When you think of innovation at a pharmaceutical giant, it’s easy to picture vast research labs, billion-dollar pipelines, and teams of scientists working behind closed doors. But in innosabi’s recent webinar with AstraZeneca, the spotlight shifted to something else entirely: how to scale innovation through collaboration (and how lessons from the healthcare sector can inspire corporate innovation across industries).

The discussion, led by Madeleine Thun, co-lead of AstraZeneca’s A Catalyst Network, touched on everything from ecosystem partnerships to patient-centric KPIs. While the full conversation is packed with insights, here are five standout takeaways worth pausing on.

As Madeleine shared during the webinar, “In the Catalyst Network, we work with the extended healthcare ecosystem to drive innovation beyond just developing medicines.”

Key Article Takeaways

• Discover why AstraZeneca’s mantra “Love the Problem, Scale the Outcome” reshapes how big organizations approach innovation.
  
• Learn how the company builds trust-based partnerships with startups—without claiming their IP.
  
• See how AstraZeneca’s Catalyst Network goes beyond medicine to improve the entire patient journey.
  
• Get practical advice on how corporates can avoid stalling collaborations and become “gentle giants.”
  
• Find out why AstraZeneca measures innovation by lives changed, not vanity metrics.

5 Main Lessons from AstraZeneca’s Approach to Innovation

1. Big Innovation Starts with a Simple Philosophy

AstraZeneca has a mantra that guides its entire approach: “Love the Problem, Scale the Outcome.”

At first glance, it sounds almost too simple. But the power lies in what it prevents: falling in love with a particular project, tool, or technology. In a large organization, it’s tempting to pour resources into a promising solution and push it everywhere. The risk, though? Forcing a square peg into round holes across different markets.

“Loving the problem means truly understanding what you’re trying to solve — the processes, the people, who is impacted, and what really needs to change.”

Instead, AstraZeneca doubles down on understanding the real challenge. For example, diagnosing patients early might require AI-enabled ECG tools in one country, while in another it could demand entirely different pathways. The details change, but the commitment to solving the underlying problem—better patient outcomes—remains constant.

The lesson for corporates: Obsess over the problem, not the project. Great solutions follow naturally.

2. Partnership Without Power Plays

One of the biggest barriers to corporate–startup collaboration is fear: fear of losing intellectual property, fear of being overshadowed, or fear of getting locked into a relationship where the bigger player calls all the shots.

See how leading corporates and startups overcome fear to build real collaboration — read the full post here

AstraZeneca takes a refreshing stance here. They don’t ask startups to hand over their IP. Instead, they frame collaborations as a “triple win”: good for the healthcare system, good for the startup, and good for AstraZeneca.

“We don’t claim to own IP from the companies we work with. We support and work together with a common purpose.”

It may sound idealistic, but it’s actually pragmatic. Startups are more likely to engage when they feel their work is protected and valued, and AstraZeneca benefits by accessing cutting-edge ideas without stifling them. This shift (from ownership battles to outcome-driven collaboration) is one of the most fundamental differences in their model.

The lesson for corporates: Trust builds better ecosystems than contracts ever will.

3. The Scope Is Bigger Than Medicine

Many people assume AstraZeneca’s role ends once a treatment is developed. But in reality, their A Catalyst Network looks at the entire patient journey, from identifying at-risk populations to ensuring patients stay on the right therapy long term.

This broader scope is what makes the initiative so ambitious. It goes beyond the science itself. It’s about tackling systemic challenges like access, diagnosis delays, and treatment adherence. In practice, that means working with hospitals, payers, patient organizations, and technology partners, not just research labs.

“For patients to be well-treated, you first need to identify those at risk, diagnose them, get them on the right treatment, and help them stay on it. That requires the entire ecosystem — not just pharma.”

It also explains why their network is deliberately inclusive, spanning startups, scaleups, academia, and beyond. Healthcare is too complex for any one company to solve in isolation. So by zooming out from medicine alone and looking at the system, AstraZeneca can have an outsized impact.

The lesson for corporates: If you want impact, zoom out from your product and look at the bigger system it lives in.

4. Collaboration Needs a Reality Check

One of the most memorable parts of the webinar was the practical advice for large corporations. Madeleine put it bluntly: don’t waste startups’ time.

“The key is finding your champions and senior leaders who dare to lean in. Most people are a little afraid — but with the right ambassadors, others will follow.”

That means two things:

• Be a “gentle giant.” Recognize that your processes are slower, your legal reviews longer, and your approvals more complex.
  
  
• Have your “ducks in a row.” Internally align on what you need, how you’ll support it, and what resources are available before you approach a startup.

Otherwise, you risk stalling promising collaborations in endless internal debates. For startups—who move fast and have limited runway—this kind of limbo can be fatal.

This is a rare dose of humility from a major corporation, and it’s why the advice resonated so strongly. True innovation partnerships require not just bold ideas but also operational honesty.

The lesson for corporates: Self-awareness is underrated in innovation. Know your pace, own it, and don’t let it derail others.

Read our full Startup Scouting Guide here to learn how to find and collaborate with the right startups.

5. Success Is Measured in Lives Changed

Innovation metrics can get messy. All too often, corporations celebrate the number of pilots launched, projects announced, or partnerships signed. These look good in reports but rarely reflect whether the work made a difference.

AstraZeneca flips the script. Their key metrics are starkly patient-centric:

• How many people were identified as at risk?
  
  
• How many were diagnosed earlier?
  
  
• How many were placed on guideline-directed therapy?

This focus on outcomes over outputs keeps the entire network grounded. Instead of chasing “vanity metrics,” AstraZeneca tracks what truly matters: lives improved and extended.

If you can’t measure innovation, you can’t scale it. Find out which KPIs matter most in our Ultimate Guide.

The lesson for corporates: Redefine success around impact, not activity.

Final Thoughts

The AstraZeneca approach underlines a truth many overlook: innovation scales not through ideas alone, but through the ecosystem and foundations that sustain them.

But these highlights are only the starting point. The full webinar dives into the details we couldn’t cover here—like:

• The role of internal champions in overcoming resistance to change
• Real-world examples of collaborations that moved from pilot to patient impact
• How AstraZeneca uses digital platforms to manage a global innovation pipeline without chaos. 

As Madeleine put it herself, “In a huge organization where teams have autonomy, the right hand often doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. Platforms like innosabi Startup give us enterprise-wide visibility.”

Want to see how it all comes together? Check out the full webinar replay and explore the complete conversation.

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Innovation may start with a single idea, but it only becomes transformative when it’s scaled through the right networks, partnerships, and ecosystems. That’s why leading organizations are rethinking how they collaborate—shifting from closed, siloed R&D to open, purpose-driven innovation models that accelerate impact.

In innosabi’s recent webinar with AstraZeneca, one theme stood out clearly: success isn’t just about discovering solutions, but building the structures and relationships that allow those solutions to grow, adapt, and make a difference on a global scale.

Quick Article Takeaways

• Innovation at scale needs structure — AstraZeneca’s A Catalyst network connects startups, scaleups, providers, and academia into one global ecosystem.
  
• Partnerships work when IP stays with the startup — a shift from ownership battles to outcome-driven collaboration.
  
• Impact beats vanity metrics — success is measured in patients treated, not pilots launched.
  
• Visibility and governance are non-negotiable — the innosabi platform ensures compliance, knowledge-sharing, and faster decision-making.

What It Takes to Turn a Good Idea Into a Global Solution

For a global company like AstraZeneca, the challenge is not just developing groundbreaking medicines, but creating real-world impact across the entire patient journey. That means finding ways to diagnose earlier, treat more effectively, and ensure patients receive the therapies that will make the biggest difference.

Their solution? Building an ecosystem that unites startups, scaleups, healthcare providers, patient organizations, payers, and academia around shared problems. Through the A Catalyst network, AstraZeneca has redefined how large enterprises can approach innovation, by focusing less on ownership and more on outcomes.

