Dubai: The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) held the fourth Creativity and Innovation Conference on Wednesday in a bid to support creative ideas and innovative projects to facilitate efficiency in their services and “achieve the satisfaction and happiness of customers”.
In his opening speech at the Grand Hyatt, Saeed Mohammad Al Tayer, Managing Director and CEO of Dewa, said “Dewa’s commitment to support creative ideas and innovative projects is in line with the vision and directives of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. The UAE’s current annual investment in innovation is worth Dh14 billion, of which Dh7 billion is budgeted for research and development.”
Al Tayer said the budget is expected to increase in the next few years to ensure that the UAE secures its place as the most innovative Arab nation.
“The innovative initiatives implemented by Dewa include the launch of the Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park. A Research and Development Centre was established in the Solar Park to develop renewable energy and energy-efficient technologies.
Al Tayer said that the centre aims to implement the latest technologies within Dewa and raise awareness about climate change and sustainable energy. Research areas in the centre include special projects, water and energy efficiency, smart grids and solar power.
Speaking at the conference, Anthony Denatale, Senior Specialist of Innovation and Creativity at Dewa, encouraged employees to submit their ideas. He also suggested a platform that would allow the public to post their recommendations.
“The fundamental means of innovation is to take an existing product or service and challenge its norm,” he said.
Denatale identified a few business strategies used by international corporations, which assured their success.
“Starbucks has adopted a web page, where customers can post their ideas and suggestions. An idea is then selected based on the upvotes and downvotes by other users,” he said, “We intend to adopt a similar platform for Dewa. It will be the first of its kind in the UAE.”
“We are also going to implement an in-house system which allows employees to submit their suggestions,” he said. “However, the key is not to just collect ideas but to actually implement the effective ones.”
Explaining the difference between creativity and innovation, Denatale said “creativity is the invention of a product or service, while innovation is to find ways to make the concept better and more successful, as did Henry Ford did for the automobile”.
