Peninsula Corporate Innovation

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  • Matchmaking to the next level for JETRO

    Public company

    Category: Matchmaking.

    Project duration: 5 months

    JETRO 7, strengthening ties between Spain and Japan

    It’s nothing new that Peninsula regularly collaborates with the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) to bring together Japanese entrepreneurial initiatives and Spanish corporations, generating new business opportunities for the Japanese startups and fostering the development and technological innovation in the Spanish market.

    In this new edition, seventh time we have worked together with JETRO, the contact between companies could be done in a more in person, close and efficient format, to give visibility to the entrepreneurship initiatives that, besides meeting with corporations, could also have a spot in an event as massive and mediatic as the 4 Years From Now (4YFN). 113% of celebrated meetings from the initial goal:

    20 formalized agreements.

    80% of satisfaction from the startups.

    Starting point:

    JETRO had as the main goal to introduce 13 Japanese Startups in the Spanish market, generating meetings and agreements with corporations in our country with whom to explore potential collaboration options. To do so, they needed:

    Scouting of potential corporations

    Matchmaking strategy between startups and corporates

    Contact between companies Media coverage and presence in 4YFN.

    Solution

    In Peninsula we put into practice our experience in the business ecosystem to help JETRO detect what corporations could have an interest in the startups and contact them to close meetings. Besides, we also collaborated in managing the startups presence in the entrepreneurship event 4 Years From Now (4YFN), where JETRO had a stand for each startup (13 in total), plus two for the organisation, being able to present the startups to potential clients, investors and media.ACTION 1: Corporate scouting

    The first action we carried out from Peninsula was the development of a scouting process with our RADAR tool to find corporations that could be interested in knowing Japanese startups and finding potential agreements to enter them to the European market, customising the search, analysing possible needs and fits from a qualitative perspective.ACTION 2: Contact and matchmaking

    Once detected and analysed, we contacted the most interesting corporations to close meetings with the startups, presenting each startup to an average of 3 different corporations. Finally, more than 40 meetings were celebrated, increasing a 13% the initial goal.ACTION 3: Presence in 4YFN

    After 2 years of pandemic, the 4YFN could go back to the on-site and our team worked in the presence of JETRO in the event. We coordinated both the startup stands and the presentations in the Discovery Stage as well as attending all the media.Results

    The entire project, that included the corporations scouting and the matchmaking to close meetings, as well as the control and support during the event to increase their visibility, was a total success. Besides getting more meetings between corporates and startups than we initially planned, they materialised in agreements and negotiations that are seeds towards the future, generating a participants satisfaction rate of 80%. Altogether, 44 corporate-startup meetings were celebrated, with an average of 3 corporations introduced to each startup. This way, the possibilities to establish agreements between them were raised, as we also developed a follow-up of the meetings to track the scouting success. Within the 4YFN, 6 startups were able to present their project in front of potential strategic partners and investors in a Discovery Stage with full capacity. Thanks to the support provided by Peninsula, the startups could perfect their commercial pitches and public speaking abilities, something they received quite positively.In addition to the achieved visibility in media, with several mediatic appearances of the startups, the 4YFN also helped generate connections and materialise agreements that, along with the ones achieved in the previous meetings, were more than 20.

    « Working with Peninsula has been one of the most enriching professional experiences I’ve had until this point. The insistence and perseverance of carefully managing the projects, with their high ability to analyse and get ahead of the client’s needs, their understanding and adaptation and their superior capability to reach the set goals in time. Could you ask for more? In this case, yes: they are also good people. And that is worth a lot. »

    Pedro Cordero. Project Coordinator in JETRO. Finding the right partners can be everything your business needs.