Below, we’ll explore AstraZeneca’s model as a mini-case study, touching on their innovation philosophy, partnership structure, and operational tools.

The Challenge: Why AstraZeneca Needed Ecosystem Collaboration

AstraZeneca’s mission extends well beyond selling medicine. They recognized a gap: systemic healthcare challenges weren’t being solved fast enough.

These problems are too complex for any company to solve alone. Pharmaceutical giants bring resources and expertise, but they cannot single-handedly build the diagnostic tools, tech platforms, or systemic solutions needed to transform patient outcomes. To push boundaries in healthcare innovation at scale, AstraZeneca needed partners with agility, fresh perspectives, and niche capabilities.

The Approach: Structuring Partnerships for Real Impact

1. Building an Inclusive Ecosystem

Through A Catalyst, AstraZeneca created a deliberately inclusive network that spans startups, scaleups, research labs, healthcare providers, and patient organizations. This diversity ensures they can address challenges across the entire patient journey, from identifying those at risk to ensuring long-term treatment adherence.

As Madeleine Thun, co-lead of the Catalyst Network, explained during the webinar:

“We support stakeholders across the extended healthcare ecosystem, solution providers, startups, payers, physicians, academia, investors. The ecosystem is huge. To drive sustainable change, we need that inclusivity.”

2. A Partnership Model Built on Trust

Unlike many corporations, AstraZeneca doesn’t seek to own the intellectual property of its startup partners. Instead, they focus on a “triple win”: solutions that benefit the healthcare system, the partner company, and AstraZeneca itself. This approach removes one of the biggest barriers to collaboration and builds genuine trust.

“Our business model is based on selling medicines, not taking IP. In the Catalyst Network, we aim to win–win–win collaborations: valuable for healthcare systems and patients, beneficial for partners, and relevant for AstraZeneca.”

The principle ensures startups can collaborate without fear of being overshadowed or absorbed (one of the most common sticking points in corporate–startup partnerships).

3. A Clear Innovation Philosophy: Love the Problem, Scale the Outcome

Perhaps the most distinctive element of AstraZeneca’s model is their guiding mantra: Love the Problem, Scale the Outcome.

This philosophy means innovation begins with a deep understanding of systemic challenges rather than with pre-determined solutions. Every healthcare system is different, so scaling requires flexibility. In one country, AI-enabled ECG tools might be the answer; in another, it could be a different pathway entirely.

“What we emphasize is loving the problem, not the project. The focus stays on outcomes for patients and systems, not protecting one specific solution.”

Madeleine Thun, AstraZeneca

With this mindset, AstraZeneca avoids the trap of clinging to a “pet project” and stays focused on the ultimate goal: better patient outcomes, no matter how they’re achieved

4. Using the Right Tools for Scale

Managing a global innovation network is complex. AstraZeneca uses the innosabi platform as a “single point of knowledge”, a digital hub that provides enterprise-wide visibility, tracks partnerships, ensures compliance, and prevents duplication of efforts across global teams.

At the center of this setup is the innosabi platform, which functions as a “single point of knowledge.” Instead of innovation activities being scattered across geographies or hidden within individual departments, the platform creates a digital hub that:

• Provides enterprise-wide visibility into projects, partners, and outcomes.
  
• Tracks partnerships systematically, ensuring that nothing falls through the cracks.
  
• Maintains compliance and governance standards across regions.
  
• Prevents duplication of efforts, so teams in different markets aren’t unknowingly working on the same problem in parallel.

Of course, this structure doesn’t simply keep operations tidy, it’s what enables true scalability. Ideas and frameworks tested in one market can be seamlessly adapted to another, with full context and learnings carried over. So even if the solution itself evolves, the knowledge base and process remain intact, allowing AstraZeneca to scale outcomes globally without losing speed or consistency.

In other words, the tools aren’t just supporting innovation, they’re multiplying its impact.

The Results: What Makes Their Approach Work

With collaboration at its core, AstraZeneca has created a framework that consistently produces patient-focused, measurable results.

To name a few:

• Successful Startup Partnerships: Examples include working with AI-enabled ECG startups to help primary care physicians identify at-risk heart patients earlier.
  
• Mentorship for Early-Stage Startups: Beyond partnerships, AstraZeneca mentors smaller startups, helping them navigate regulation-heavy industries. This serves to strengthen the ecosystem while ensuring a pipeline of future-ready collaborators.
  
• A Scalable Model: Their philosophy allows projects proven in one country to be adapted in another, even with different systems and partners.

Lessons for Enterprise Innovation Leaders

AstraZeneca’s journey offers practical, transferable lessons for other corporations looking to scale innovation through collaboration:

Start with the problem, not the solution. 

Define the challenge clearly before bringing in partners.

Be a ‘gentle giant’. 

Recognize that corporations move slowly—get internal processes in order before engaging startups to avoid wasting their time.

Measure what matters. 

Focus on outcome-based metrics tied to customer or patient impact.

Create an inclusive ecosystem. 

Diversity of partners leads to stronger, more sustainable solutions.

Invest in tools for structure and visibility. 

Without centralized platforms, large-scale collaboration becomes chaotic and inefficient.

Prioritize humility. 

True collaboration requires acknowledging power imbalances and creating partnerships that benefit all sides.

Closing Thoughts

AstraZeneca’s A Catalyst network shows how large enterprises can transform innovation into a scalable, repeatable process by focusing on ecosystems rather than ownership. Their philosophy—Love the Problem, Scale the Outcome—is a reminder that innovation isn’t about chasing shiny solutions, but rather about creating meaningful, measurable change.

What corporate innovation leaders should remember is that success lies in building partnerships rooted in trust, structuring collaborations with the right tools, and always keeping the end outcome at the center.

But this is just the surface. The full webinar dives deeper into operational challenges, governance models, and how AstraZeneca measures success beyond the usual KPIs. If you want to see how these principles play out in practice (and how you can apply them to your own organization) this is one conversation you don’t want to miss.

Watch the full webinar here

FAQ 

How does collaboration improve innovation?

AstraZeneca shows that collaboration unlocks innovation by combining diverse expertise—from startups, academia, and healthcare providers—to tackle challenges no single company could solve alone. Instead of siloed pilots, co-creation leads to solutions that are both practical and scalable.

What is scaling innovation?

Scaling innovation means moving beyond pilots into solutions that make a global impact. AstraZeneca’s Catalyst network is a great example: ideas proven in one country are adapted for others, ensuring real outcomes for patients rather than isolated success stories.

What is an ecosystem innovation strategy?

It’s about building networks of partners that share challenges and co-develop solutions. For AstraZeneca, that means connecting stakeholders across the healthcare journey—from diagnosis to treatment—so innovations aren’t just created, but integrated into systems at scale.

What is an example of ecosystem collaboration?

The Catalyst network itself. By partnering with health-tech startups without claiming their IP, AstraZeneca accelerates the adoption of tools like AI-enabled ECGs—helping doctors identify at-risk patients earlier and improving healthcare outcomes globally.

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Since 2016, the organization has relied on innosabi’s software to capture ideas from across its workforce. What started as a broad open innovation initiative has transformed into a focused, transparent, and rewarding system of internal employee-driven innovation.

Along the way, Munich Airport shifted its focus from quantity to quality, ensuring fewer but stronger ideas, clearer processes, and more successful implementations. Transparency became a core asset – with decision histories that explain why ideas were accepted or rejected, employees gained trust in the system and the motivation to resubmit better proposals.

And the success is measurable:  

• 100 new ideas submitted in 2024

• 205 ideas completed (implemented, closed, or rejected with feedback)

• €32,000 distributed in financial rewards

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But these numbers only tell one side of the story. The real success lies in how idea management has become part of Munich Airport’s culture – fostering engagement, recognition, and retention across the entire workforce.

In this exclusive success story, you’ll learn:

• How Munich Airport structured a transparent process that builds trust.

• Why shifting from more ideas to better ideas accelerated implementation.

