Innoventures really came together in the final months of 2013. Here’s a quick snapshot of what we had accomplished: a firm commitment to the program from Softtek management, a concoction of viewpoints from the various divisions heads across Softtek, ideas and confidence from associates, active participation in the program from staff members across Softtek. We now believe that we ready to deliver on the purpose of Innoventures in 2014. At our last 2013 team meeting in December, we drew inspiration and hope from everything we had achieved.
2013 was a year entirely dedicated to strategy – understanding Softtek’s bounds, possibilities, and potential. Looking back, we find true value in our intended investment to learn and strategize innovation within Softtek. The critical questions we took on were:
How will the Innoventures program be structured?
Innoventures is a cyclic program, formulated based on established structures of startup accelerators. The first phase entails an Idea Selection process, during which we engage with the wide Softtek community to innovate and generate ideas. During the second phase, Idea Development, we develop 9 ideas into solid business canvases over a 10-week period. Each intrapreneur will pitch his or her venture plan to Innoventures council, and Innoventures will directly invest in 3 new ventures. We will deploy the principles of Lean Startup to develop each idea during the Idea Launch phase. Key mentors and thought leaders will serve as coaches to our intrapreneurs. An educational online program, webinars, social-networks for associates - all provide a structure and discipline in launching and developing ideas within Softtek.
What will we focus on?
Innoventures studied Softtek through the lenses of sales and marketing, technology leads, and general IT market trends. In addition, we reached out to the Sottek community to gather sense of core capabilities and interests. Merging the two, we derived a set of focuses that align Softtek’s overarching strategies with internal capabilities. For 2014, Innoventures will focus on the following: technology tools for CMOs, enterprise mobile applications, and acceleration or productizing existing or new solutions.
Seemingly, answers to the above questions are straightforward. However, we employed a complex mesh of processes to create a system that integrates Softtek’s strategies with associates’ core capabilities.
2014 has to be a year focused entirely on delivery and execution. To evaluate our success, we need a core set of deliverables, targets, and measures. There’s so much to do!