  • Aena Ventures, the airport revolution

    # Aena Ventures, descubriendo el aeropuerto del futuro
    **Empresa:** público-privada
    **Categoría:** Programa de emprendimiento
    **Duración del proyecto:** 3 años
    La empresa de gestión de aeropuertos Aena se ha adentrado en el mundo de la innovación abierta lanzando Aena Ventures, una aceleradora de startups orientada a resolver distintos retos del aeropuerto del futuro, y en Peninsula hemos trabajado con ella durante toda la primera edición del programa.
    Con 69 aeropuertos en todo el mundo y más de 335 millones de pasajeros al año, Aena es la 1ª compañía de referencia en gestión de aeropuertos de todo el mundo y, como tal, debe estar a la vanguardia de la innovación aérea para ofrecer a sus clientes la mejor experiencia de viaje.
    La 1ª edición del programa de aceleración ha resultado un éxito, y nuestra consultora ha dado soporte a su desarrollo en todo el proceso, desde la captación y la selección de participantes hasta la asesoría en la ejecución de pilotos y la celebración del Demo Day ante el comité de dirección de la compañía.
    – 254 startups inscritas
    – 5 participantes
    – 80% de éxito en los pilotos
    ¿Tienes un proyecto parecido a este y necesitas un poco de ayuda?
    ## Punto de partida
    Con el objetivo de encontrar nuevas tecnologías para resolver algunas necesidades en sus procesos y mejorar los servicios ofrecidos, Aena abrió la convocatoria de Aena Ventures con cinco retos corporativos de cinco áreas distintas:
    1. Agilidad en trámites y desplazamiento al aeropuerto
    2. Experiencia de pasajero
    3. Comunicación con el pasajero
    4. Sostenibilidad
    5. Equipaje en conjunto
    La convocatoria, abierta a nivel internacional, pretendía resolver estos retos a través de la ejecución de pilotos que permitieran testear nuevas soluciones para, más adelante, implementarlas en el aeropuerto de forma permanente con contratos de hasta 2 millones de euros.
    ## Solución
    En Peninsula pusimos en práctica nuestra experiencia en el ecosistema startup para ayudar a Aena con la definición de retos y la selección de los participantes mediante un sistema de evaluación anonimizado y muy eficaz. Una vez empezado el programa, organizamos la Welcome Week, mentorizamos a los equipos en el desarrollo de sus pilotos y coordinamos las acciones durante el programa y la celebración del Demo Day.
    ### FASE 1: Definición de retos
    Para poder llevar a cabo un proceso de innovación realmente transformador y útil para Aena, llevamos a cabo un taller de definición de retos en el que se detectaron las áreas donde podía resultar más beneficioso buscar nuevas soluciones tecnológicas, tanto para facilitar los procesos de la empresa como para aportar valor a los pasajeros. Se priorizaron aquellas más oportunas, llegando a detectar cinco retos en cinco ámbitos distintos.
    ### FASE 2: Fase de llamada (Call)
    Se realizó una campaña de comunicación en distintos canales especializados y generalistas de varias zonas geográficas. Durante este proceso, se facilitó soporte a todas las empresas interesadas con el objetivo de maximizar la captación de ideas, llegando a 254 propuestas de 33 países entre los 5 retos. Tras el proceso de filtrado determinado en las bases de los concursos de proyectos, y en base a los criterios de selección transparente, se realizó un proceso de selección anónimo que permitió definir las 5 empresas participantes en la aceleración de Aena Ventures, una para cada reto planteado.
    ### FASE 3: Semana de bienvenida
    Al inicio del programa, se organizó esta semana de introducción para que las startups se conocieran y se familiarizaran con el equipo de la aceleradora (formado por miembros de Aena y de Peninsula), así como para aterrizar sus soluciones y plantear los objetivos y la hoja de ruta de cada proyecto, encaminada a implementar un piloto en aeropuertos de la red de Aena.
    ### FASE 4: Aceleración
    Durante los 6 meses de aceleración, nuestro equipo de mentores hizo un seguimiento exhaustivo de los avances de cada una de las startups y de la ejecución de sus pilotos, aconsejándoles en la creación del plan de acción, la toma de decisiones y siguientes pasos, y también organizamos distintas dinámicas colaborativas para fomentar la co-creación y el crecimiento mutuo, como clases invertidas, formaciones y talleres.
    ### FASE 5: Demo Day
    Tras haber completado todo el programa, en Peninsula dimos apoyo en la organización del Demo Day, la jornada en la que las 5 startups pudieron presentar los resultados de su piloto ante el Comité de Dirección de Aena, trabajadores de la empresa y otros profesionales e inversores invitados, que sirvió como cierre del programa y una mirada hacia el futuro.
    ## Resultados
    La primera edición de este programa fue todo un éxito. Desde Aena y Peninsula quedamos muy satisfechos con el trabajo hecho, y no es para menos. Los proyectos acelerados pudieron perfeccionar sus soluciones en un entorno real y tuvieron una gran recepción.
    – **Airbot:** chatbot con tecnología de Inteligencia Artificial para mejorar la experiencia de los pasajeros del aeropuerto y reducir costes de servicio al cliente.
    – **Carwatt:** Tecnología de conversión de vehículos industriales y de transporte, de combustión a eléctricos, para descarbonizar la movilidad en aeropuertos.
    – **ChineSpain:** aplicación exclusiva para el turismo chino en España con información, reserva online y pago de entradas y tickets a través de plataformas de pago chinas.
    – **Dubz:** servicio de facturación de equipaje a domicilio, para facilitar la recogida de maletas en el origen y la entrega una vez se llega al destino.
    – **Meep:** aplicación de movilidad urbana sostenible que proporciona las mejores rutas según las preferencias del usuario, permitiendo buscar, reservar y pagar.
    El hecho de que Aena dispusiera de un presupuesto ya reservado para el desarrollo de los pilotos (50.000 € por reto), junto con una metodología ágil de detección de retos y una gran involucración por parte del equipo de Aena Ventures con las startups, permitieron ejecutar el proyecto con mucha facilidad y cosechar unos resultados de lo más positivos, estando cada vez más cerca del aeropuerto del futuro.
    > Peninsula ha sido un pilar imprescindible en la ejecución de la primera edición del programa de aceleración Aena Ventures. La capacidad de pivotar, analizar los problemas y aportar soluciones han sido fundamentales para el éxito de las distintas fases del programa. Han cuidado los detalles y nos han asistido en todas las fases del proyecto
    **Alberto Tahan**
    Head of Innovation de Aena

