The CEO, Proscovia Nabbanja (center wearing ID) with staff, who participated in an innovation challenge.
Background
Innovation in its simplest form refers to the process by which an organisation generates ideas and converts them into new products, business practices and strategies that create shareholder value.
UNOC’s vision is “To be an innovative and profitable company that operates across the petroleum value chain for the benefit of all Ugandans.” Innovation is also a core value for UNOC. Therefore, in a bid to achieve this vision and in line with its core values, UNOC is taking deliberate steps to promote an innovation culture.
Core Objective
The core objective is to encourage PEAK innovations throughout the organisation. This means that all innovations should address at least one of the following areas.
PEAK Innovations
P - Promote Productivity
E – Enhance existing processes
A – Advancement of existing products or services
K – Kindle staff retention and motivation
Promote Productivity:
- Will the innovation improve the current quality of the output produced?
- Will the innovation reduce input costs and save UNOC revenue?
- Will the innovation save time and allow faster production of products or services?
- Will the innovation introduce a new product or service that will generate revenue for UNOC?
Enhance processes:
- Will the innovation reduce process cycle time?
- Will the innovation reduce waste and eliminate non-value adding activities in the process?
- Will the innovation improve the customer service experience for all process stakeholders?
- Will the innovation allow faster and more accurate decision making?
Advancement of existing products or services:
- Will the innovation grow market share for existing UNOC products and services?
- Will the innovation diversify the functionality of the existing products and services?
- Will the innovation improve the business model for existing products and services?
- Will the innovation grow the revenue generation of existing products or services?
Kindle staff retention and motivation:
- Will the innovation create a safer work environment?
- Will the innovation make UNOC the best place to work?
- Will the innovation promote greater teamwork and collaboration?
- Will the innovation ignite among staff a sense of belonging?
In September 2020 – December 2020, UNOC held the PEAK Innovation Idea Challenge, where staff were encouraged to submit any innovation ideas that could better UNOC. A total of 43 ideas were submitted and these were further evaluated to select the best 10 ideas that were presented to the board, the idea generators rewarded, and implementation of these ideas prioritised.
Today, there is an ongoing energy transition globally. Companies have to constantly rethink their business models and adopt transformation strategies to respond to global trends and prepare for an uncertain and changing world. There is a need to think about long-term survival paths, identify growth options and ensure strategic actions to protect themselves against the risk of obsolescence. This therefore calls for innovation as we continue on the path to build a sustainable UNOC.