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In a world where competition is increasingly fierce and products in the market have been standardized, companies must differentiate in order to create competitive advantage and ensure continuity. Innovation, on the other hand, ensures that companies can take rapid action in this regard and offer special solutions by understanding their customers better. Companies that do not make innovation a priority lose market share because they cannot stay abreast of changing conditions, or they face being eliminated entirely due to the destructive effect of innovation. Aygaz has been the sector leader since the day it was founded, and in 2015, it began working to strategically manage innovation and create a culture of sustainable innovation within the company.
Aygaz’s innovation vision is to prepare for the future and to create a culture of sustainable innovation that brings added value to all stakeholders by creating distinction through innovative applications. Aygaz’s innovation mission is to support and systematically implement innovative ideas in existing and new areas, including products, services, processes and business models adapted to customer needs in cooperation with all stakeholders, and to ensure company development. Aygaz’s innovation strategy is:
Aygaz has developed an interactive environment called the Aythink Brainstorming Platform so that employees can share their creative and innovative ideas and contribute to the ideas that are shared. The platform was opened for people to enter ideas at certain times of the year so that employees could share ideas suitable for Aygaz innovation strategies. The platform was commissioned in 2016 with the motto “Innovation Starts With You”, and is used to instill the culture of innovation in addition to simple brainstorming.
The ideas entered into the Aythink platform by employees or put forward as part of the Design-Focused Thinking project are turned into a business model using the “Business Model Canvas” and the “Lean Startup” methodologies in cooperation with project teams that include the people who thought of the idea. The work performed during the acceleration period is shared with senior management via investor presentations to request support to proceed to the development phase.
Aygaz publishes a monthly e-bulletin called “Inobox”, which includes news stories and examples of innovation from Turkey and the world in an effort to instill the culture of innovation within the company. Employees can also upload news stories that they want to share to this bulletin published via Aythink. As innovation activities were launched to raise awareness, Aygaz gave all its employees training in innovation, and it continues this training to enhance employee perceptions of innovation. There are also plans to create a brand new work setting with the “Innovation Room” that will be equipped as part of the new generation workspace concept to encourage group learning, work and creation.
Since its founding, Aygaz has devoted resources to protecting brands, patents, industrial designs, works, and internet domain names. In this regard, it has one of the largest brand portfolios of any company in the sector. The Aygaz brand was registered as a “well-known brand” with decision number 272 on December 13, 2004 from the Turkish Patent Institute (TPE). As a result, Aygaz was granted protection in every area related to brand registration. As a “well-known brand,” it is also protected without a registration requirement in 177 countries under the Paris Convention because our country is a signatory.