Innovation Applied to HORECA

There are sectors more prone to innovation due to their nature, and other sectors where Innovation has more barriers to entry or more resistance. This depends on the relationship history with innovation, the money available (funds, subsidies) for R&D&i, the relationship with the income statement, the profile of the managers and workers in the sector, the maturity technological and digitalization of this, etc...

We could affirm that our sector currently has a low digitalization that It practically concentrates on “dumb” POS terminals and digital cards. Currently there is no one in the market that has a 360º overview of the sector, that sees that a Restaurant is more than tables, diners, dishes and waiters...

If the sector wants to move forward, it cannot continue to keep in mind: “I have a restaurant…”. You must keep in mind that what they have is a business that intermediates between the base product (food), adds value to them by transforming and serving them, and makes them available to their customers in the most appropriate way to the nature of the dish and the potential market to which it is intended. managed.

Without knowing what the people who devised, created and grew “El Bulli” had in mind at the time, I think they shouldn't go too far astray in this sense... for me it is the most innovative in the sector of all time... and innovation can not only be ICT, But ICTs are a driver that facilitates innovations.

Types of innovation: disruptive and incremental. Which one to adopt in HORECA?

Without going too far into the definitions, we must keep in mind that there are two types of innovations:

Disruptive: are those that break the traditional market, they are the most risky and those that can carry more risks… and more benefits with a look at medium/long term. A paradigmatic example is NETFLIX and its service.

Incremental: are those focused on the optimization of products and services, emphasizing the value chain of a business to reduce costs and increase short/medium term benefits. Some examples would be Google with its Gmail service, or Apple with successive innovations in its products.

In our sector, which comes from a stage of low digitalization, disruptive innovations They are usually scarce if not non-existent: in the end we are serving dishes and charging for it. But If we open the focus and see the sector in 360º, there is a way to go in this sense. The most common is incremental innovation:

1. Go from the command pad to the digital device

(whether specific or with the mobile phone itself) and the aforementioned digital letters... but this is all ?

2. Can't we go any further?

3. Is there not a path of conjunction between the two types of innovations?

Yes there is. We need to support a serious and determined digitalization of the sector at the same time that we are introducing more disruptive innovations that change the relationship that We currently have with our clients. Here the disruptive meaning has more impact on the relationship with our clients and/or suppliers than with changing business models.

Do we trust all innovation to AIs?

AIs are currently in fashion, and it seems that if you don't talk about AI you are nobody in the world. sector. Like any innovation, it must have meaning and be oriented not only to the business, but to the associated business processes.

Can we make an AI to create a dish recommender for a customer? Yes, but is it necessary?

There are other data processing processes that can also do this…

We can do a recognition of invoices and delivery notes with just a photograph of these with an AI? Yes, and I don't see any other way to do it.

With this I want to tell you that not everything is about AIs, but with AIs designed and oriented to the business. we can be more productive and efficient in all those business processes that are around preparing dishes and serving them, with that new orientation to what we are managing is a business, not just a restaurant…

This orientation, this business-oriented philosophy, this pragmatic vision of how to implement innovation, this analysis of each type of business and the possibility of building a route Strategic adoption of innovation is what we, the people at IoTTable, do.