  • Peninsula Corporate Innovation starts to operate in China by launching an observation and scouting spot

    China is the main global catalyst regarding innovation and technological development. In this context, last 8th of December a signature ceremony was held online to open the Taicang’s High Technology Area Innovation Centre in Suzhou from the consulting firm Peninsula Corporate Innovation. He Yonglin, member of the Permanent Committee of Taicang’s Municipal Party Committee, signed the agreement with Simón Lee, Peninsula Corporate Innovation Suzhou’s director.
    Suzhou, China, 17th of February 2022 – Peninsula Corporate Innovation Suzhou will work closely with innovative companies to accelerate their development within one of the world’s top markets. China opens the door to widen and increasingly value the observation and technological scouting that accelerate clients’ innovation. Nowadays, Suzhou is the seventh Chinese city with the highest GDP right after Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chongqing, and Tianjin. In 2025 Suzhou aims to become the world’s cradle of innovation with a deep integration between AI and real economy.
    Last 8th of December the agreement signature ceremony was celebrated remotely, with the presence of He Yonglin, member of the Permanent Committee of Taicang’s Municipal Party Committee, Peninsula Corporate Innovation Suzhou’s Managing Partner, Andrés Manso, and Peninsula Corporate Innovation’s CEO, Simón Lee.
    China, innovation leader
    Different confluences point to China as the global leader in innovation and technological development.
    One out of three unicorn companies in the world are Chinese. China represents 20% of the world’s total R+D spending, being the second biggest editor of scientific research articles and the main global provider of engineers and PhD.
    The consulting company PwC predicts that, by 2030, artificial intelligence will contribute to a 26% increase in China’s GDP. In the case of fintech, investments have fostered a rise in the value of mobile payments in China up to $790 billion; 11 times more than in the USA. In the case of electric vehicles, China is the biggest market in the world.
    In Suzhou, where Peninsula is located, there is the largest concentration of Chinese companies in the aerospace and biomedicine sectors.
    Observing to secure enterprise landing
    Entering China can be a key decision for some companies. Peninsula Corporate Innovation Suzhou will activate its observatory and technological scouting to analyse sectorial, disruptive, and cultural aspects of business success, as well as the main challenges of innovative companies in the Chinese market, regularly and in a customised way.
    At the same time, in this analysed context, Peninsula Corporate Innovation Suzhou will yield an integral enterprise landing platform in China, so companies can evolve quickly and with a minimum risk.
    About Peninsula
    The new Peninsula Corporate Innovation Suzhou centre is located 40km away from the centre of Shanghai, on the fifth floor of the German Centre building in Taicang. In its first phase, it has 2000m2 divided into 14 spaces, and the first two are already occupied by German companies. The Chinese Government has invested 1.24 million euros in this project.
    Thus, Peninsula Corporate Innovation’s consulting activity is expanded, with technological surveillance and open innovation services through programs with start-ups that facilitate the execution of pilot projects. It has over 30 entities and public agencies among its clients, and dozens of corporations, among which several IBEX35 companies: Aena, Fluidra, CaixaBank, Mapfre or Naturgy. It is the Startup Europe’s Spanish Ambassador, and it has been recognised as the fourth business entity in terms of collaboration with universities according to the UBI Index ranking.

  • Pilots: Turning failure into success

    Pilots, experiments, prototypes, tests or trials are terms that are often used to lower expectations of something or a situation that could present large doses of uncertainty. For example, at Love of Lesbian’s concert held last March, the organization and the media used the term pilot concert to refer to this event that was looking for ways to hold safe cultural events.
