Beiersdorf marks first anniversary of Pearlfinder scheme

Beiersdorf has hailed the successful initial year of its open innovation initiative Pearlfinder, which marks its first anniversary this month.

The scheme invites external partners to discuss innovative new collaborative projects in a confidential online environment, allowing the company to come across new ideas that could offer business benefits and clinical breakthroughs.

Over the last 12 months, around half of the suggestions it has received were pursued, while 20 percent of registered Pearlfinder members were unknown to Beiersdorf and may have never been found if not for the scheme.

The success of the programme earned the company a best open innovator award in October 2011 from German trade newspaper Handelsblatt.

Andreas Clausen, head of open innovation at Beiersdorf, said: "This year we'll concentrate more on making Pearfinder well known cross-industry in order to get even more valuable ideas from innovative companies for our research and development work."

Earlier this month, the company published its full financial report for 2011, underlining a 2.1 percent annual increase in group sales.