• The role of recognition and rewards in boosting employee engagement.

• How innosabi’s platform integrates seamlessly into IT systems and culture.

• What’s next: AI, gamification, and the future of employee-driven innovation.

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Download the full success story here and discover how Munich Airport is shaping the future of employee innovation.

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In a world where innovation is no longer a side initiative but a strategic imperative, companies need more than ambition—they need structure. Ideas might spark creativity, but only well-managed projects turn innovation into business impact.

Yet for many innovation teams, managing those projects still means juggling Excel files, disconnected tools, and unclear responsibilities. The result? Delayed timelines, duplicate efforts, and missed opportunities for synergy.

That’s where innosabi Project comes in.

Our platform is built to help organizations take control of their innovation landscape—by structuring, tracking, and scaling projects from first idea to final implementation. Whether you’re overseeing internal initiatives, collaborative R&D, or cross-functional programs, innosabi Project creates a shared space where everyone is aligned and nothing falls through the cracks.

But don’t just take our word for it.

One of Europe’s leading construction companies recently transformed how it manages innovation across its global organization—bringing together thousands of projects, partners, and contributors into one unified system.

Read the full story and discover how they scaled innovation with clarity and confidence.

The financial sector is evolving at an unprecedented pace, driven by technological advancements, changing customer expectations, and an increasingly complex regulatory landscape. In an industry where trust, security, and efficiency are paramount, financial institutions must continuously innovate to remain competitive and future-proof their operations.

Why Innovation Matters in Finance

Innovation is no longer just a competitive advantage in the financial industry—it is a necessity. The rise of digital banking, fintech solutions, and AI-driven services has transformed customer expectations. Users now demand seamless digital experiences, personalized financial products, and faster, more secure transactions. To keep up with this rapid transformation, financial institutions must embrace new technologies and rethink traditional processes.

Challenges in Driving Innovation

Financial institutions face several challenges when it comes to innovation. Some of the most pressing include:

• Regulatory Compliance: Adhering to strict financial regulations while implementing new technologies can slow down digital transformation efforts.
• Data Security & Privacy: Protecting sensitive customer information is a top priority, requiring robust cybersecurity measures and careful data management.
• Legacy Systems: Many financial institutions still rely on outdated infrastructure that makes seamless digital integration difficult.
• Customer Trust: While customers expect innovation, they also need to feel confident that their financial data is secure and services remain reliable.
• Internal Adoption: Encouraging employees to embrace new systems and workflows can be a challenge, especially in well-established institutions with deeply rooted processes.

How Financial Institutions Can Overcome These Challenges

To successfully drive innovation, financial service providers must find the right balance between agility and security. Key strategies include:

• Investing in Scalable Digital Solutions that integrate with existing infrastructure while offering room for future growth.
• Prioritizing Regulatory Compliance from the Start to ensure that innovation aligns with industry standards and avoids legal complications.
• Leveraging Data Responsibly to provide personalized customer experiences while upholding privacy and security.
• Encouraging a Culture of Innovation by empowering employees with the tools and mindset needed to contribute to transformation efforts.

For a deeper dive into how financial institutions can implement agile innovation strategies, check out our whitepaper on Agile Innovation in Finance.

A Practical Example of Innovation in Finance

Navigating the complexities of financial innovation requires strategic planning and the right tools.

Idea management is a central component of modern organisations that strive for innovation and continuous improvement. But how do you create an effective system that motivates employees and brings about real change? I.K. Hofmann GmbH provides an impressive example of how to successfully overcome the challenges of idea management and create a culture of innovation. This article highlights the best practices that I.K. Hofmann GmbH has developed to optimise its idea management.

Introduction: The “Ideenhof” as an innovation centre

I.K. Hofmann GmbH realised that its existing company suggestion scheme and continuous improvement processes were not efficient enough in its decentralised, process-oriented organisation. The solution was the “Ideenhof”, a centralised platform that was launched at great expense during the biggest internal event of the year, the company seminar. A hologram show and QR codes for registration attracted attention and initial participation.

Transparent communication motivates

A key element in the success of the”Ideenhof” is transparent communication. A simple submission form lowers the threshold for employees to submit their ideas. The option to submit ideas anonymously encourages honest feedback. Ideas are also clearly categorised and evaluated so that employees always know what happens to their suggestions and who is responsible for them.

Efficient idea process: submission, categorisation and evaluation

The “Ideenhof” makes it easy to submit and classify ideas. There are seven tags for classification, which provide a clear structure. The ideas are evaluated by two experts according to defined criteria for potential and feasibility. This ensures a fair and transparent evaluation and prevents ideas from getting lost in the shuffle.

Incentive schemes to encourage submissions

Motivation and incentives are key to encouraging active participation. I.K. Hofmann GmbH uses a points system where submitters can collect 'nuggets'. These nuggets are converted into tickets to win valuable prizes in an annual raffle. These prizes range from gadgets such as a Nintendo Switch or an iPad to trips. Such incentives create a fun competition and significantly increase participation.

Transparency and regular communication

Traceable processes and regular updates on the status of submitted ideas are essential for employee satisfaction. This transparency means that submitters always know where their ideas stand in the process and feel that they are taken seriously and valued.

Rotate evaluation teams to avoid power imbalances

Although the teams that evaluate ideas are specialised in certain topics, I.K. Hofmann GmbH is considering rotating these teams. They are currently testing this model for their innovation challenges. This will help to avoid power imbalances and ensure that the evaluation remains fair and impartial.

Added value through exclusive content and communication

The “Ideenhof” offers exclusive information and opportunities for interaction that are not available on the intranet. This includes updates on ongoing projects, collaboration with start-ups and live demos of new technologies. This exclusive content makes the platform attractive and increases usage and interaction.

Knowledge management and avoiding duplication

Another important aspect of the “Ideenhof” is knowledge management. Ideas are often submitted for which solutions already exist. An effective system for identifying and communicating these solutions avoids duplication of effort. This saves time and resources and helps to make better use of existing knowledge.

Direct communication with management

Anonymised challenges such as “Mrs Hofmann said” created a direct communication channel to management. Employees were able to ask questions anonymously, which were then answered by management. This direct interaction promotes trust and transparency and shows employees that their concerns are taken seriously.

Regular newsletters to encourage interaction

Regular newsletters, published monthly or quarterly, help to increase performance and interaction on the platform. These newsletters provide information about new ideas, progress and successes, keeping employees up to date.

Challenges before launching the “Ideenhof”

I.K. Hofmann GmbH faced several challenges before implementing the Idea Hub. The existing idea management system was not transparent, with no clear deadlines or responsibilities. Ideas were evaluated in meetings, but without clear roles or responsibilities, resulting in a chaotic process. Many ideas ended up with the same people who already had other important tasks, giving the impression that things weren’t moving forward. The submission of ideas was hampered by unclear categories and there was a lack of strategic innovation communication.

The role of the “Ideenhof” in addressing these challenges

The “Ideenhof” has created a single point of contact for innovation that addresses these challenges. Clear structures and processes, transparent communication and an effective incentive system have motivated employees to actively participate and submit ideas. This has not only increased the number of ideas submitted, but also improved their quality and feasibility.

Conclusion

The implementation of the “Ideenhof” at I.K. Hofmann GmbH shows how well-thought-out idea management can contribute to promoting innovation and continuous improvement. Transparent processes, clear communication, attractive incentives and a central platform have created a culture in which employees are encouraged to actively participate in the improvement and innovation of the company. These best practices provide valuable insights and inspiration for companies looking to improve their own idea management.

In France, FDJ Group has exclusive rights to operate offline and online lottery games, and point-of-sale sports betting. FDJ Group is also extending its online gaming offer open to competition and capitalizing on its expertise to create new revenue sources: marketing solutions internationally, local cash collection and payment services, and the entertainment sector.

‍Interview with Pierre Tramon, Senior Analyst @FDJ Group.

What led you to implement an Open Innovation Strategy?

