John TANGUY

Biographical note
John has been managing innovation process in companies for 7 years. He notably created the incubator process of Caisse des Dépôts (a major financial company in France) which gave the opportunity to test more than 50 new business with more than 120 people involved (30 % of these have been implemented since) and the innovation process of Societe du Grand Paris (including calls for project, a program dedicated to young entrepreneurs and an ambitious program dedicated to innovation by purchasing).  In the meantime John has been creating several companies in different areas for the past 10 days.

Presentation title: Innovation by purchasing: a French example on how to foster innovation by reinventing purchasing
When implementing an innovation strategy in a big company, purchasing can be seen as a constrained process, especially in a public structure. Regarding the variety of stakeholders, the complexity of the supply chain and the ambitious challenges big projects have to cope with, innovation is often considered as an unnecessary risk. The Societe du Grand Paris wants to turn the apparent drawbacks of the purchasing process into an efficient asset to spread Innovation throughout the project. By allowing our suppliers to express their suggestions before the attribution of the market, and valorizing it in our selection, we create flexibility in the process and allow innovative ideas to emerge. The purchasing phase is a strategic moment to work in collaboration with our suppliers in order to identify and develop impacting innovations that may significantly increase the economic, environmental and technological performances of the Grand Paris Express.