The M-Logistik GmbH has been an independent subsidiary firm of the Mittelbayerisches Medienhaus and provides a full range of tailor-made services for processing, transporting and delivering print products and letters. The company has been looking for new, innovative business models for the last two years as the existing market potential for the company’s current offers was deemed all but exhausted. This led to the decision to hire external experts to give fresh impetus and promote the company’s own creative potential. Against this background, initial talks took place between ppi Media’s business innovation department and the management of the M-Logistik GmbH at ppi Media’s Open Days in 2017. As a result of these talks, a first workshop for M-Logistik was commissioned.
Innovation in the field of logistics
The first tailor-made ideation workshop for the company took place in July 2017 in Regensburg. A total of 10 employees from different departments at M-Logistik participated in this workshop. ppi Media’s business innovation experts gave an initial introduction into the Design Thinking approach and its innovation methods, before defining the company’s current and future target groups and personas. Throughout the workshop, the external input and the abilities of the highly motivated participants of the workshop complemented each other perfectly. A particularly inspiring talk was given by Bernd Riffel, CEO and leading the innovation project. Following on from a creative brainstorming phase, participants of the workshop fleshed out and validated the best ideas for new innovative services. It was a conscious decision to hold the workshop clearly separated from the company’s day-to-day business and with employees from different departments and levels of seniority in order to bring a diverse range of perspectives to the table. “Taking the time away from the day-to-day business is a decisive key to success for the digital transformation”, says Corinna Coverly, who led the innovation workshop at M-Logistik and who works as Senior Innovation Manager at ppi Media’s business innovation department.
The staff at M-Logistik were so successful at adapting the mindset and methods conveyed during the workshop to their subsequent work that two of the ideas and concepts from the session were validated, tested and submitted for implementation, all complete with the creation of landing pages, business plans and much more. Throughout the entire process, ppi Media offered advice to the innovation team and provided additional impetus. This successful cooperation created a future perspective for further workshops and innovation support by ppi Media at the M-Logistik GmbH: “We were able to develop important new ideas for potential business models and sketch them out straight away in the very first workshop. It was extremely helpful for us to receive fresh impetus from outside. After the workshop, ppi Media continued to provide our development with very professional support. I am thus greatly looking forward to our future cooperation. For us, this has turned out to be a very productive and innovative partnership”, says Bernd Riffel, CEO at M-Logistik.
Business innovation made by ppi Media
The business innovation department at ppi Media was formed as part of the company’s own digital transformation and has been accompanying SMBs – from the publishing industry and beyond – in their innovation efforts for two years. It employs modern methods such as Design Thinking, which is used to drive forward the change management of a company and its own employees.
“Design Thinking” as a modern method to solve problems creatively is an integral part of the consulting and innovation services offered by ppi Media. It involves employees from different areas of a company joining up to develop new products addressing the actual needs of a target group together. These new products and services are often implemented as a minimum viable product (MVP) in order to receive meaningful customer feedback as soon as possible and to improve the product quickly.
ppi Media’s business innovation department accompanies its partners throughout all phases of the innovation process and customers profit from the teams’ skills pool at every stage of their project. The business innovation experts merge with the customer’s employees to form new, interdisciplinary teams. Ultimately, ppi Media’s innovation projects convey not only the methods and tools needed for a successful digital transformation, but we also help you to develop a new mindset needed to change deep-rooted structures effectively.