Large groups are generally looking at the changes they need to make in order to sustain and develop their business. Typically, what needs to be accelerated? Who are the new users? What new technologies should we be using?

We are convinced that proximity to the tech ecosystem is essential to help us answer these questions. The FDJ Group's open innovation approach was initiated in 2015 to detect new trends early on and gain privileged access to relevant start-ups. And then, ultimately, to be able to integrate their solutions into our offerings, our pathways, and our services. To do this, we rely on our ecosystem. We have forged numerous partnerships with capital sales funds, i.e. investment funds, start-up accelerators, associations, think tanks and academic partners. Thanks to them, every year we identify around 1,000 new start-ups, 500 of which are studied in detail and 20 of which are taken through to the experimental stage. We also invest beyond these partnerships with these start-ups on business issues. With FDJ Ventures, we invest more than €100 million in CVC funds and start-ups. So we're actively participating in the hatching of the French tech ecosystem, and that's also one of our key messages. We are convinced that, especially in an increasingly complex and competitive environment, even if FDJ Group has a monopoly, we must continue to create new growth opportunities. And innovation is necessary precisely to anticipate these risks and look ahead to new models. We need to constantly adapt our consumption patterns. Not only that, but we need to anticipate regulatory changes, particularly in our competitive environment. And that inevitably requires a faultless connection with the ecosystem, both directly and indirectly, with all our partners.

How did implementing an Open Innovation platform change your approach?

We started working with innosabi in 2018, and it has had a real impact on the successful implementation of our innovation strategy for several reasons:

‍The first is that it's a web app platform, which is fairly intuitive and user-friendly, so we have easy access to all the information we need about a start-up. Not just about the start-up, but also about the whole funnel. We've set up statuses so that we can keep track of the stage we're at with the start-up. Typically, we have nurturing, study and hot deal, and we have lots of categories. Having these helps us to categorise start-ups and to have a clear funnel. We also add the actions we need to take on these files, so that we can find our way around more easily, organise things more efficiently and have a centralised point of information.

A second point is that it also allows us to monitor all the data in real time. Whether it's where the start-ups are coming from, which partner has brought them to us, which theme is most represented in the sourcing of this deal flow, the gender of the founders, etc. innosabi can provide us with this data in real time very quickly, both in Excel format and in Power BI format, which helps us enormously with our quarterly and annual reporting.

‍Another point is that the platform is collaborative. We made it available to all the innovation representatives of our business lines in the various departments, which are roughly over 50 people. This allows them, if they have questions about start-ups or need some information, to go and look it up in our platform. That way, they can talk directly to these businesses. It's a very collaborative approach. And we also give these representatives access to all the trend reports and strategic reports that our partners produce and that we put on the platform in the monitoring section. So they can look at these reports and gain insights and data and so on.

‍And the last one, the platform serves as an entry channel for start-ups to contact us. We've set up a form with innosabi called the Start-Up Link, which we communicate both externally in our signature, and via a QR code when we're present at trade fairs. They directly can submit their application on this page, if ever during an event, for example, we did not have time to meet. This way, we still can add their profile in our database and process this information later on.

What are FDJ Group’s best practices for successful Open Innovation?

The first one is that we're part of the Group's strategy department. This puts us in a control tower that gives us a 360° view of all the Group's activities. This is a real asset, and we have implemented a prioritization strategy with the strategy team.

Currently, our focus is on 6 major verticals:

‍1/ Future of gambling: How do we design the next generation of gambling.

‍2/ Future of player experience: Simplifying and personalizing the player experience and strengthening responsible gambling systems through better knowledge of players.

‍3/ Future of omnichannel distribution: Modernizing FDJ Group's distribution towards a model that is increasingly omnichannel and closer to the French people. How can we design innovative solutions for tomorrow's points of sale?

‍4/ Web 3: Understanding and anticipating trends linked to the new decentralized Internet based on blockchain. What new activities based on blockchain can we suggest?

‍5/ Tech for Good: Set FDJ Group as a pioneer in sustainable, responsible and positive-impact innovation, for the benefit of its activities and the whole society. How to use technology to reduce our environmental impact?

‍6/ Artificial Intelligence: Finding solution to improve our productivity, to make it easier to find information both internally and externally, notably with the Generative AI.

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‍Another best practice is to take an ecosystem approach. We have a fairly extensive network of funds, incubators, and accelerators. We were supported by two pioneering investment funds, in France and internationally, such as Partech, to help us with our deal flow and share their investment expertise with us. Thanks to them, we can really benefit from a watch on emerging markets and technologies. We're also a Limited Partner in specialist funds like Level-Up, which specializes in the mobile games studio sector, or Trust ESport, which specializes in e-sports, or Sparkle Venture, which specializes in Web3. The ecosystem we've built is highly complementary, giving us access to high quality deal flow, co-investment opportunities and the ability to monitor emerging markets and technologies.

And lastly, I'd say that we have an evolutionary approach: in 2015 we began our open innovation approach. Then we set up an entrepreneurship program, with the Innovation Lab, to encourage in-house staff to create innovative projects linked to the Group's challenges. And now, more recently, FDJ Ventures has launched its own direct investment fund. The whole process we've built up around these major partners has enabled us to develop our skills in cultivation, experimentation and now in investment. It's a model that we've iterated over the years and which is now a model of sustainable innovation serving the Group.

What is crucial in open innovation?

The FDJ Group's raison d'être is to see France win, and FDJ Ventures raison d'être is to help FDJ Group win while helping French tech win. We're a huge supporter of the French tech ecosystem, we're a partner with France Digital, with the French tech mission, with the French Tech Corporate Community and with all these institutions that help to promote the growth and success of the ecosystem. And this proximity and close relationship between start-ups and major groups benefits an entire ecosystem. For us, it's fundamental, and because major groups are the natural customers for start-ups, they contribute to their growth. Through our Ventures approach, we directly or indirectly support over 500 French and European start-ups, including 23 start-ups from the 2023 French tech Next40/120 class. We're pretty proud of these metrics! And we're continuing, through direct or indirect investment, to keep a close eye on the success of this ecosystem, by working with them as natural customers and enabling them to spread their wings nationally and internationally.

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Our habits and behaviors have changed dramatically in the recent past. The only way to really stay on top of your clients’ needs is to engage them in a constant dialogue and make them part of your development process. Easier said than done. But with the help of our toolsfor customer communities, structured co-creation projects, and scalable ideation, we have everything you need to start getting true customer-centricity done.A company that has put its clients first when it comes to new product development is Deutsche Telekom. Today, over 18,000 of their customers have participated in shaping and improving future products and services. In our webinar, Lara Löhrer, Project Lead for this exemplary initiative, will share Telekom’s key to success and learnings.

In the webinar, we cover several formats for customer collaboration, explain how the right software can assist you, and provide examples from companies who have already turned their customers into partners for innovation.

Watch the webinar video below and learn how to turn customers into innovators!

innosabi and the Technische Universität München (TUM) have always been closely connected. All four founders were once students at this prestigious institution, which not only gave them a world-class education, but also vital support and guidance when founding the company. Even as an internationally recognized leader in its field, innosabi has always stayed true to its roots and maintained close ties with the TUM ecosystem. Over the years, in many guest lectures and mentoring programs, the innosabi team tried to pass on their first-hand lessons to TUM students and the next generation of entrepreneurs. In this history of fruitful knowledge exchange, we have now reached another exciting and significant milestone: The TUM School of Management is writing a case study about innosabi and its most recent history, with a focus on its evolution to become Questel's dedicated innovation portfolio and business unit.

After a previous case study about innosabi and its path to becoming a SaaS business, this will be already the second case study written by TUM about important phases in the company's history. With teaching cases like these, TUM professors and researchers pick relevant, real-life scenarios and shape them into problems to be solved and discussed by students in dedicated courses.

