GAF
The honeys of success and design as value (II)
In the constant construction and improvement of the Cuban socialist state enterprise, a concept as utopian as it is pragmatic and forced at the same time is used. The productive chain is a recurring term in the business movement and the public media of the nation; Although not popular, it is necessarily fully understood.
On how the ONDI-ISDI-APICUBA collaboration took place, La Tiza spoke with two of the closest witnesses to the process: Félix Cordero Álvarez, deputy director of APICUBA and Boris León Valdivia, director of the ONDi Development Unit.
Although it may be natural for ONDi and ISDi to chain together, it is worth asking how an apicultural entity would take on the challenge of delving into issues that are totally remote from its environment when for years it kept its focus on its fruitful production without major challenges or competencies.
With the inclusion of students from the Superior Institute of Design, we were inserting that new image into our formats. Thanks to her thesis, we obtained the image design of the Apisun brand. For us it was something new, very interesting, specifies.
"We saw the great difference of what a label is as attractive as the one we have today to the one from before, how much it changed, how much information this contains that the old one does not present, and we learned from them many commercial elements", reveals the APICUBA director.
“From an economic point of view, the impact has been positive. There has been a take-off in sales in the national market. We also designed our corporate communication and corporate image manual, that was completely different. A more inclusive, more strategic vision was achieved, based on the European market, which is where all Cuban honey is exported, ”explains Cordero Álvarez.
“Today we do everything based on the design of new products, we always return to the advice of ONDi, because for us it is worth a lot. Our alliance is still in force, we have four more ISDi students also doing their undergraduate theses in beekeeping ”, he says.
"We have reached a culture of detail that was not in the minds of the bosses, the cadres, officials ... what was ours was production and selling it. Three years ago Apisun was one thing and now it is another ”, reveals the manager.
"It is as clear as our President Miguel M. Díaz-Canel expresses it, when the school-university-scientists-company linkage is achieved, the result is alone, and the company sees it in its productions and in the recognition of the market", Cordero concludes with the euphoria of going for more and reaching the pending goals to continue growing, now with a totally renewed vision and image.
Chains: more than productive, prospective
Entering design in the value chain of products is an urgent need. “You can have a good product, but if you have not been concerned with how you reach consumers, you are losing space. Sometimes the content is fine and the form is bad. The value chain today reaches to experience. Design is one more component, because there are markets for everyone, and what it is about is giving more added value to products, ”argues ONDi's director of development, D.I. Boris León Valdivia.
“We found a misuse of the bottles - both PET and glass -, little segmentation of these for possible niche markets, poor communication and promotion, illegible texts… There we realized that the first need was to change the image of the company, because without this they could not enter the international market. It was very difficult, but we managed to overcome the barriers and today, still, the image is being built, ”says the specialist.
“Then we decided to focus on the products. We adjust trademarks. With a share of daring on our part, we organized the product lines and they very politely accepted it. After organizing all this, we thought we had to focus on achieving added value, starting from the creation of three product categories: Standard, Gourmet and Premium. This is strategy design, a level of design for which all the factors of the product lines have to be studied ”, he details.
“The linkage that exists in this case is not so much the productive one, but rather how the company connects with the university, because there are theses and works carried out by ISDi students. There is also the creativity that the student always brings; together with the role that ONDi plays as the leading entity of design in Cuba, from the advisory and group vision of connecting entities with students or with the designers' guild, so that they can overcome their objectives. From this perspective, it is a chain of process logic, not productive; but a strategic linkage ”, explains Boris.
“A growth is also that the entity in question asked for two industrial designers who, when they graduate, must be inserted in the company. This is very good, because in the end we have been the managers, the designers, the consultants, everything. We would stay in our true role, which is to advise, and so they would have their own designers, who inherit what has been done and can continue it. In addition, if there is a place where there will always be work content for a designer, it is in APICUBA ”, she assures.
"Serve the example of APICUBA, concludes the designer, to prove that a project can evolve, without making large investments or major changes."
