Jeremiah Owyang, Crowd Companies: The Corporate Innovation Imperative at W2OatSXSW's PreCommerce Summit

1. Dec 2016
The Corporate
Innovation Imperative
Jeremiah Owyang, Founder

2. Finding:
Corporations approach innovation in 10 distinct ways.
Examination:
We looked deeper at the how behind the 10 innovation
programs, internal and external, via interviews & survey data.
Maturation:
Sophisticated companies approach corporate innovation via
multiple, interconnected programs.

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5. Corporate Innovation Impacts Customers in Four Ways
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6. The 10 Corporate Innovation Programs
1. Dedicated Innovation Team
2. Innovation Center of Excellence
3. Intrapreneur Program
4. Open Innovation: Hackathon, Incubator
5. Innovation Excursion
6. Innovation Outpost
7. Accelerator Partnership
8. Technology Education / University Partnership
9. Startup Investment
10. Startup Acquisition
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7. 1: Dedicated
Innovation Team
10 Corporate Innovation Programs
A team of full-time employees dedicated to developing the strategy, managing,
and activating innovation programs.

8. 1: Dedicated Innovation Team
Swisspost has a 12-person innovation team that
collaborates with BUs and the C-suite
Swisspost’s innovation team uses equates the company’s main revenue stream as the “tanker,” while
innovation projects are “speed boats” that orbit the company. They know that the tanker’s business model
will have to shift to survive, while the speed boats make bets and prototype new ideas to combat disruption.
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9. 10 Corporate Innovation Programs
A cross-functional, multi-disciplinary group to share knowledge throughout the company.
2: Innovation
Center of Excellence

10. 2: Innovation Center of Excellence
WL Gore’s Innovation CoE drives processes
and implementation of programs
WL Gore’s Innovation CoE is a core steering committee in guiding the company’s innovation center mission.
The team is also responsible for bringing a lean startup methodology into WL Gore. They’re process driven
and drive the roll-out of innovation programs and methodologies in BUs.
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11. 10 Corporate Innovation Programs
Rather than rely solely on external programs, internal employees are
given a platform and resources to innovate.
3: Intrapreneur Program

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3: Intrapreneur Program
Adobe Kickbox inspires internal innovators with practical
tools and support system
Each Kickbox includes a prepaid $1,000 card for proof-of-concept research, Starbucks card, chocolate, and
directions to follow Adobe’s innovation process. Since its inception, more than a thousand new ideas have been
prototyped using the Kickbox process. Adobe also offers these resources free for others to download
at Kickbox.Adobe.com.

13. 10 Corporate Innovation Programs
4: Open Innovation:
Hackaton or Incubator
Hosted inside a corporate office, large corporations invite startups to embed at their
physical locations. Other variations include online open-innovation programs that request
ideas from the crowd.

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4: Open Innovation: Accelerator or Incubator
Wells Fargo gains early access to CX-centric technologies
via startup accelerator
Wells Fargo’s startup accelerator has given the company access to technologies that help its customers,
including EyeVerify (eyeball metrics), and MotionSavvy for gesture recognition for the deaf. It focuses most on
security and metrics startups. They accept startup applications twice per year for the six-month program.

15. 10 Corporate Innovation Programs
Corporate leaders tour innovative organizations, companies, and regions to discover trends
in various industries, learn from speakers, meet partners, and be inspired as they immerse
themselves in innovation culture.
5: Innovation Excursion

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5: Innovation Tours
Fujitsu regularly invests in Silicon Valley innovation tours
to incite changes at HQ
Fujitsu’s tours have been so successful as inspirational tools, they’ve increased the amount of leaders
they bring to Silicon Valley in each visit. Fujitsu’s partnership with Tech Shop, and opening one in Tokyo,
grew directly from a Silicon Valley tour.

17. 10 Corporate Innovation Programs
A dedicated physical office staffed with corporate innovation professionals whose job is to
sense what’s occurring in a market, connect with local startups, and integrate programs back
into the corporate HQ.
6: Innovation Outpost

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6: Innovation Outpost
AXA’s three global innovation outposts have exposed
the company to 600 startups
AXA’s innovation outposts are in Silicon Valley, Shanghai, and Paris. Each outpost is charged with:
connecting with tech players; detecting trends and startups that leverage trends; elevating awareness to
executives; and piloting ideas of interest with ultimate goal of investment. AXA has fostered six
partnerships as a results of its outposts.

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21. • Years spent in current role: 3.2
• Innovators need to know the
business, and internal stakeholders,
before generating new ideas. They
must have credibility with to sell up
to executives.
• Duration of career: 18.6 years
• Number of industries
in career: 3
The Average Corporate Innovation Leader
Corporate Innovator Persona
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22. Corporate Innovator Persona
• Percentage with “innovation”
in title: 60.7%
• “Innovation” in title of
previous role: 40%
• “Chief Innovation Officer”
comprised 3.8% of roles
examined
• Education: 46% have an
advanced (Master’s+) degree
The Average Corporate Innovation Leader
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23. Recommendations for Innovation
Program Growth
Recommendations

24. Recommendations
• Secure processes behind your decision-making structure.
Especially important for global companies with innovation occurring in
geographic pockets. Laddering up to a global group or CoE ensures ideas are
brought to fruition in the right BU at the right time with checks and balances.
• Focus on talent retention.
Concentrate on building strong teams. Are you doing enough to keep your
innovators happy? Don’t underestimate the power of intrinsic motivation beget
by a strong culture of innovation and intrapreneurship program. Have a pipeline
of capable workers at the ready to replace those that are poached.
• Man your “speedboats.”
Take a page from Swiss Post, and approach innovation bi-modally. The core
revenue stream (or “tanker ship”) must still have the resources to keep pace,
while the “speedboats” of pocketed innovation can move more quickly toward
change, less burdened by bureaucracy and expectations of immediate impact.
Best Practices
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