Introduction

"Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision”

Peter F. Drucker, in American Educator and Writer, 1909.

Galp Energia challenged in 2009 the Portuguese companies and designers with the “Galp Innovation Challenge”. Under the motto “hotspotdesign” demanded in its regulations to develop the new patio heater integrating a 11 kg propane gas bottle.

“The non existent differentiating offer in the national and international market of an innovative and com-petitive product both in design and price originated the initiative(…)”

Galp Energia, 2009, in Concurso Hospotdesign

Facing the necessity of launching a new product, a consolidated company as Galp did not hesitate to challenge students, micro companies and freelanc-ers in search for the best solution to the arising necessity.

Thus, we attend to an initiative that beyond provid-ing to the company that launched the contest a diverse set of options in the proposals received, also provided unique opportunities to the partici-pants as they demonstrated their knowledge and work.

Challenging Design

The market has always been a phenomenon strange to some companies, to others it did not meant anything, but some dominated it and learned with it, taking the right steps in the right time. Those companies, those people and teams, have in their hands most of the times, an increased social responsibility: they may create jobs, may learn to invest in innovation with fewer resources and espe-cially may learn to take higher risks not in financial terms but in confident interventions in companies less consolidated.

“Galp Innovation Challenge” starts soon to be a success in one of those interventions, that we dare to entitle as social in this paper.

Despite existing in Portugal excellent companies with a solid history in industrial production, there is only a small group of them totally dedicated to develop or improve ideas for new products. Unfortu-nately, those smaller companies lack on opportuni-ties as the bigger companies start to move away.

To entrust and to assign innovation projects to students, newly graduates and technology based arising companies is an essential factor for the corporate fabric’s sustainability.

Take for instance the example of the partnerships between the multinational company Philips and TUDelft University, the Georgia Institute of Technol-ogy or the Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical Univer-sity.

The knowledge of those students is structured according the image of a company that understood and valued an early intervention in their human resources, even before these in fact become part of the company.

BIG Companies Should Challenge Designers more.Designers Should Challenge BIG Companies more.

& Hotspot EASYS, by EMBRIAMarcos Caetano & Tiago Fernandes, EMBRIA - Industrial Design

Website: http://www.embria.pt E-mail:embria@embria.pt

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EMBRIA - Industrial Design Marcos Caetano, Tiago Fernandes

The same perhaps is happening with Galp that taking advantage of the importance it has in the market, recognises a unique opportunity in dissemi-nating and “popularising” a theme: the development of new concepts and the maturation of new prod-ucts.

These initiatives must become an example, must be more and more explored and enhanced. In indus-trial design, the idealization and development periods must have its architecture based on a need. If that necessity is detected or accepted by a com-pany with investment power it’s even better.

When Design is the Challenger

When researching and in idealising stage, Industrial designers must be themselves who challenge the companies and the market. Waiting for the interven-tion and initiative of big companies will not work. Models as “Galp Innovation Challenge” will not be certainly sufficient in Portugal, where we must refer once again, we find a reduced set of job offers within this specific area.

The resulting work of an industrial designer and the team around him can come up a product well accepted or rejected by the market. There are tools that may anticipate those scenarios but in most cases, common sense dominates. At this stage of the market study it is necessary to control the relationship with the product that is intended to reveal. Persistence, courage and especially confi-dence in the quality of the project will sooner or later reveal results. Big companies can not only be the defying party, they must be in most situations the defied party.

In the beginning of this connection some obstacles always present to us, especially for the smaller or younger companies that will have to select very well the investment of their human resources in the several projects that crosses their path, if they want to survive.

In the correct interpretation of the projects that may bear fruits lays in most cases the distinction between a growing company and a stagnant com-pany.

Opposite to what have been happening, designers, as agents of innovation and human life improve-ment, have to be sufficiently daring to assume themselves as the intervening party in new business opportunities.

Hotspot EASYS case, by EMBRIAin “Galp Innovation Challenge”

As result of “Galp Innovation Challenge”, in this edition under the theme “Hotspotdesign”, a very recent technology based company and fully dedi-cated to industrial design, decided to take the risk and invested its human resources in the develop-ment of a winner project for the new Galp Energia patio heater.

As Tiago Fernandes, co-manager of EMBRIA states - “taking a risk seems always to be only for the big companies, with more resources and solid teams so they can succeed over the obstacles that a project as this from Galp encloses (…) but we at EMBRIA were at a time that we had to take the risk, and we put all our resources in this challenge. We trusted in our work and we believed that this was a one of a kind opportunity”.

The product they presented challenges Galp to adopt new materials and a new concept to the heat reflector. The bottle container, designed to be produced in Neopolen®P (PPE) or Polypropylene, was one of the key factors in the development of this concept given that it is an ECOfriendly and lightweight material. EMBRIA points out some aspects that they consider to be cleared up and that now must be polished at the prototyping stage:

→ Components’ reduction;→ Improved transportation of the product;→ Improvement in the product transportation after assembled;

→ Cost reduction where possible, in order to foster competitiveness and to invest in other added value options;

→ Awakening of emotions with the product;→ Coherence with the already existing Galp spotline products;→ The use of recyclable materials.

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EMBRIA - Industrial Design Marcos Caetano, Tiago Fernandes

hotspot EASYS, by Embria - Industrial Design

hotspot EASYS, by Embria - Industrial Design

In fact, we must recognise that business opportuni-ties have their origin in research and nowadays we can refer more to technical enhancing and redesign than to inventions.

EMBRIA saw in this challenge an opportunity to demonstrate the knowledge and multidisciplinarity of its team, and risked in promoting new materials and new technical concepts, converting an easy to produce product in a design product that stood out because of its simplicity.

Challenging by the Simplification of Use and Manufacturing

The challenge of designers for the big companies, in breaking with standards, paradigms and sets of ancient products may be achieved in several ways, but there is a concept that must be in the basis of that challenge:

Companies are not interested in complicating the production processes. Even an adding value inno-vative idea, if it does not present substantial improvements regarding production, assembling and transportation/distribution processes, it will be very difficult to influence the decision makers that the product will improve the company sells or brand performance.

This tendency from big investors to ask for redesign projects based on refining, simplifying and reducing the assembly chain will continue to grow and shall be part of the design briefings.

ConclusionsTo foster initiatives aiming at disseminating new products is mandatory. Whether if are designers taking the initiative or the companies managers and industrials, we shall persist in this dynamic dialog, and in this search for optimization and higher sustainability of the production resources and used materials.

Giving space and trust in new companies and in students is not an obligation, but an opportunity that must be explored by the companies, even with the intention of finding in that relationship a financial return. Whether in temporary tasks or long lasting projects, the important is that expectations must be present in both parts.

KeywordsChallenge ; Offer; Social Responsibility; Confidence; Sustainability; Human resources; Agents; Investment; Simplicity; Disseminating ; Expectations

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EMBRIA - Industrial Design Marcos Caetano, Tiago Fernandes