    Generally, as noted above, pilots limit the spread of failure in a controlled manner so we are exposed to a smaller and more controlled loss.
    Pilot or fear of failure?
    When pilots are proposed in a traditionalist business environment they can often be perceived with insecurity on the part of the promoter. That is when the factions of the fearless, the neutral and the conservative are created. All positions are correct and understandable, but it should be noted that the fear of failure is a common denominator of these factions. That unknown terrain, when the dashboard is tinted red, is a common place to end up in more scientific-technological fields.
    0 risk leads to 0 learning, and makes us less resilient to the future.
    Those who have lived through the experience of a risky project approval committee are familiar with the risks of the neutral stance. Even opting for the conservative stance carries its risks: What if the pilot turns out to be a success?
    When running away from failure becomes a continuous practice, becoming integrated into the culture of a company, is when the problem can even become lethal. Pursuing 0 risk leads to 0 learning, and with 0 learning we become less resilient to a future full of uncertainties and threats.
    Accept with humility
    In one way or another, we have all experienced pilots, experiments… but there is one hard rule we have seen throughout our experience working with large corporations: the determining factor for a pilot’s launch is to be able to start with humility, on both sides, with enough openness to be able to accept the result whatever it may be.
    It is easy to say, but this word (humility) can denote inexperience and insecurity, because it focuses attention on the project and ignores the real value in starting down a path of learning and exploration of capabilities, since corporations are not experts in a core business or segment of a client company and they are not dealing with trial and error.
    Learning from mistakes
    Another determining factor in a pilot’s launch is learning, that great word that is often used as a buffer for failure, as if the objective pursued became something secondary and not intentionally sought out.
    The only way to learn is through repetition and failure, but while humility is often perceived as insecurity, the concept of learning is perceived as a collateral benefit: It was a failure, but at least we learned.
    Do you have an innovation challenge on your hands?
    We see that companies which start pilots on a regular basis tend to have certain values ingrained in their culture: humility, learning and risk tolerance among them. These values can be a consequence of a path that companies have already started internally or that was instilled by their own founders, but change within larger companies is often not developed alone.
    Pilot to move forward
    Pilots essentially serve to validate hypotheses with the lowest possible cost and maximize learning, moving from secondary objectives to first level objectives only when they prove successful.
    A pilot should be the phase prior to deployment, when uncertainties are linked to the amount of resources needed and the mere execution (without detracting from the term execution, which has its own merit).
    Facilitating experimentation
    The exciting part of our work at Peninsula is the continuous learning we experience. Throughout the pilot testing process we learned a lot with entrepreneurs and their processes of creating a company through agile and lean startup methodologies, where the word experiment is used more, which also releases tensions and expectations.
    We have learned a lot working with large corporations, beasts in terms of deployment, execution and tuning, who sometimes need additional help to carry out projects with high doses of uncertainty and that require reactivity, agility and perhaps a different point of view from the well-ingrained corporate strategy.
    Our goal is to create clarity out of this uncertainty through pilots and ensure corporate relationships thrive. When we refer to bringing together corporations and startups, beyond technicalities, we introduce that dose of humility necessary for a big company to accept working with a small one, and for the small not to feel intimidated by the big.

