A world leader in automotive interior systems related to car body and security, is in excellent shape: strong growth rates, well-balanced global presence, and prosperous mid- to long-term perspectives. Now, they are challenged to effectively and efficiently manage this growth and the resulting workload. The management is thinking ahead: “What do we need to initiate now in order to secure our business success tomorrow?”
Looking to perpetuate their growth trajectory, the company launched a campaign that called upon the collective expertise of many employees to bring forward and prioritize new future business initiatives. They wanted to address their full intellectual potential by stimulating knowledge and competence sharing across 40 global sites, functional domains, etc.
"Great bottom-up approach to motivate our people across the organization and let them increase competences by working on relevant challenges" - CEO of the company
Approach
In order to mobilize the organization on a global scale, the company chose Venture Spirit’s venture game, called BSmart. Entrepreneurs launched a virtual venture around their idea, and they formed multidisciplinary teams with subject matter experts. Next, these teams turned their ideas into high-level business plans. Key company experts took up the role of investor to challenge the teams sharpen their plans via multiple feedback cycles, and to rank them in terms of potential business value via a virtual investment mechanism.
Results
Across the globe about 3500 experts were invited, and of them over 850 registered. During the 3 months the game ran, 76 ideas were brought forward. 35 international teams passed all evaluation rounds, and in the end, 7 finalist teams were invited to a final event in Regensburg, where they could pitch their plan to the management team. After deliberation, the management team selected 3 winning initiatives and awarded a total budget of 150k€ for follow-up. One of the winning ideas was presented at CES 2016.
After the game, the winning initiatives entered an accelerated development and nurturing track with dedicated teams. These winners strengthen the company portfolio to generate additional revenue streams. The results did not take long to crystallize: The winning venture is already available on the market!
Benefits
confirmation for the business leadership that the innovation pipeline hasn't dried up yet
awareness raised for the need for innovation and entrepreneurship
recognition for the participants for their creative ideas and effort to complete the business plans in a short time
"Very effective platform, a perfect marriage of technology and commercial knowledge" - Participant BSmart