Innovation at Birla Carbon

Innovation is embedded throughout our business, motivating us as we strive for continuous improvement. We leverage partnerships and explore new design processes to constantly expand the potential of our product.

John Loudermilk

“Innovation is a way of thinking how we look at the world differently and it enables us to think of challenges as opportunities. We are then able to get past the biases that we all engender that prevent us from doing things differently, in the process. With synergies in our skill sets and capabilities, innovation is truly boundless for us as a global business.

The goal of innovation for our business is to inspire and empower individuals to think differently, which eventually would instill a culture of innovation at Birla Carbon in the years to come.”

John Loudermilk
CEO, Birla Carbon

Our Innovation Story

Today, businesses across industries are riding the wave of disruption. With the world around us moving at a rapid pace, adapting to change and uncertainty has to be strongly embedded in the business culture. As a business, we discuss innovation, experience it from different perspectives, and take our learnings to our plants, labs, and offices to implement anew. Globally, we constantly attempt to create change through innovation by thinking differently, collaborating effectively, and continuing to live our purpose to #ShareTheStrength with our stakeholders, customers, suppliers, and the communities in which we operate. We believe every person strengthens the other and so also, one idea sharpens another.

BiiG Innovation LogoIn 2018, our organization made a commitment to Share the Strength, our purpose fostering a culture of collaboration amongst our internal and external partners, forging relationships within our communities, adding value for our customers, and ensuring the long-term health of Birla Carbon. The concept of Share the Idea, built on the revelation of our Purpose, emerged in 2019, to safeguard the future of the organization by striving to create a culture of innovation and empowering employees to take part in the innovation journey and transform their ways of thinking and operating.

While the innovation program has continued to grow from its inception to the present, the continued engagement of our employee base is the key factor in determining the success of the journey. To drive this continued engagement, Birla Carbon went BiiG in 2022. The Birla International Innovation Gathering (BiiG) concept emerged from our Purpose to Share the Strength and our innovation challenge. This gathering recognized innovators across the organization, enabled us to learn from our past, helped us future-focus today’s perspectives, and inspired us to strive for continual growth. We were joined in Amsterdam by 120 employees from diverse backgrounds and geographies who now serve as emissaries of innovation.

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Our Innovation Definition

Birla Carbon Innovation Video

Innovation spans the globe, and spreads across cultures, and transcends boundaries. We believe that innovation is rarely the job of a single person, or a single “Eureka!” moment. Rather, it is the result of tiny steps and the spirit of collaboration – because only when small ideas are shared, do they grow into something incredible.

At Birla Carbon, we recognize how important it is to share our ideas widely and freely around the world. We also recognized the strength of generational diversity through the lens of innovation as we work together to fuel our imagination and create a better world for our future generations.

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Our Innovation Principles

We believe innovation cannot be done in isolation. Just as our business Purpose has the 5 principles, we have identified five pillars that break down Innovation to its truest essence. These pillars are integral to the process of innovation at Birla Carbon and form the lens through which we view all our innovation initiatives going forward.

Seek ideas that add value
Power of Perseverance
Innovation Swirl
Without Boundaries
Start small, think big
Innovate Continuously
Start small, think big
Innovate Continuously
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Purpose Driven Innovation

With our purpose excavation in 2018 that led to the crafting of our purpose statement – Share The Strength, across our global business, fostering a collaborative culture was the organic outcome of this powerful statement. This gave birth to the concept of ‘Share the Idea’ which became our innovation Mantra as we moved along. We believe that every person strengthens the other; so too, one idea sharpens another.

At Birla Carbon, innovation is about gathering our resources in a frenzy of energy and impact.

Driven by our purpose, we look to Recognize the risks and rewards of our innovative past

Recognize

Learn how to future-focus today’s passions and perspectives

Learn

Find Inspiration to journey together into the unknown.

Inspire

Purpose-led-Innovation is the common song sheet from which all of our efforts tie in together. We are committed to inculcate and build a culture of innovation across all functions within our business, globally.

We firmly believe – The Ideas of Today, inspire the business of Tomorrow.

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Sustainable Innovation

Our sustainability strategy influences every decision we make. From designing and operating our plants to interacting with our customers and communities, it is what guides our efforts to Share the Strength and live our purpose.

In alignment with global sustainability goals, we have mapped our efforts to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), focusing on three key areas: economy, society and environment. To continually review the challenges that are most relevant to our business, and to consider internal and external impacts, we carried out a materiality assessment in FY2022. We are also proud signatories of the UN Global Compact, ensuring our efforts are coordinated at a global level.

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Innovation Ambassador Network

Collaboration has helped Birla Carbon come a long way in its innovation journey. The company’s robust Innovation Ambassador Network (IAN) actively promotes the basics of innovation and idea sharing across the business globally. The IAN is a group of 21 global superheroes (as we would like to call them), where each comes with his/her unique superpower to drive innovation at Birla Carbon in their own unique ways.

This team creates opportunities to empower employees to share their ideas, build on these ideas through collaboration, and turn them into reality. It is a means to cascade the culture of innovation down to the last employee at the shopfloor. Thus, innovation for the business spans the length and breadth, literally, of all our operations.

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Employees in our Innovation Ambassador Network share details of their role in cultivating a culture of innovation within the organization. It is a diverse group of employees from our global locations and functions, working towards a common goal of making Birla Carbon an Innovative company of the future.

Our innovation ambassadors play an integral role in driving engagement by encouraging site discussions, providing innovation updates at site meetings, and creating pathways of collaboration across geographies. These include partnering various manufacturing units together to share mutual challenges and work together to identify solutions, and sharing them with the larger business. Birla Carbon has a rich legacy of more than 150 years and we want to guarantee the next 150 years as well.

Innovation is key to ensuring the health, prosperity, and longevity of our business.

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Innovation Success Stories

Continua Logo

From Creation to Continua™ SCM

Giving carbon black a new life and providing circularity at scale via our sustainable offering. Through this, we enable circularity at scale by providing sustainable solutions for tires, mechanical rubber goods, plastics and coatings segments. This Sustainable Carbonaceous Material (SCM) gives our customers performance-enhancing qualities and enhanced sustainability.

Energy Systems Batteries

Energy Systems solutions for Lithium Ion and Lead Acid Batteries

We developed a wide portfolio of performance conductive additives that are designed to improve the energy density, power density, and charging speed of lithium and lead-acid batteries.

Chasm Logo

Collaboration with CHASM Advanced Materials

Birla Carbon and CHASM are together working via a joint development agreement, to develop novel, hybrid nanomaterials that combine CHASM’s nanotube enhanced carbon (NTeC) technology with Birla Carbon’s expertise in commercialization and manufacturing.