The sharing of knowledge has become a major strategic issue for business development in companies faced with a growing geographic dispersion of teams, and the fragmentation of their organisation. To face these new challenges, Oxand has set up the Lab: a structure common to all the Groupes entities. Its mission is to encourage knowledge-sharing, but also to boost expertise with new ideas.

Jacky Mazars, Emeritus Professor of Grenoble Polytechnic Institute, and scientific and innovation advisor for Oxand Group, is the strategic administrator of the Lab.

We asked him to tell us more about the project...

Why did Oxand create the Lab?

"Oxand now connects many teams of consultants around the world and benefits from a rich experience feedback acquired during the company’s various projects: complex missions with high stakes to consider, discussions with clients from various fields of activity, involvement in international scientific meetings… Oxand’s idea was to create a flexible structure, common to all entities, which would be able to gather knowledge, formalise methods, and ultimately organise transmission of ideas and drive innovation. The goal is to create value for the company and to propose continually new and efficient tools for our clients. It is a highly innovative program and the teams involved are very motivated!"

Can you explain roughly how it will work?

"The Lab is a tool, which every consultant contributes to. We have set up a cell inside the system: the “Lab Team”. It is composed of engineers and doctors specialised in their respective fields (civil engineering, energy, transport, etc.). Each of them is animated with the “Lab spirit” and is responsible for relaying information between the Lab and the different teams following a “bottom up” or “top down” approach. The entire process is organised by this central cell. Other consultants may intervene from time to time depending on the theme, necessity, or the work’s progress. During our meetings and discussions which are well planned and structured, information is collected, sorted, examined, prioritised… This is how “nuggets” are identified. Those which are selected are then conceptualised, and implemented through a “model”. This is then studied from every possible point of view, including possible external support to take the research even further; the aim is to ensure sustainability of the final product. If it meets criteria, it can then be marketed, for example as software."

What are the first achievements in sight for the Lab?

"It is obviously premature today to announce precise actions insofar as they have not been submitted to the whole validation process and are therefore still confidential. However I can tell you we are currently working on a project that is already well advanced and that has emerged during the Lab meetings: it deals with the optimisation of civil infrastructure maintenance. On this subject, and others too, the Lab’s diary is full for 2010!"