📍 Innovation starts from the inside

We all know that the rules of the game have changed and it’s redefining the way we do business.

In today's world, we need to be able to adapt to the fast pace of things, we need to be eager to learn about new and emerging trends, but also we need to be willing to fail in order to come back stronger. 

We also know that businesses are less linear. Startups and entrepreneurs are on the rise and are paving the way for new business models. Companies today can grow surprisingly fast but they can also be gone in the blink of an eye.

As the times change, there are new baseline expectations.

• Today we can travel anywhere and never have to step foot in a hotel. 

• We can work in any city without having our own office space.

• We can have on-demand transportation without owning a car.

Services and technologies keep getting cheaper and more accessible to all. A perfect example of this is the first floor of this building, there is a fab lab where I can learn how to print in 3D and build a prototype in a matter of hours.

These changes lead us to understand that companies today need to self-assess. They need to understand their capabilities to improve them in order to stay competitive in today’s market.

Right now there are some companies that look at this new culture as a challenge. But should, like some others, see it as a great opportunity to innovate. 

We identified three main problems:

• Currently, you are facing internal challenges and you want to outsource solutions by tapping into the entrepreneur ecosystem.

• This leads us to the second problem, you have an existing network of experts, schools, and partners but no direct link with Startups which means you have a limited network and highlights the fact that you need to diversify.

• Lastly, In regards to external recognition, people know you as the largest steel producer in the world and not as a hub for innovation with the right resources.

To come up with effective solutions to these problems, we started our investigation by mapping out the current startup ecosystem in Spain.

• Barcelona leads the way with 32% of the startups of the country, Madrid coming up next with 30%, followed by Valencia, and Bilbao.

• We also wanted to understand what people represent this ecosystem and we found out that 33% is dominated by people between 35 to 44 years old, followed by 25% by those between 25 to 34 years old. 

This gave us a good idea that it’s not only experienced people but also young entrepreneurs all mixed together. They all represent the different profiles out there today that could either be potential employees inside your company or part-time collaborators within some projects.

Regardless of age groups, there are very distinctive profiles amongst them:

• Starting off with the amateur. They are the ones who are starting out, and launching their first ventures. For them, getting access to professional mentorship from seasoned professionals, as well as growing the professional network is key.

• We also have the mentor, mid-seasoned entrepreneurs that either has their own business or consult for other companies. They are interested in getting funding for their projects, as well as spotting possible talent to collaborate with.

• And of course, we have the advisor. They are those leading the conversation when it comes to innovation. They’re a point of reference not only for companies, given their success as entrepreneurs but for all the other players as well. The advisors can be found as speakers in conferences or in industry events spotting emerging trends.

Knowing all these profiles, we wanted to understand the reasons they would want to work with bigger companies. For this we conducted a survey and found out that they are mainly looking to: Grow their professional network - with corporates and their partners -, to fund their projects - looking for money or sponsors -, get access to talent - find people that can help develop their own projects -, and prototype/test their ideas to bring them to the market.

We also asked about which open innovation models they were interested in and the most popular ones are:

• Innovation hub - meaning a physical space where people get together and exchange ideas -, Online open challenges - like Xprize where anyone can participate to find solutions or like Lego where you can suggest a product -, and also Crowdfunding - where you place the materialization of your ideas in the hands of people that believe in your project. 

Now that we have a better understanding of the ecosystem we go back to what the brief is asking. You want to look for innovative solutions and partners outside your organization. 

However, we have taken a step back and we believe that innovation starts from the inside. Innovation starts with your team. Like Jose Luis de Vicente from Sonar says: “Today we can’t think of technological innovation without cultural innovation”

Written by Laura Santana, Eduardo Lima, and Sebastián Sierra