Saint Gobain - Registration document 2016

3 STRATEGIC DRIVERS FOR SUSTAINABLE GROWTH 3. Sustainable differentiation through innovation and R&D

innovation and R&D Sustainable differentiation through 3.

3.1

INNOVATION AS A PILLAR OF THE GROUP’S STRATEGY

Research and Innovation are integral to Saint-Gobain’s sectors. strategy, with a desire to increase its share of sales of high value-added products and solutions in the most buoyant innovation and design of Saint-Gobain’s solutions in relation to its customers to the creation of tools and services. It This priority applies to all stages of the value chain, from specifically includes an ambitious marketing strategy aimed at better understanding, anticipating and formulating Differentiation is one of the critical drivers of this strategy. customer needs, as well as an R&D strategy that puts researchers in direct contact with customers, to provide leading role in the move to a circular economy. competitiveness and by optimizing the environmental performance of the factories. R&D also plays an active and manufacturing processes, both by strengthening the Group’s At the same time, R&D contributes to improving industrial The Group’s measures to further develop its culture of innovation are continuing to bear fruit. For the sixth consecutive year, the Top 100 Global Innovators of Clarivate performance and operational excellence. In 2016, the Group invested €438 million in research and development, and investments, in order to maintain and expand its leadership positions in its Activities and to maintain a high level of 3,700 employees worked on nearly 900 research projects, resulting in applications for 390 new patents. efforts in the next few years, in particular with regard to the world. In 2016, the Group was also one of the 100 top applicants at the European Patents Office. It will continue its Analytics (formerly Thomson Reuters) has ranked Saint-Gobain among the 100 most innovative organizations in tailored solutions

innovations, are contributing to reducing the Group’s environmental impact right along the value chain. of motivation for the Saint-Gobain teams who, through their Saint-Gobain’s research and development teams operate on the basis of individually managed projects. This method of appropriate time. a continuous flow of innovations, for market launch at the production, respect for health and the environment. This organizational structure means that Saint-Gobain can ensure appropriate resources and looking a long way upstream at considerations relating to markets, industrial property, operation allows it to conduct research and development activities with the greatest possible efficiency, assigning the The main task of R&D is active and proactive support for the Group’s numerous Activities through targeted research projects, yielding developments and innovations involving both processes and products or systems, thus strengthening the competitiveness of its Activities and serving major changes in techniques and markets. These strategic cross-functional programs, linked directly to the focus areas for the marketing teams, allow Saint-Gobain to organize skills strategic, cross-functional R&D programs, by anticipating Its second task is to prepare the Group’s future through common to the Group’s various Activities and to improve its ability to develop key technologies. For each of these the industrialization stage. programs, research projects are at various stages of maturity; some of them are still maturing, while others are already at As an example, joint efforts by research teams from the Insulation Activity and Saint-Gobain Research, supported by the cross-functional Green Chemistry program, resulted in the development of a new biosourced binder for glass wool-based products. This development came to fruition in 2014 with the launch of the Isover 4+ product in Italy. This will continue in 2017 with a large-scale industrial and commercial roll-out by Isover France. To support the Activities in their digital transformation, the virtual and augmented reality research teams have this year marketing and production data analysis; and the HRDC Research Center based in Herzogenrath, Germany, is have been strengthened to support the Activities with digital developing skills to support the manufacturing Activities as they move to Industry 4.0. helped to develop several sales support applications for Building Glass Europe and Weber. The data science teams Saint-Gobain’s current markets.

3

Research and development costs booked

(in EUR million) 2014

395

2015

434

2016

438

3.1.1

Group Strategic and cross-functional R&D programs, driving growth for the

solutions to improve construction and everyday life is integral to the Group’s strategy. It is a major responsibility and source Inventing innovative and high-performance products and

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SAINT-GOBAIN - REGISTRATION DOCUMENT 2016