The much-awaited 2 nd edition of Innovation Challenge 2.0 concluded on the grand occasion of Mane Kancor Day Celebrations. The year-long challenge culminated as Mr. Jean Mane, President and CEO of Mane, bestowed the award to the winners.
On October 2021, a Mascot Designing Competition for the Innovation Challenge was announced as the curtain raiser to the campaign. From the entries ‘Kain’, the ant was chosen as the mascot. Kain helped to promote and drive the Innovation Challenge in all manufacturing locations of Mane Kancor.
The challenge officially kicked off with a physical marathon, “Mane Kancor Goodness Marathon” which was conducted over three days across all locations. The participants collectively covered a landmark distance of more than 2455 km against the pre-decided target of 1000 km.
The Innovation Challenge committee for 2022 was chaired by Mathew Varghese, Senior VP Operations, Mane Kancor. The Challenge was conducted in 5 stages. Employees from all locations and functions were invited to share their innovative ideas. More than 90 innovative ideas were received in the first stage. Each idea was evaluated in every stage of the challenge based on 6 broad parameters- Feasibility, Business Impact, Resources required and potential outcomes, Product Ideas, and Presentation Style. After screening, 22 ideas got selected for the second level of the challenge. An eight-member panel chose 12 innovative plans from the 22 that got into the next level for a pilot run that lasted for 2 months. After the successful completion of the pilot run, 5 finalists were shortlisted and evaluated by an apex committee formed by functional heads. Four of them were finally declared as winners of the Innovation Challenge 2022 for presenting the best innovative ideas under the categories- Product Innovation, Process Innovation, Safety Innovation, and Environment Innovation.
Innovation Challenge as an initiative intends to foster a culture of innovation among the employees. It also gives ample opportunity to take a re-look at the existing functional pattern and to form cross-functional teams. The first edition of the Innovation challenge was conducted in the year 2020. The program was well received by the employees, and it was decided to run this contest every year.