S10E5 - How Open Innovation Fueled Evoqua's Resurrection

with 🎙️ Ann Perreault - Vice President for Strategic Marketing & Growth at Evoqua Water Technologies  with 🎙️ Joshua Griffis - Director of Technology & Innovation at Evoqua Water Technologies  💧 Evoqua is a global leader in helping municipalities and industrial customers protect and improve the world's most fundamental natural resource: water What we covered: 💧 How net water positivity is the new gold standard, making a splash beyond just offsetting usage to actively generating more water.  🤝 Why strategic IP development safeguards the partnerships Evoqua is building in the industry, making it more than just a game of patents.  📈 What the real playbook behind Evoqua's acquisitions reveals: it's not just R&D expenditure but a broader, synergistic growth strategy.  🤝 How synergy supercharges tech: Joshua and Ann discuss that when two technologies collide, they often create something greater than their individual parts.  🎯 What every water business needs to grasp: Customer needs are like shifting sands, and understanding emerging trends and problems is key to hitting the target, says Ann.  📈 Why mergers and acquisitions aren't just Wall Street buzzwords: M&A is woven into Evoqua's strategy as a critical channel for forging significant partnerships, according to both interviewees.  🌍 How Evoqua's footprint is more global than you think: Contrary to popular belief, Ann implies Evoqua's global presence is often underestimated.  🔍 Why profitability is not an end but a means for Evoqua, enabling them to engage in ambitious, industry-shaping initiatives.  💡 How innovation is the new black: Ann emphasizes that sustainability isn't a sideshow; it's the main act, embedded at the core of impactful innovations.  🎯 Why "de-risking" is your new buzzword: Both speakers agree that helping companies "de-risk" by doing the heavy lifting on feasibility and validation can fast-track adoption.  🤔 What failing fast really means at Evoqua: If you're not failing, you're not learning—this mantra isn't just for startups; it's infiltrating the big players too.  📊 How the Product Vitality Index is your new KPI: Forget conventional metrics; Ann suggests that measuring where your revenue comes from in terms of innovation investment is where the future lies.  🎯 How customer insights aren't a one-and-done deal: Diving deep to truly understand customer problems can reveal the nuanced layers beneath.  🌍 Why location flexibility enriches talent pools: restricting staff to physical locations is yesterday's news, says Perreault, when a world of talent is just a Zoom call away.  📈 What scaling your operation really takes: The journey of scaling a function often throws more curveballs than you initially thought.  🌿 Why sustainability is more than a buzzword: it's about achieving homeostasis with your environment for the long haul, not just slapping a green label on things. 🔥 ... and of course, we concluded with the 𝙧𝙖𝙥𝙞𝙙 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚 𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 🔥 🔗 Have a look at Evoqua's website  🔗 Come say hi to Ann on Linkedin  🔗 Then make sure to also connect with Joshua on Linkedin ➡️ Check out the entire article on how Evoqua applies Open Innovation  ➡️ Reach out to me: [email protected] Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.