Gardeners have many qualities. Their patience, their eye for detail, their willingness to start all over again every spring and their perseverance in the face of setbacks.

Elly Van Overmeire uses all these talents in her garden and at Xella. Based in Antwerp, she is Head of Innovation and Product Management for Northwest Europe. She is currently working on several innovative projects. The development of  new building materials such as highly insulating AAC blocks and an improved thermal kicker course in calcium silicate (CS), the deconstruction of old autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) and the reduction of CO2 emissions along the lifecycle of Xella’s AAC and CSU products.

"We want to help builders implement the EU Energy Directive with a new, insulating CSkicker course block," says the native Belgian.  "At the same time, we are working on how to dismantle and recycle autoclaved aerated concrete panels that are up to 40 years old." But that's not all: "We're also looking for measurement methods to calculate the CO2 emissions of new products. She is particularly proud of two projects from the past. "Buildings with Ytong are now twice as energy efficient as they were ten years ago. And the hydrophobic Ytong kicker course  now protects hundreds of buildings from thermal bridges.

Strong together

Elly Van Overmeire knows Xella like the back of her hand. 29 years ago, she joined Ytong as a young civil engineer. She had just graduated from Gent University. Xella didn't even exist then. It is fair to say that she learned the business from the ground up, experiencing good and bad times in the construction industry.

For almost 30 years, the Flemish woman has been looking for new ideas in various roles. "It has always been important for me to think about new developments together with customers, construction consultants and sales colleagues. Only if all the channels involved are brought together at an early stage can we bring the right product to market at the right time," she says. But that alone is not enough for long-term innovation. "I also keep an eye on all the important developments in standardization, new EU building directives or regulations for energy efficiency of buildings and nowadays sustainability. After all, even the best idea is doomed to failure if it doesn't meet the desired standards. That can be a bitter pill to swallow.
 
In Van Overmeire's view, something else is particularly important for an innovation-driven company like Xella: effective networks. "When you've been with the company as long as I have, you have a relationship of mutual trust with many colleagues. That opens a lot of doors, and some questions can be clarified quickly," she says with a smile, having seen Ytong and Xella grow. "This not only helps us implement our ideas more quickly, but also benefits our customers, for example when it comes to dealing with damage to buildings.

Continuous learning

Companies succeed through innovation. Especially in global competition, standing still means falling behind. This high standard is not only a technical or intellectual challenge for the people behind it, but also a psychological one. For years - in the case of Elly Van Overmeire, for decades - they have to keep motivating themselves and putting defeats behind them.  When she talks about her day-to-day work, it is clear that she has not lost her enthusiasm for new products and digital developments. This is not a digital native talking, but a down-to-earth person. Experienced in life, warm and relentlessly curious.

"There's always something new to learn," she says, describing her motivation. "Every project is different and takes you to the next level. Sometimes, unfortunately, you fail. Then we continue to learn from our failures. Patience is another characteristic of good innovation managers, according to Van Overmeire. "We were developing a new product using unknown raw materials to obtain specific characteristics, but we never reached the goals. Then  we stopped the project," she recalls, not too amused. The project documents lay dormant. But years later, the market demanded such products, and new management picked up the thread. Once again, Van Overmeire's credo was confirmed: "Never give up too early! After all, the problem that a canceled project solved still needs to be solved. So you have to keep developing. And always keep an eye on the competition.

If you want to drive innovation, you have to motivate people again and again, sometimes at short notice. Isn't that sometimes tiring, despite all the enthusiasm for the cause? "Yes, of course," she laughs. "It is difficult, but important, because good solutions always come from a team. And there is so much to develop in our company! We want to expand our digital services, improve internal processes, and overhaul product information management. We are not finished yet."

Wait and see

Sometimes you meet quiet, relaxed people who have nothing to prove. That is the impression you get from Elly Van Overmeire. And in her small hometown between Gent and Antwerp, she is lucky to have her garden. "In my free time, I prefer to be outdoors. I love working with my hands in the garden and watching the plants grow. And if something doesn't want to grow despite all her affection: Then she plants something new in its place and waits to see what grows out of it.