  • Non-stop innovation

    The success of innovation in organizations lies in its constant application. This success is even more powerful if innovation ceases to depend on a single unit in the company and becomes part of the company s daily business. Then, the only thing the unit has to do is to drive the development of constant innovation.

    According to the Survey of Innovation in Companies of the Spanish National Institute of Statistics, expenditure on innovative activities was 17.074 million euros in 2020.

    The 12.6% of Spanish companies innovated in product, and the 19.9% innovated in their business processes. The success of innovation in organizations lies in its constant application.

    Even with these numbers, it is important to consider that before developing an innovation project there is an exploratory area that is decisive.The start of innovation

    Where does it all start?

    In the detection of a need of a group of users. That need may be a latent but unexplored trend; it can also be a specific problem in a specific area linked to the company’s offer.

    From this clue the whole process is activated, ready to end up in an action plan and be further developed into an innovation project.Innovational clues are collected from observation, passive or active. Passive observation is defined as that which is integrated. If you run through the exercise of observing what you do from the moment you get up until you leave the door of your house, you will surely be able to identify unsolved problems: Save more water than we use? Eat things that are more suitable for our body? How to optimize the exercise we do passively? Optimize the time of arrival at the destination based on real time mobility information?

    If this exercise is incorporated throughout the organization, the passive collection of problems and trends can generate a huge database of potential innovations waiting to be developed. The active collection of clues is more typical of those organizations that regularly need to activate the exploratory processes of innovation. In this way sessions are organized to detect and prioritize needs and trends to be solved for certain groups of users.

    Both passive and active collection require an internal exercise of constant discipline in the productive processes.Analyse opportunities wellOnce the opportunities and trends that need to be addressed have been prioritized, it is time to delve a little deeper into them. It is important to mature them to know how the market is facing that trend, what technologies exist that can provide solutions, or how the investments in that area are faring. In this way, we have a very credible picture to know if there is movement or not regarding that particular problem.

    At Peninsula we have developed a service for Market Insights which generates very detailed reports with all this information. Market Insights is constantly in a process of collecting trends that will end up in innovation projects while also providing a constant drip on what is happening around the organization in order to, at the right time, enter that area in innovation.

    At this point someone could claim that the end user has not yet been seen during the investigation. And they would be right. It can even be said that this is not useful if what we are talking about is innovation, something that always needs the user at the centre.