Prof. Dr. Oliver Alexy, Professor of Innovation and Organization Design at TUM, will write the case study together with his colleague Nicole Beaven. To him, it is now just about presenting a real-world example to his students. It is also about connecting students – and potential future entrepreneurs – with the greater TUM ecosystem:

„innosabi is a great example for the entrepreneurial spirit and mindset of the TUM ecosystem. It's amazing to see success stories like theirs unfold and thrive, knowing that all four founders were once students here. But we don't just want to watch – we want to stay connected and collaborate with these companies! They are an invaluable source of information for our own research and offer many first-hand lessons for the next generation of entrepreneurs and business professionals. That's why we are working with innosabi to turn some of the defining decisions in their journey into teachable case studies for our courses. Soon, our students will discuss and try to solve exactly the same challenges that innosabi was facing just a couple of months ago.“

Catharina van Delden, co-founder of innosabi, is certain that the ecosystem of TUM and its focus on fostering entrepreneurial talent has helped to kickstart innosabi's success story:

„innosabi surely wouldn’t be where it is today without the Technische Universität München. Not just because us four founders met there as students, but more importantly because of the amazing network and support it provided us as young entrepreneurs. We’ve always stayed in close contact over the years and love every opportunity to share some of our experiences with future entrepreneurs and leaders. The whole ecosystem of TUM and its close ties to innovative companies and startups makes it so exceptional – that’s why it’s a great honor to for us to contribute to the curriculum with yet another case study about innosabi’s expansion and evolution.“

The teaching case study will be drafted, tested, and refined throughout the upcoming semester. We are looking forward to seeing the final result and sharing it with you as soon as possible. And as always: We are very proud to be part of the TUM ecosystem and appreciate the chance to share some of our experiences with the next generation of innovators!

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Acknowledging the ever-increasing importance of cutting-edge technologies and digitalization in the health care sector, the Zambon Group wants to improve patients’ lives and health through ambitious projects for growth based on innovation and development. Through their research venture, Zcube, they explore and sponsor innovative solutions for patient health. Hence, its General Manager and Board member, Fabrizio Conicella, is strongly involved in daily evaluating technologies and startups, looking for the game changer or the perfect piece of the puzzle. “In our work, we need updated information at a global scale”, explained Fabrizio. “It is not enough to read magazines, market reports, or patents. We need tools to get both real data and insights. That is the only solution to support our startups.”

There is no work with 202 projects submitted and 28 startups taking part in the acceleration program since 2016. Fabrizio and his team provide guidance and support to the startups through reports, landscapes, and market positioning to integrate into their business plans. “We cannot waste our time, and our reports have to provide powerful data visualizations, recommendations, and expert interpretations”.

That is where innosabi Insight comes in. With its introduction, Zcube has been able to get data from heterogeneous sources and speed up their activity by avoiding integration and normalization time. “On the same screen, you could have everything, the key opinion leaders, a list of startups, the main players, the trends… It helps to do mapping and qualify a field”, said Fabrizio. You have to do your homework before, not jump right away in the software because defining the query is important. “But to measure, benchmark, and understand if there is a market for the technology, innosabi Insight is the perfect tool, very easy-to-use”, added Fabrizio.

“That is an unmatched tool.” with four people using it 2 or 3 times a week, innosabi Insight is perfectly integrated into Zcube’s workflow. The software has helped save time and subscriptions to other sources while not sacrificing in-depth analysis.

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More and more seeds consider the challenges of climate change, and the market calls for agricultural production systems to achieve better agronomic and environmental performance, which requires innovation.
As an agricultural cooperative owned by farmers and an international seed company, Limagrain takes on these challenges through genetic progress and sustained R&D activity.

Not surprisingly, the Information Research and Analysis team is strongly called upon to deliver landscape reports and competitive analysis. Géraldine Lecomte, research analyst, and Sylvain Liogier, patent librarian, have seen an evolution in the requests sent by the group’s other entities. “In our positions, we see more and more needs for prospective studies for a year. Decision-makers want to get a large view of what’s going on and try to anticipate more the market shifts.”

This trend leads to changing the traditional way of doing market intelligence, exploring more unknown technologies for Limagrain, and gathering a lot of different types of information. “We are solicited more upstream of projects”, said Géraldine.

With the introduction of innosabi Insight, Limagrain has been able to speed up its internal process to feed decision makers with global insights on technologies and market segments. “innosabi Insight is fast, easy-to-use”, explained Sylvain. “It is well-indicated to clear the way and start a study. It helps to quickly get names, companies, and an idea if the market is IP-centric or not.”

In addition, to save time, innosabi Insight brought solutions when innovation intelligence requires going beyond just patent information. “The tool intervenes when the analysis of different sources comes under consideration to outline the evolution of a market,” said Géraldine. “At some point, analyzing just patents or scientific papers separately is not relevant. You need to merge and consolidate mixed information.” Some projects impacted by cross-industrial technology are particularly indicative of the need to break the walls of the databases to identify the opportunities emerging in the market. “You can use the buzz metric to make a link between the R&D of the company and what they are selling. The numerous filters help to focus our work and identify relevant companies or potential partners”, continued Géraldine.

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On December 28, 1951, the American Comedian-Duo Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis concluded their popular NBC network television show with a special appeal to support muscular dystrophy research. Why? To promote awareness for people and families whose lives had been turned upside down by these diseases. Paul Cohen, diagnosed with muscular dystrophy and founder of the Muscular Dystrophy Association, knew that creating awareness was an important step to support the cause of his newly founded Non-Profit Organization. With this, he and several others laid the foundation for an Organization that for more than 70 years now aims to transform the lives of people affected by muscular dystrophy by funding research, supporting families, and providing care and medical services. Why do we tell you this? Because this is the beginning of a story. The story of the Muscular Dystrophy Association. And stories have power: They grab hearts and minds, transport feelings and experiences, help to understand and to connect. The platform “my POWERFUL STORY” is all about the power of stories. By launching this platform, the Muscular Dystrophy Association wants to give people and families affected by neuromuscular diseases a channel to share their story. A channel to tell the story of their community.

“As one more way to advance our mission, we are activating the power of story to create connection, inspire self-advocacy, and build understanding for what it’s like to live with neuromuscular disease.”

Emerged from a cooperation with Collaboration.AI, theDifference and innosabi, the platform will collect stories about living with neuromuscular disease and support those who are affected. Over the next several weeks, everyone affected by these diseases can submit their very own story, focusing on one of the four-story categories:

• My Advocacy Story: Stories about moments when standing up for oneself or others.
• My Meaningful Story: Stories about an impactful moment, an event, or realization.
• My Diagnosis Story: Stories about what it was like receiving a neuromuscular disease diagnosis.
• My Summer Camp Story: Stories about the MDA summer camp and the magic of being part of it.

From all of these amazing stories, some of them will then be selected to be brought to life by artists. These stories will help to draw attention, to build understanding and support the overall mission of the Muscular Dystrophy Association by fostering future initiatives and upcoming campaigns. As a software provider and tech partner in this collaboration, we are very proud to be part of such a great and inspiring initiative.

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Change is happening much faster today than it did a few years ago. Digitalization and new technologies emerging are affecting not only our lives, but also our expectations and needs. This behavioral change has a particular impact on companies targeting consumers and end customers.Therefore, companies must constantly adapt to the changing user needs by improving services and performances and introducing new products. The increasing speed of change means that companies also have to make ever faster adjustments to their product and service portfolios. For this to succeed, a regular exchange between companies and customers is necessary. After all, who knows best about the needs and expectations of users than the users themselves?Our experience shows that collaboration and customer proximity are much more successful than classical market research. The latter is usually time-consuming and costly - and cannot replace a real dialogue between company and customer. After all, dialogue is not a one-way street, nor is collaboration. Rather, both sides must be prepared to work together on the products and services of the future.Such cooperation can happen in small workshops with selected customers. Yet, with the help of digital tools, companies can involve significantly more people in their development – customer or not. Everyone can participate in collaborative idea generation and work on products or services together.innosabi customers rely on collaboration with consumers and users. With the help of now established structures, customer proximity and focus can be accomplished throughout the entire company. Innovative ideas emerge with crowd innovation, while they are then checked for user-friendliness in prototype testing. In addition to companies' own community, the Supercharger can be used to survey people worldwide about their opinions, expectations, and needs. In this way, customer-oriented products or services are created in a real dialogue – in co-creation with customers.

