[Extract] "Failing can quite expensive when you're the World's Largest Water Company!" - Glenn Vicevic - Veolia - a podcast by Antoine Walter

from 2023-08-09T02:59

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Glenn Vicevic s the CTO of Veolia Water Technologies and Solutions. Veolia WTS provides Industry-leading water technology and process expertise to solve the toughest water, wastewater, and process challenges.




Innovation as a water start-up is an uphill battle. If you've ever listened to this podcast, we've covered that topic through many examples: you'll have to commit for years to decades to push your technology through, and it will require a lot of grit, persistence, confidence, and much more. 




To describe that Sisyphus-worthy path, we've often taken a few examples on that microphone that illustrate well this entrepreneurship journey, and arguably the n°1 example is Zenon's story. 




I guess we don't have to dive into the details here, because we did that extensively with the legendary Andrew Benedek, the founder of Zenon, when he was my guest about 15 months ago. 




But Andrew's trajectory is just one of the possible outcomes. Grow your company until it's almost too big to stand alone, exit, and use your well-earned money to start again and strive to save the World. 




Yet, when Zenon merged with GE Water, and Andrew Benedek went on to acquire Anaergia, Zenon's Technical Director stayed with the company, and kept growing with it, as it went on to merge with Suez and last but not least, Veolia.




You would have guessed it, this former technical director is Glenn Vicevic, my guest today, and Veolia WTS's chief technical officer.




And what's fascinating about today's conversation is that it gets us to understand the next part of a technological company's path. What do you have to do to stay on top of the game? How do innovation and R&D tick at a different pace and follow different rules once you're a water tech giant, compared to your early steps as an agile Start-Up. What's cooler than exploring the innovation engine of the World's largest water tech company? Let's find out, trust me, you'll get to love Glenn's openness and eagerness to share several nuggets.




➡️ Check out the entire article on how the World's Largest Water Company, Veolia, fosters innovation

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