He who sows will reap

by | June 15, 2017 | News & Blogs

Reading time: 3 minutes

At the time that Novum started, the well-known vegetable gardens were distributed at Albert Heijn. It always turns out to be a formula for success. Quite logical also considering that Dick Boer leads the company. A number of colleagues had done their shopping and suddenly there were 25 cardboard boxes in the lab. These boxes have been staring at us for a while. Jokes were made about it, but nobody dared to make his hands really dirty and plant the seeds. After all, it takes time, you do not know exactly what will come out and if you have little experience with vegetable gardens there is a real chance that things will go wrong.

After being staring at the boxes for a week, we decided to set up the irrigation lab. The start was carefully made and the seeds were planted (not planned). A moment with my hands in the mud, but it immediately looked good. The first weeks were not so bad. The weekends were particularly difficult because they were not given any water at the time. A week of intensive care did many plants well, but some lagged behind.

Eventually after about 2 weeks the switch was made for a number of plants from the cardboard box (prototype) to a bucket (MVP). Extra resources (potting soil), more room to grow and a natural selection in which the most promising plants found their way. There were also a number of vegetable gardens for which there appeared to be no market. Nobody liked dill, so the dill got stuck in the prototype phase.

Now 2 months later, most of them are still standing, but a few plants have died as well. The first cress and arugula have already been harvested. The snow peas, cherry tomatoes and sunflowers are promising. The beetroot and carrots are still disappointing, but there seems to be something happening, especially underground.

This blog is not just about our vegetable gardens. Of course we are proud of it and it is an easy subject to start a conversation, but above all we see many similarities with the innovation lab. If you have already made an attempt at (internal) entrepreneurship, compare that to the development of your own AH vegetable garden.

Not all ideas will eventually reach full maturity, but you need the experience to move forward. If you pick up many ideas, there is a good chance that one or more strokes will be successful, but even greater that some will not make it. The beginning is uncertain and you probably don't have the resources to make it grow. But why would you also; first make sure that your plant comes out of the ground at all.

In the beginning you do not yet know exactly how you can move your idea forward, but by learning how to move forward, your idea grows. By persevering and continuing to pay regular attention, growth can continue, without attention you come to a standstill. And if you hold on long enough, you can finally harvest.

By: Tim van Dijk

 

 

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