Postbank: Together into the future

What features should a banking app provide to meet the needs of its users? How do people imagine the bank of the future? What has to be improved on the new chatbot so it offers real added value?Since 2014, Postbank has been discussing such questions together with its customers in the Postbank Ideenlabor (German for “idea lab”). There are collaborative innovation projects on the platform, in which customers are involved in every step of product development. It begins with the discussion and consolidation of the entire communities' needs. Possible solutions are then developed in several steps. Depending on the project, this may also include testing a real prototype and continuous improvement up to a finished product. In this way, around 50 projects are launched on the platform each year. All have a direct influence on the development or improvement of a product or service.

In total, more than 8,000 suggestions and contributions from customers were collected in these cooperation projects.From the very beginning, the Postbank Ideenlabor served as a holistic cooperation platform for customers, integrating them from the initial idea all the way to the implementation of the results. The platform forms the central interface for all areas of the company to reach the customers. As of now, the more than 12,000 members of the Postbank Community know that their ideas and feedback are taken seriously throughout the organisation. This way, a positive, constructive environment for feedback developed.

“If you are willing to ask your customers, you absolutely have to make sure that their answers will be heard. Something has to happen when users clearly voice their opinions. That’s why our goal is always to tackle questions holistically. Start with an idea, work on a concept together, and eventually come up with a minimum viable product. We want to take the participants with us on the whole journey. Because in large organizations like ours, the path from new insights to new products can be a little less direct than we would like it to be. And this also means that you have to be willing to let go of your own assumptions and plans if the community thinks differently.” - Martin Brings, Head and Strategic Lead of Ideenlabor

Martin Brings supports this statement with an example. Postbank planned a finance app for children and young people, which they could use to track their spendings and thus learn responsibility in dealing with money. Finding the right target group within the Postbank community — namely parents who wanted to work on such an app with their children — was a challenge. But it was worth it. Even in the early stages of the discussion about the needs of young users, it became clear that the ideas of the adult product managers were going in a completely different direction than the children's expectations. On the basis of the children's feedback, the project team took a step back and revised the entire concept from the scratch. With success! Regular feedback loops and prototype tests resulted in the finished app Young Money.

Telekom: Accelerating decisions and strengthening customer focus

A product portfolio that is always up-to-date means constant development and adjustments. Good customer service means constant adaptation to customer needs. Exactly this focus on the customers' expectations is central for new ideas and innovations.

"Our customers have a clear idea of what they need and expect from us. So what could be better than asking our customers what is important to them and what they like" - Anke Courtial, Project Owner Telekom Ideenschmiede, Telekom

For this reason, Deutsche Telekom has decided to proactively ask its customers about their needs and expectations. With the Telekom Ideenschmiede platform (German for “forging ideas”), which was launched in January 2018, the company is giving its customers the opportunity to actively shape products and services. More than 6,000 members can be surveyed on a wide variety of topics, producing representative results in less than four days. The platform enables Deutsche Telekom to obtain both quantitative and qualitative feedback from customers and non-customers in an uncomplicated and timely manner. Classic market research is more time-consuming and protracted in a direct comparison. With the help of the Telekom Ideenschmiede, decisions that affect customers are accelerated.The Ideenschmiede team is firmly anchored in the company and is the point of contact for all areas of Deutsche Telekom. Projects are implemented on the platform together with experts from the respective departments and the results are fed back into the departments. In this way, needs, expectations and opinions are continually incorporated into Telekom's various projects – and ensure comprehensive customer orientation.

Deutsche Bank: Identifying needs early

In spring 2018, Deutsche Bank organized a hackathon together with the FinTech Incubator FinLeap. The challenge of this female hackathon was: “To develop a solution by women for women: It should support women to overview and plan their financial situation from starting a career, starting a family, re-entering the job up to their retirement”.29 female hackers faced this challenge in seven teams. Within two days, ideas and prototypes were developed. In the end, the best three projects were rewarded. All this is quite characteristic for a hackathon. But what made this one so special was the opportunity for the participants to use the innosabi Supercharger to obtain immediate feedback on their ideas. The teams asked a total of 43 questions to the community and received answers from 180 people virtually overnight. This way, the participants could be sure that they were on the right track.“We used the Supercharger to ensure that we were developing our idea in the right direction – to suit user needs,” says Team SpaceHamster. Another team even completely changed their original idea. The Supercharger survey showed that the needs of potential users went in a different direction than the participants thought.With the innosabi Supercharger, it can be determined at an early stage of idea generation whether the product idea matches the needs of potential users. This ensures that resources are used purposefully.

Federal Agency: Developing target group-oriented services with prototypes

As a public administrative authority, the Bundesagentur für Arbeit (German Federal Employment Agency) does not face the challenges of competition on the market like a private enterprise. But state enterprises are also confronted with changing expectations and needs of their target group — especially with regard to digitalization. The special challenge for the Bundesagentur für Arbeit lies in the variety of topics: from the handling of unemployment benefits to advice on career choices, and the establishment of training programs together with companies. These topics are all rooted in very different customer groups.In order to find out what the expectations and needs of its customers are, the Federal Agency has launched the platform Ideenwerkstatt (German for “Workshop for Ideas”). There, digital solutions and services are developed in direct cooperation with various target groups such as jobseekers or companies. With the help of the Ideenwerkstatt, the Bundesagentur für Arbeit is well-connected with both sides and can tailor its work to the respective needs.

“The danger is always that you do not know the needs on the customer or employer side. And then maybe develop something only in one direction but have not noticed important details. With the direct collaboration in the Ideenwerkstatt, we avoid such undesirable developments."– Christina Bulenda, requirements management online, Bundesagentur für Arbeit

Since November 2015, the Ideenwerkstatt platform has shown that the benefits of collaboration apply to both jobseekers and employers. For cooperation with companies, this means developing new solutions and services in the field of digital recruiting. New offers for jobseekers are also being created. A good example of this is the Federal Agency's App for Young People looking for an apprenticeship. During the development process, the Bundeagentur für Arbeit implemented the first drafts of the functionalities in a digital prototype. This prototype was tested in iterative loops with young people in search of an apprenticeship. Thanks to the fast, qualitative feedback on the platform, the Federal Agency was able to ensure that the app meets the needs of the users optimally. In this way, the Ideenwerkstatt bundles the needs of employers and jobseekers for a digital, user-centered future of the public sector.Our experience with companies such as Postbank, Telekom and Bundesagentur für Arbeit shows that collaboration with external stakeholders is a central component of innovation. In co-creation with customers, products and services can be created that are perfectly tailored to the needs of consumers. In this way, organisations as well as customers benefit from cooperation.

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Good ideas should be rewarded. But what can companies do to ensure that these good ideas don't gather dust on a shelf but are implemented? The answer is: Create idea management that is digital, transparent, and user-friendly.

Most organizations have already implemented a process that collects and evaluates suggestions and improvement ideas from employees and awards prizes to chosen submissions. When exchanging the classical company suggestion scheme for a digital and smart idea management system, the first step will be to achieve greater user-friendliness and simplified submission. Although this might sound quite simple, the effects of these two aspects are enormous.In our experience, the high usability of idea platforms positively influences the quality and quantity of submissions and the motivation of employees to participate in the idea process. However, an easy-to-use platform is not only advantageous for employees who want to submit proposals. The reviewer also experiences a simplified evaluation of proposals. Ideas can be assigned thematically to the appropriate reviewers, so evaluation and decision-making can be made more quickly. The increased speed in the ideas process and the possibility for the submitter to understand where an idea is in the process have positive effects on the motivation to participate and the perception of idea management within the company.Apart from idea campaigns on specific topics, the platform generally offers the opportunity for interaction and open discussion of individual ideas. All employees can contribute to the submitted suggestions and further develop them. The entire organization is involved in idea management. In addition, the assigned likes for an idea can serve as a first pre-selection for the reviewers.