    But in reality we are at a very early stage of exploration. Both in the passive and active collection of problems or trends, the protagonists in this process know the user. When we dive deeper into the prioritized trend or problem, exploring the market and knowing who is already providing successful solutions shows that if the market is moving, it is because customers are buying.

    Open innovationThe process is now ready to leave the exploratory stage: you have the problem or the trend detected and prioritised and you have approached it in depth in order to have a picture of its reality in the market. Now is the time to open up to other points of view so that they can give their opinion on it. Pure, open innovation.Open innovation involves incorporating expert viewpoints from trend-related fields, or from other companies that have dealt with similar topics and are not competitors. Here it is possible to obtain extremely valuable insights. Knowing what others have done to solve similar problems but in different sectors can be an excellent source of inspiration.That ecosystem of external expertise should be a continuum in any organization. Moreover, as the inventor of the Open Innovation concept, Henry Chesbrough, points out, established companies must always grow and have enormous external resources to help generate clues that startups canst even dream of having available.

    In a Fraunhoffer Institute study on open innovation in large European corporations, with the participation of Henry Chesbrough, in 2012, 78% of corporations were practicing open innovation. 71% had increased management support for the practice. None had abandoned open innovation processes.

    Therefore, 10 years later, this practice has grown exponentially.From all of the above, the next step is to propose an action plan to address (or not) an innovation project based on solutions, testing and activation for its market launch. At Peninsula we call this the Innovation Sprint, running from the collection of trends or problems to the definition of an Action Plan. This Innovation Sprint adds value by maintaining an active innovation pipeline within the organization.

    Here you can learn about a case in which we have applied this process in depth: Open innovation applied to the future of retail.

  • GameBCN, building the future of video games

    The video game sector has been present at Peninsula’s everyday life for some years now, thanks to the activity of GameBCN, the video games incubator that this year has held a 6th edition marked by the global pandemic. Over the past half year, GameBCN’s team has worked closely with 5 selected teams from around the world to bring their independent video game design and distribution projects to life, and the effort and the results were reflected last 22nd of September during the program’s Demo Day.Celebrated with an online broadcast in YouTube and also with a small gathering of promoters in El Canòdrom, the official headquarters of the program, the Demo Day put an end to six months of funding, training, workshops, talks and mentoring designed to guide the participating indie studios in the development of their projects and advise them on business and marketing issues.GameBCNs formula has proven itself effective edition after edition, and the teams are very happy with the resultsA telematic and international Demo DayThe five studios from GameBCN 6 (DC1AB, Invincible Cat, Viral Studios, Mansion Games and GROUND), with members of different parts of the world, were able to show their progress and present the demos of their video games to the general public through a live streaming in YouTube.Besides, after the event some members of the teams celebrated a good-bye session to share some learnings about what had worked and the things that could be improved facing future editions of the program.This Demo Day is indeed a reflection of our commitment to innovation in the gaming sector and the hard work of the participants, who have received knowledge in programming, design, marketing and sales to create and promote their video games, as well as funding to keep moving forward in their path to success.Facing the future of the sectorParallel to the Demo Day streaming, a little event was held in the facilities of El Canòdrom, our consultancy’s old headquarters, closed to the public and respecting all the current health measures.This event had as guests some representatives of Generalitat de Catalunya’s Departament de Cultura, Regidoria de Turisme i Indústries Creatives and Institut de Cultura de Barcelona, as well as some sponsors (Socialpoint and Gameloft) and members of the academic community from UPC and ENTI.The goal of this meeting, besides of concluding and evaluating the sixth edition of the incubation, was to analyse the video game landscape and the next steps in the sector’s innovation to determine how to keep supporting this industry and its growth in our country, adopting a multidimensional approach that included all the stakeholders involved. Seventh edition on the way After six editions, 37 incubated teams and 2.5 million euros of funding raised by the teams, at Peninsula we are certain that GameBCN has a very promising future, that’s why we have already opened applications for the seventh edition of the program, to continue discovering talent in the video game area and turning Barcelona into a reference hub in the gaming field.On the other hand, GameBCN is also collaborating with the Institut Català de les Empreses Culturals (ICEC) to offer a new mentorship program aimed at companies whose activity is related to video games.This line of up to 12 hours of mentorship will provide customised advice in law, funding, strategy, marketing, production, publishing, distribution, monetisation or human resources for free to the participants, in a similar way to the work carried out during the incubation program, but with a more specific framework and a shorter duration (until the end of 2021).iGi: internationalising the sectornAs we say, GameBCN’s formula has proven itself effective edition after edition, and the independent developers teams are very happy with the results of the program. That’s why, some months ago we bet on international expansion through a Japanese version of the incubator.Together with the multinational Marvelous, GameBCN set out to launch a version of its program in Japan, called Indie Game Incubator (iGi), and after such a productive first edition, the Demo Day of which will be held next 26th of November, a second round of incubation is already confirmed, that will help to keep fostering innovation and creativity in the video game industry on a global scale.At Peninsula we are very grateful to have such direct contact with the entrepreneurial ecosystem and to be up-to-date with gaming, a growing sector, which allows us to collaborate in the development of innovative business initiatives and to keep going and learning along the way.

