What a time to be in technology! And what a time to work in a tech company like Barco.
Feb 10, 2025
How Barco’s innovation programs transform ideas into impactful solutions
2024 stories · Corporate · Innovation · 9 min read
As the head of Barco Labs, Peru Dharani works closely with a growing group of visioneers to develop breakthrough solutions that add value to our customers’ lives. Passionate about all things innovation, Peru is hugely excited about today’s technology landscape – especially the transformative changes that AI brings. In this column, he offers a snapshot of his thoughts and explains how Barco fosters ideation and innovation.
Last summer, I attended the annual SIGGRAPH conference, one of the most pertaining conferences related to Barco’s Entertainment division. One of the highlights of the event was a live keynote chat between two of the world’s key tech leaders. When two persons of this caliber decide to sit together at a pivotal point for AI technology, it shows the weight of the current moment in tech.
The two traded praise, respect, and quirky anecdotes about Hawaiian cows and cutting tomatoes, ending with a jacket swap. More importantly, while one expert explained how he aims to lay the groundwork for physical AI, the other stressed he envisions a future of user-based AI workflows using open-source models, which is in stark contrast with proprietary LLMs ecosystems. Time will reveal which vision wins.
Our world is facing quite a few challenges. At the same time, these technologies offer a brand-new way of augmenting our industries to make sure we can keep innovating our way into the future. What a time to be in technology! And what a time to work in a tech company like Barco. Innovation is at the heart of every high-tech company’s success, and at Barco, it’s part of how we work every day.
Over the past few years, we’ve stepped up and accelerated our innovation approach to come up with disruptive new solutions. To me, it’s key to involve as many Barco people as possible in these innovation efforts. That’s why we launched internal innovation programs encouraging cross-functional collaboration to develop ideas that support our strategic vision while addressing real-world challenges.
In early 2024, for example, Barco’s Workplace Innovation Cup brought together employees from across teams to pitch innovation ideas. With 121 ideas submitted, cross-functional teams worked together to refine high-potential concepts: breakthrough innovations but just as well continuous improvements that resonate with Barco’s long-term goals.
One standout event within CineMavericks, the innovation program of our cinema business unit, is the ‘Popcorn Pitch’, where selected teams present their ideas in a “speed-dating” format to subject matter experts from product, finance, data, marketing, R&D, and other areas. Each team spends 10 minutes with each expert, gaining valuable feedback with new insights and support that help sharpen their ideas. The teams then refine their ideas and submit final concepts for review by business unit leadership. The most promising projects advance to Barco’s internal venturing process, where they can secure funding and support to bring the ideas to life.
This process is a core part of Barco’s innovation strategy, bringing together Barco Labs and business unit teams to evaluate and nurture initiatives with real impact. That’s how we at Barco visioneer a bright tomorrow!
121
employees from across teams pitched 121 innovation ideas in Barco’s 2024 Workplace Innovation Cup – an impressive burst of inspiration shaping future opportunities
About Peru Dharani
• SVP Research & Head of Barco Labs since 2022
• +15 years’ experience in photonics, optics, hardware development, electronics engineering, etc. – around the globe
• Passionate about bringing innovative technologies from lab to market
Peru’s advice
“Innovation happens in both sprints and marathons. The key: we have to keep running!"