Munich Airport: Collaboration with the Digital Idea Management

Shortly after the launch of the new idea platform Innovation Pilot, Munich Airport recorded a significant increase in the number of ideas submitted — in the first two months alone, 300% more ideas were handed in than in the same period last year. Munich Airport's goal is to replace its existing internal pool of ideas and use it to modernize its idea management and make it more effective.

"We want to establish the idea management of the future that will enable us to stimulate innovation rather than simply manage proposals. The innosabi software offers the ideal infrastructure for this".Sarah Wittlieb, (former) Head of Innovation Management, Munich Airport

The innosabi software enables Munich Airport to permanently open topic clusters. Employees can submit their ideas in a targeted manner and then forward them directly to the right contact persons in the company. But temporary idea campaigns are also a proven method of complementing traditional idea management and promoting a culture of innovation.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8Kel-v-TcUApart from modernizing the processes of the classic company suggestion scheme, the platform also offers the opportunity to carry out open innovation projects. These are characterized by collaboration. An open discussion of ideas within the employee community promotes transparency in all aspects of idea management and increases internal interest in new ideas. In addition, collaboration leads to a higher quality of ideas. In 2018 alone, more than 40 of the ideas submitted were implemented at Munich Airport.But digital and smart idea management was just the beginning. With the LabCampus, Munich Airport is planning one of the most promising and largest innovation centers in Europe — a place for innovation and bringing people together.

"By bringing together a diverse group of thought leaders, philosophers, innovators, smart city planners, technology wizards - and actual part-year residents - we at LabCampus plan to build a true innovation ecosystem at Munich Airport.”Sarah Wittlieb, Vice President Innovation & Creation at LabCampus GmbH

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Good ideas are hiding everywhere. You just have to know where to look. Often these ideas can be found more easily as you might think, you might just have to look in your own company. Every employee has a broad technical knowledge, experience and knows the company. Optimal conditions for a brilliant flash of genius that takes the company a step further into the future.But why is this valuable source of ideas so rarely used? Especially large companies are faced with the challenge of not only collecting the ideas of their employees but also making them usable. Missing internal structures are then replaced by external consulting. Although an external view is certainly not a wrong approach (keyword: operational blindness), external suggestions can never be as well tailored to the structures and processes of an organization as internal suggestions.Our experience shows that innovation with employees forms the core of modern innovation management. In the course of digitalization, internal networking and collaboration is not only possible across departments, but even across national borders. Digital tools facilitate structuring the cumulative expertise and make it available to the company in order to keep up in a rapidly changing world.innosabi customers rely on the ideas of their employees. With newly established structures, they promote internal innovation management. They use methods such as internal Crowdfunding, Solution Scouting and collaboration to generate new ideas, prioritize them and network knowledge. However, the big goal is not to create one idea, but to create and anchor an innovation culture in the company.

Bayer: Interlinking Knowledge in a Global Company

Global companies like Bayer need global structures to drive innovation. This is precisely the goal of the company's innovation initiatives — to establish organizational structures and processes to ensure that innovation is sustainably anchored in the company's culture. To further promote the transformation of innovation culture, it is necessary to strengthen bridges between employees, departments, countries, and continents. Employees must have a chance of contributing to innovation processes across the Group, regardless of language, location, hierarchical level or area of expertise. The technical foundation is laid with the Bayer WeSolve digital in-house platform.In 2014 Bayer AG has built with WeSolve the technological base for agile networks for innovation. The methodical basis for the projects on WeSolve is, among other things, the principle of Solution Scouting. The platform offers employees the opportunity to submit problems or specialist challenges and motivates them to “contribute to solutions for specific technical or commercial problems” (source: hbr.org).For example, a submitted Challenge is made accessible to all employees or can be sent by using targeted search only to employees with particular expertise. They can then submit or discuss solutions. In this way, knowledge is efficiently shared within an organization and the appropriate people are connected with each other. Therefore, synergies are created between the more than 100,000 employees and problems do not have to be solved many times over.Its success proves Bayer WeSolve's “business experiment” right. In the first year, the number of users of the platform more than quadrupled. But the company does not only use Bayer WeSolve for a sustainable innovation culture. They rely on an informal network of innovation ambassadors and innovation trainers. In this way, innovation becomes part of the corporate culture.

Daimler: Combining Online and Offline Methods for Innovation

“We have a special feature that we use in our Challenges: the combination of offline and online.” This is how Frieder Munk of Daimler Digital Life describes the development of innovation at Daimler AG. The DigitalLife Crowd Idea Platform is a key element by enabling all employees to participate in the innovation process.Daimler uses the link between offline and online methods throughout the entire innovation process. New Challenges are often introduced with an analog event, the OpenSpace, in which 100 participants from various units work on a specific topic for one day. Resulting ideas are then published on the DigitalLife Crowd Ideas Platform and offered for voting or funding. The most promising ideas are selected by a vote of all employees, be it by likes or by the distribution of budgets. This already shows the close connection between the offline generation of ideas and the online prioritization of them. But this is not the end of the innovation process at Daimler. The selected ideas are then used for implementation in one of the company's incubator programs, for example. The progress of the implementation can be tracked by all employees via the platform.“The platform allows us to establish the necessary transparency into the implementation processes of innovations. Decisions are no longer made in secret, but employees have the opportunity to track what is happening with their own ideas at any time.”Frieder Munk, Daimler AGThe aspect of collaboration also plays an essential role in the company. At the Daimler DigitalLife Days 2018, Frieder Munk emphasizes that the comment function on the platform is very popular with employees. This results in good, substantive discussions, which advance the ideas and from which the submitting teams can draw added value.

Our experience with customers such as Siemens, Bayer or Daimler shows that innovation with employees is and should be a central component in companies. The approach of making ideas visible, driving overarching collaboration forward, and involving employees in decision-making can be crucial to success. We have implemented this knowledge in the innosabi software and continue in this way to drive internal innovation.

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The innosabi panel at the Daimler Digital Life Days 2018 provided the perfect opportunity to exchange an in-depth discussion with Frieder Munk about the use of the innosabi software at Daimler AG. Frieder Munk is responsible for corporate culture and innovation at Daimler Digital Life and was one of the organizers of the event. With the help of a Crowd Ideation platform from innosabi, he also supports various departments in the company in innovation projects together with employees. DAIMLER IDEAS is a platform for collaboration and virtual crowdfunding. Through the Innovation Funding approach, innovation becomes the task of all employees: from the generation of ideas to the distribution of budgets to their actual realization.

“The platform gives us the necessary transparency in the implementation processes of innovations. Decisions are no longer taken in a quiet room, but the employees have the opportunity at any time to keep track of what’s happening with their ideas.”Frieder Munk, Daimler AG

Watch the complete interview with Frieder Munk and innosabi CEO, Catharina van Delden. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6TGshQ1M3c

Discover the Possibilities of innosabi

Implement organization-wide knowledge exchange and innovation culture with agile innovation management into your company. Utilize the expertise and ideas of your employees to innovate faster than ever before. Benefit from the specialized funding and solution scouting functions of the innosabi software.

Dr. Bettina von Stamm is a renowned expert in innovation, product development and design. She has been researching and working on innovation for over 25 years, calling herself an innovation philosopher, storyteller or catalyst. In 2004, she founded the Innovation Leadership Forum, a Think & Do Tank that helps organizations understand, unlock and improve their innovation potential and performance. In an interview with Julia Schmidt, Business Development at innosabi, she is giving an exceptional overview of how innovation concepts and our perspectives have changed in recent decades: “Of course people have always innovated. What has changed over time is the degree to which we deliberately and proactively seek to create these various types of innovation.” As the most important piece of advice, the innovation expert gives organizations the following task:

“Define what innovation means to you and why you want that specific kind of innovation to happen in your organization. Most companies I talk to think and claim that innovation is important to them, while most do not even have a company-wide definition. How can you expect innovation to happen, when you do not even know what it means?”

