27 Mar 2020

People wellness and innovation

Every innovation seeks a benefit for the user. In that benefit there is a welfare part. Any innovation for wellness must pursue improvements in people’s physical and emotional state.

Now, at the moment we write this article, we are in a situation of exceptionality. The Covid-19 pandemic has led the world to a social reality, as well as a complicated economic context, unimaginable a few weeks ago. This situation of population confinement opens up new opportunities for innovation to people wellness.

Context implies that, during this confinement, people should continue working at home as if they were in the office; they must develop day-to-day in an enclosed space with their partners and children if they are in a family structure; they must be able to physically move in enclosed spaces to keep the body active; they must communicate with their loved ones virtually; and endless situations that seek physical and emotional well-being in unusual environments involving quick, agile and innovative solutions.

Products and Services

The truth is that the fastest-growing innovations for well-being sector have been, as indicated in some articles, those linked to services. In less than a week we have known more online intercom tools than in our entire life.

Without knowing how, we’ve integrated services into tools that weren’t meant for it. Virtual meals have been created between separate families, all of them connected at the same time by a video call for a dinner together. Many gyms have opened live sessions online. And many other disparate and diverse proposals have raised.

There have also been rapid product innovations for well being such as the creation of open innovation groups aimed, above all, at meeting the health needs of the moment. Volunteer nets sewing masks with cutouts of excess clothing; creating masks and sanitary products with 3D printing. No less is the development of information models with Big Data and AI about the evolution of the pandemic in order to activate its prevention.

New wellness needs

Will that end once we get back to normal? We’ll move from the exceptional to the structural. It is an opportunity to, firstly, consolidate open innovation beyond moments of solidarity as the current one. Secondly, it is a situation that allows discovering new needs where to innovate in the people’s well being.

At Girbau LAB we have marked well being as a strategic area from the beginning. We have sought both innovations for a wash that generates welfare outputs for the final consumer and for the procedures that facilitate washing. Precisely, we want to take advantage of this exceptional moment to detect other issues related to services and products that end up having an impact on the people’s well-being. We can’t stop. It’s everyone’s responsibility.