R&D FOR INNOVATIVE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

A company starts with an idea that then grows organically. But the big challenge lies in continuous growth. Dennis Freie of TRICAS also noticed this. After almost 25 years, his R&D company is ready for the next step. He explains how they are working on further growth so they can support even more multinationals in developing innovative products that make an impact.

TRICAS' mission is to make companies future-proof through product innovation - from an intelligent production tool to a smart consumer device. They have been doing this for almost 25 years. In 2000, Dennis and two fellow students came up with the idea for TRICAS in the pub. From there, it has grown into the organization it is today. “We do not focus on a specific market segment,” Dennis explains. “The insights and lessons learned from the various sectors provide innovative ideas. We call that cross-industry innovation. We do this mainly for multinationals, focusing on the R&D phase of product development. We then research new technologies and create new use cases and distinctive concepts. So, how do you go from an idea to a final product? We have become very good at that. Combining new technologies with creativity is where you find the gold.”

Outgrowing

Dennis works with his team from a quirky office in Zwolle. “We are now looking for another location,” says Dennis. “We are outgrowing our office. That is a challenge because we want to stay close by, but we also need labs and construction workshops for what we do.” That was not the only growth challenge that TRICAS faced. “We had taken the necessary steps and then noticed that we had to grow multiple facets of our company simultaneously. What used to be secondary functions now became full-fledged tasks. We also wanted to focus more specifically on multinationals as customers, while we previously also worked for startups. So we needed more information and expertise on how to approach such a growth process.”

Growth engine

That’s how they ended up at Novel-T's GROW Program. “That really was a mirror to us,” says Dennis. “We started to wonder why we do things the way we do. We had also never really thought about our 'growth engine', but if that’s clear, you can align certain processes in your company much better. For example, our growth engine is the ‘sticky engine’, meaning growth lies in retaining existing customers. That has consequences for how you set up your sales process. That was incredibly educational for us. Moreover, the program also made us more aware of our unique culture, and we are actively developing and communicating our core values. As a result, we can better substantiate our choices and we sail on more than just a gut feeling.”

Multidisciplinary collaboration

Although TRICAS is almost a ‘half Abraham’, they remain young at heart. Dennis: “Our organizational structure is still incredibly flat. We have employees with all kinds of different expertise and backgrounds, and it's great to see them working together in a multidisciplinary way. Colleagues regularly develop fantastic new ideas, and then we see what we can do with them. That also applies to the market. When new technologies emerge, we delve into them and share the knowledge with each other on our internal knowledge platform. That way, we stay up to date with knowledge and ensure that in ten years, we can still surprise our customers and help them with product innovation, but then on an even larger scale."