According to Dr. Bettina von Stamm, there is no “one right” definition of innovation: “Understand and define what innovation means for your organization, in your specific context. This will not be only one type of innovation, it is most likely a hole innovation scape. Organizations have to be very clear on where they want to innovate and why they want to innovate there. Success factors vary, depending on the company and the kind of innovation.” [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACdqPS8eXAU[/embed]

The Changing Concepts of Innovation

The overview Dr. Bettina von Stamm can give on the changes in the concepts of innovation within the past 30 years is remarkable. She says that each kind of innovation has always been done in a way, just not as a deliberately promoted concept, but unconsciously, accidentally or even out of emergency situations. Initially, the concept of innovation management only evolved around product innovations in the early nineties. It was simply about improving own products through research and development. Since then, in particular, the breadth and perspective of the concept of innovation has changed. When one saw fewer possibilities in pure product innovation, process innovation followed. For example, cost-efficient machines, simplified processes and intelligent warehousing have been implemented. After this potential seemed largely exhausted, the service innovation followed. Thereby the end of the sales process and the user experience were optimized. In the early 2000s, the targeted business model innovation came along. Thus, the issue of innovation within companies has grown from the smallest unit, the single product, to the largest possible unit, the business model. However, Dr. Bettina von Stamm says that this is just another piece in a much bigger puzzle:

“One thing is for certain: The path of innovation does not end there. It is an endless journey where there is always something else around the corner.”

We thank Dr. Bettina von Stamm and everyone involved in the making of this great interview and look forward to finding out together which concepts of innovation will prevail in the future.

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As part of the innosabi Customer Panel at the Daimler Digital Life Days 2018, we had the opportunity to talk in detail with Nicolas Limbach about the use of innosabi software at Bayer AG. Nicolas Limbach is responsible for the promotion and implementation of innovation in the procurement process in the strategic purchasing department – especially for the areas of health and crops. In doing so, Bayer AG relies on its huge network of suppliers and integrates them into innovation projects with the help of the THRIVE platform. Innosabi’s supplier innovation approach makes it possible to harness the knowledge and innovative strength of external stakeholders to initiate collaborative problem-solving.

“Compared to the traditional process, the ideation process with our suppliers on the platform shortens the time-to-market by about 7 months — which of course translates into additional revenue.”

Nicolas Limbach, Bayer AG

Here is the complete interview with Nicolas Limbach and innosabi CEO Catharina van Delden.

With our Supplier Innovation approach, it is possible to establish a protected, virtual environment in the company to invite selected, relevant experts and to exchange sensitive information.

“Selected suppliers help us to work on problems in the business that we can only describe. For the solution, we lack the specifications, the knowledge or the resources.”Nicolas Limbach, Bayer AG

The structured solicitation and evaluation of ideas quickly result in suitable solutions that can be implemented directly with the respective suppliers. This provides solutions to challenges in the innovation process, even before they arise.

“With the help of the innosabi software, we can quickly give our partners feedback on their ideas and commission them with the implementation. This motivates the suppliers to favorably implement innovative technologies, as they in turn benefit from long-term business relationships.”Nicolas Limbach, Bayer AG

Discover the possibilities of the innosabi software

Take advantage of the knowledge and competence of your suppliers and partners for innovation projects. Shorten the time to market and accelerate the internalization of new technologies. Increase the relationships in your network with Supplier Innovation and gain competitive advantage through collaborative ideation with your ecosystem.

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“Daimler Ideate” is a collaboration platform that aims to involve Daimler employees throughout the world, regardless of internal silos, in innovation projects. On this platform, ideas for new products and technologies are generated and further developed. To this day, more than 33.000 users from various business units are registered. Starting with the collection and elaboration of ideas, until the funding and construction of first prototypes, all activities are carried out via a central innosabi platform. Time for us to ask about the experiences made and the value added so far. To seek answers to these and many more questions, innosabi CEO Catharina van Delden recently talked to Frieder Munk, Corporate Strategy Manager from Daimler AG’s DigitalLife Team:

How do you describe the innosabi platform to your colleagues? With our Crowd Ideation Platform at Daimler, we give all colleagues the opportunity to actively participate in the innovation process. Important principles for the platform are collaboration, transparency, and motivation. On the platform, ideation contests can be carried out in the form of so-called challenges. This takes place in several predefined phases, which work towards an initially defined objective. During this process, the ideas are further developed and improved by impulses, comments, and suggestions by the crowd, i.e. Daimler employees. I describe an intuitively-to-use software for the interested departments, which is also very easily accessible via single-sign-on or mobile phone. We currently use the platform exclusively internally; The goal is, however, to use it externally too, in order to carry out ideation projects with customers, suppliers, or university partners. The most important features are the transparency along the entire process and the collaboration in the community. What is the role of funding on the Daimler Ideate platform? In a funded project, teams can submit ideas in video form. Daimler employees can then finance these ideas with a virtual budget. Project initiators can determine whether a funding goal must be achieved or not. The most successful teams are then given real resources to implement their ideas. Depending on the idea, it’s possible to take advantage of the Daimler Incubator program to validate the approach or to develop a minimum viable product. Through the funding, we see a high motivation for implementation by the applicants – because of the support of all the employees involved in the funding process, a high visibility of the projects naturally arises. Additionally, the funding helps to ensure a fast and accurate prioritization of innovation projects according to the accumulated knowledge and experience of many Daimler employees. The teams of the individual business units configure their homepages and challenges on the platform in self-government. These do not necessarily have to include a funding. Depending on the individual requirements of the projects, certain phases – such as ideation, voting, or even funding – are included in the process and others are left out. In the bigger picture, we see that the funding projects seem to be very successful: Since the start in May 2017, we see a large number of prospects for our challenges with funding on the platform.

Figure 1: Source: https://twitter.com/Daimler/status/897820632712392704

What makes a Innovation Challenge successful in your eyes? Primarily, we measure success by reach and participation. We therefore check the percentage of invited people who actually registered on the platform. India was the most extreme, but at the same time the best example. An incredible 95 percent of the workforce at the Bangalore site registered, voted and collaborated on the platform. This value is, of course, phenomenal and incomparable. In Germany, we have more than 20,000 users signed in on the platform. Since participation is, of course, also dependent on the respective country culture, this too is a success for us. Now, in the next step, we are trying to further expand our user base and to integrate the existing community even more strongly in the entire innovation processes. To measure the success of the entire platform, we are not only guided by the figures of the number of new challenges on the platform. Since they constantly involve and motivate our employees, there is also a change in the overall innovation culture. The more departments start competitions, the more multidisciplinary collaboration takes place – for us, this is the most important success factor. How would you generally describe the benefits of the innosabi platform? Before we used innosabi software, we have been running ideation projects through different channels, such as conventional workshops or in specialized committees of the individual divisions. This was not very transparent, only appointed experts and managers could participate. Now we are online instead of offline, everyone can see the ideas and help shape them. This gives us a much greater reach than in a workshop. In addition, we interact immediately with the relevant groups of people and activate a huge pool of available knowledge and experience. I can reach an enormous number of people and actively integrate them into the value creation process. Thus, we are not only talking about cultural change, but realizing it daily in various situations. I am particularly pleased with the fact that individual projects that started as small ideas do now go into operational implementation. After the ideation phase, we accompany promising ideas and control the necessary implementation steps – depending on the requirements, the close cooperation with our Acceleration and Incubation programs are possible. In general, however, we are not yet at the end of this exciting journey – based on feedback from our users at Daimler locations worldwide, we are continuing to develop the platform together with innosabi. We look forward to the next steps and many successfully implemented innovations!

Figure 2: Source: https://twitter.com/alecmcint/status/869862048892694530 Digital Life Day

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