  • Corporate innovation culture: Innovate and grow

    Today, having extensive experience in the sector or market niche in which we are located is no longer enough. It is true that having business experience can help solve many problems, but a lack of innovation can lead to many others.Innovation is imperative in order to avoid being eaten by your competitors. It is very common, especially in entrepreneurs with traditional roots in the industrial era and with a defensive mentality, to have difficulty establishing a strong culture of innovation. This is where it becomes clear that either the company will innovate or it will not be able to compete in the market. Faced with this situation, entrepreneurs tend to mobilize instinctive initiatives such as resorting to open innovation and intrapreneurship programs.RECOGNISE YOURSELFTo develop a new culture of corporate innovation in your company, the first thing to do is to raise the mirror and recognize who you are as a company. To make this task easier, analyze the profile of your employees, all of whom came to you for a reason. Its vital to understand that employees choose to develop their careers in large corporations for specific reasons.The main reason for corporate career development is professional success, and therefore in a company it will be measured by profit and rank. With this in mind you can already see one key to your company’s ideal culture, and a reference point from which to continue innovating.It must be taken into account that cultural change is not an easy task, it requires constant training in addition to a series of basic but often overlooked qualities such as trust, good leadership, and above all patience and time. It is vital, in order to make cultural change, to know who you are as a company and set clear objectives about what you want to change. After that, discovering the initiatives that suit your corporate personality will come more naturally.THE FIRST FIVE STEPSThese factors represent visible, tangible and practical actions that create a very solid foundation and are vital, because once we have achieved them we are ready to move on to our specific corporate initiatives. The first person who should promote innovation is the CEO. It is critical to make sure that he/she is the person who promotes the innovation agenda to his/her employees. Change must be made publicly so that not only the management team, but the whole company, is part of the change. The CEO must also understand and establish that failures are renamed as learning experiences to begin to establish a culture of permission. The second point is to make a roadmap for the whole team to understand the objectives and key areas of the company’s internal strategy. This will help and motivate employees to take ownership of their strategy, as well as recognizing the return of establishing a culture of innovation. Decide where to spend the company’s money and time regarding closed innovation and open innovation. Remember that closed innovation represents internal R&D and entrepreneurship. On the other hand, open innovation represents alliances, mergers, acquisitions and corporate venture capital. Once you have decided which of the two you want to focus on, allocate resources and funds accordingly. Establish roadmap-specific innovation metrics. Create ways to quantify the company’s goals that are more motivating and rewarding for your employees. For example, instead of measuring the number of new products or services delivered to the market, measure the percentage increase in revenue from new products and services compared to existing ones. Adopt a progressive crawl, walk, run approach. Most companies dont lack ideas but they do lack resources. A shortage of resources often leads to losing sight of the goal, and it is at that moment that responsibility and ownership for the innovation project are lost. Therefore, it is essential to limit the number of initiatives in focus at any one time and add new initiatives as you achieve the previous ones.This way the company will always keep a short term goal and it will feel much more rewarding since you will continuously see yourself meeting them.ANOTHER POINT OF VIEWUndertaking this type of change is a complicated task, and many companies that want to develop a culture of corporate innovation help themselves by drawing ideas from outside perspectives. Since it is very difficult to be objective, discover mistakes and make changes in something you live with every day, we recommend that you seek help from external corporations to drive changes in your company culture. This will provide you with an objective, external view of what your business really needs, as well as implementing endless innovative ideas that will undoubtedly make you grow.

