sharing
I am Cong Weiquan, I joined in the Continental Automotive Singapore branch at Jan 2019, took the role of Product Architect for cabin sensing product in BA UX, and later I was nominated as Expert of Camera System Design.
The Culture of Innovation.
Before joining Continental, I had been working in camera products field for many years, for a few companies that are well recognized with good innovation reputation. Plus, the trainings in innovation field I had taken, I was fully aware of the importance of innovation, how innovation linked with the survival and the success of the business, also fully aware of the challenges and resistance faced by innovation.
Remarkably, such topics regarding the innovation had been nicely addressed by Continental innovation process, particularly by Contivation program. For colleagues who may not be familiar with the program, I would like to comment my understanding. First, I would say it nicely reflected Continental’s innovation culture: It is a very convenient online program, that every employee has opportunity to contribute new ideas/technologies at any time, at any field. Those ideas have been effectively and efficiently selected and managed by colleagues behind this program. Suitable ideas with practical business potentials were implemented in projects/business.
Personal Experience.
Personally, along my career path, I have a particular interest in resolving technical problems and challenges, also like to explore new technologies. Therefore, Contivation seems to be a good fit for me to contribute.
My innovation experience in Continental starts at around Q2 2019, a few months later after I joined the company. At the time, there was an Innovation Project Proposal (IPP) yearly event in the company, collecting new idea proposals from all colleagues who were interested in. With enthusiasm in innovation, I proposed a few ideas. Even though these ideas did not pass through, I start to get familiar with the Continental innovation process, practices, and more importantly, the company’s innovation spirit and culture.
In 2020 I got familiar with the cabin sensing products, I focused on pain points and technical challenges of these products and, up until now, proposed several ideas for the IPP event. Some of those ideas pass through the process to the final stage and were implemented. Those contributions were recognized by Contivation team, along with others, I was honored with the Contivation Award for the year 2021 and 2022. To my understanding, like many others, this is a result of the great supports from BA and local management, also the result of our innovation culture.
A Perfect Match.
When looking back of my innovation experience, can observe the company’s innovation process, or even innovation culture, is evolving, becoming more effective and efficient. As we know, the program itself is only a tool or a platform, more importantly, it is the people, the colleagues behind that make this evolving happen. I believe such culture of innovation contributed to the company’s long historical success and ensured the future of the company.
Lastly, why innovation? To me, the most amazing part of innovation is to bring the imagination into the real world, by adopting innovative ideas into our product as a unique selling point, to create value, to gain competitive advantage over our competitors. Contivation provide us a path to make all this happens.
So, for colleagues like me who believe in innovation, Contivation would be a good fit for you as well.
