Boiling Point – Episode 148 – Mark Breen of Enterprise Saint John & Patrick Parent of Moosehead Breweries

Solving Complex Problems with the Catalyst Innovation Program

Introducing Mark Breen of Enterprise Saint John and Patrick Parent of Moosehead Breweries

Innovation creativity is not a destination, but a journey. We know that most companies have to be innovative to stay relative. However, if pace of your innovation isn’t quick enough you risk your business fading away. Often companies get complacent over time and a sort of “group-think” sets in where processes and company culture are little changed over time and the result is a lack of creative thought. Today’s guests have tackled similar problems and have come out stronger and more innovative on the other side.

Mark Breen is an economic development officer with Enterprise Saint John, an economic development agency in New Brunswick, Canada. After looking at statistics gathered by Statistics Canada and the Conference Board of Canada regarding how innovative specific regions, Mark learned that New Brunswick was last on the innovation scorecard. To tackle this Enterprise Saint John sought input from a number of industries and found that many companies didn’t have a methodology for solving complex problems with innovative ideas. The result was the formulation of the Catalyst Innovation Program. One company that signed on to try to tackle is energy sustainability problem was Moosehead Breweries. Patrick Parent is Moosehead’s vice president of operations and human resources and he is with us today to describe how his 150 year old company was impacted by the Catalyst Innovation Program and how its process helped to solve their energy sustainability problem.

Check out this episode of the Boiling Point to see how the Catalyst Innovation Program could help you learn how to solve complex problems in your business.

In this episode

• Dave and Greg reflex on their time apart and with Monica Adair and Stephen Kopp.
• Dave announces the birth of his new baby.
• We are introduced to Mark Breen and Patrick Parent.
• Mark tells us where the idea of the Catalyst Innovation Program came from.
• Patrick tells us about the 150-year-old brewery and how the program helped Moosehead Breweries with their energy issues.
• We discuss the steps of the Catalyst Innovation Program and how the process allows you to think differently about tackling opportunities.
• Mark tells us why certain initiatives don’t stick when consultants are brought in for a few weeks to look at an issue.
• We use Moosehead as a case study of how the program works.