An
Innovation
Board
for
Zippsafe

The idea has been around for a while, but now we have turned our desired Zippsafe Innovation Board into reality. A group of hospital experts and renowned industry professionals will help us to better understand the needs of the healthcare sector and thereby develop new products and features for Zippsafe.

Our CEO Carlo Loderer and Dr. Gery Colombo, Zippsafe's Chairman of the Board, had been pursuing the idea of creating an Innovation Board for some time. With the intention of reflecting the requirements of our customers, they started their search accordingly. Through contacts, Ramona Urwyler, Head of the Hotel Division and member of the extended management of the Schulthess Clinic, was soon suggested. After a first meeting, it was immediately clear that Ramona's innovative thinking and drive made her a perfect fit and matched our idea for a focus group of this kind. We had thus occupied the first seat on our Innovation Board. 

We approached Urs Baumberger as the next potential member. Carlo had listened to a presentation he gave in June 2022 at the annual conference of the IHS (Ingenieur Hospital Schweiz), where he presented as well. Immediately, he was enthusiastic about the way Urs spoke about the hospital landscape and approached the issues of the industry on a highly strategic level. Initially working as a facility manager and today hospital director and board member of various institutions (most recently hospital director at Nidwalden Hospital), he covers the full range. You can talk to him about the heating in the basement as well as the strategy on the executive floor. Carlo contacted him and with a little persuasion, he agreed to become part of our board. 

As far as the other spots were concerned, we made use of our existing network. We were able to recruit Dr. Christophe Vetterli as the third member of the Innovation Board. We had met him at a conference in Hamburg and were immediately on the same wavelength. Christophe knows the core processes in hospitals like no other. He owns his own company consulting on issues such as process optimisation and transformations in the healthcare sector (Vetterli Roth & Partners AG). Through that he brings a slightly different perspective to the table. With his doctorate in design thinking from the University of St. Gallen, he can also provide us with methodological support, which further distinguishes him as a member of the Innovation Board.

Last but not least, Dr. med. Anja Oswald, MBA, our former board member is joining us. We have already benefited from her clever and creative input in the past and look forward to continuing this collaboration in the future. From her operative work as an orthopaedist and traumatologist, her many years as CEO of a psychiatric clinic, and her various mandates on boards of directors, the health department, and associations, she knows the system from the perspective of politics, administration, care and service providers. She is a passionate advocate of innovative, holistic, and everyday healthcare and supports Zippsafe in meeting these demands.

With these four very exciting personalities, characterised by the most diverse backgrounds, we would like to hold regular creative workshops in the future. The Zippsafe Innovation Board will meet two to three times a year. The first date in November at the Schulthess Clinic has already been set. The aim will be to identify the pain points and needs, especially with regard to clothing storage in hospitals. We want to validate our assumptions and ideas and thus derive new products and features that solve real problems in the hospital world. We are looking forward to the exchange with great anticipation - with so much brain power, innovation is bound to happen.

ABOUT ZIPPSAFE

Zippsafe is considered a pioneer in the field of smart soft locker solutions and is a provider of smart and highly space-saving solutions for employees' locker rooms in healthcare and manufacturing. The bag-based solution offers the highest space efficiency with the highest level of employee comfort. This can result in space savings of up to 70%, which often means hundreds of square meters. Thanks to built-in ventilation, antimicrobial fabric, and washability of the locker bags, hygiene in the locker rooms is also optimized. Using the Zippsafe Management System, the locker management process is digitalized, and internal processes are made more efficient.

Founded in 2016, the young technology company has revolutionized a market that has remained virtually unchanged for decades, in just a few years. Today, the company employs around 50 people in Switzerland and the EU. Since being awarded "Best Business Idea" by "The Entrepreneurial Wave" in 2016, receiving the Venture Kick Award in 2017, and being a finalist at the SEF Awards 2020, the company has won orders from an international clientele from Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France, Belgium, Latvia, and the USA.