  • Open innovation applied to the future of retail

    A USE CASE BYIntroductionThe company is a multinational of optical shops created almost 50 years ago and the current market leader.Its present in 16 countries and its growth is based on a franchise system, it is an internationalisation success model, with more than 500 franchised, 1.500 selling points and a turnover of 850 million euros approximately.Its mainly known by its distribution model, that combines multiformat presentations –with a shop network in different locations, with adapted areas and an active management that guarantees an optimal functioning– and multichannel, as it also has several e-commerce platforms under different brands. NeedOne of the strong points of the company is the physical selling point, in which they want to get the best possible result. This entails an optimal distribution of the spaces and an excelent traffic management, that allows the clients to have good visibility and easy access to all the products and services, generate interest and curiosity to know more about them and raise the conversion rates and sales. The company already has analysis and measurement systems, however, it has been observed that the current systems are very sensitive, and they are affected by deviations that entail inaccuracies in the obtained data.The analysis of this data must allow, additionally, to know the exact behaviour of the customer in the store, companion measurement, definition of heat maps, route, time spent, checkout rate… and to give the possibility to cross data with online visits to know, for example, if a visitor comes from an impact through the website.Having this information will allow to design specific sale actions on, for example, companions, based on the interest they might have shown in the exhibited models or their movements through the exhibition areas, or launching campaigns on specific models according to the interest they have awaken.Besides, the company is fully aware these requirements can only be tackled with high investment, so they need external validation for the decision to be made.GoalsSearch of existing technologies to carry out analysis and measurements.Finding suppliers that dispose of reliable systems with implementation possibilities in this business model.Its about finding a technology supplier that enables a reliable data gathering from a series of indicators, each one with specific weight, as represented in this chart: In this technology, other features are also valued, such as its user-friendliness, the customisation possibilities of the technology, the utility of the gathered details or the option of extracting reports.SolutionThe multinational managers in Spain decided to entrust Peninsula the search of the best provider enterprise to implement the measuring systems. To do so, our company created a pilot process to locate and evaluate technology suppliers, that would allow the mesaurement of the interest parameters. This pilot was done carrying out three coordinated phases:1Interviews2Pilot implementation3Results and pilot analysisThe assessment and comparison solve the problem, assigned to the most adequate provider.Achieved resultsAn exhaustive search of potential suppliers was carried out. Then, from these a selection was done to develop the analysis and the evaluation of their suitability, leaving 4 candidates to do the study. The pre-selected enterprises dont match a single business model or corporation, but they combine the collaboration between big and small startup companies with cutting-edge specialised technology. The comparison between the different interest parameters, indicators and the cost of the technology gave as a result the eselection of the recommended company: Cad&land.It covers the needs of analysis of the main indicators, as well as WiFi coverage for the visitors to use or the realisation of marketing campaigns. It uses Orange and Flame Analytics as collaborators.Development and methodologyAs we said, a 3-steps pilot was developed:Interviews phaseSessions of ideas generation with the different stakeholders to achieve the necessary information and to define the indicators. We contacted HR, management, finances, sales & franchise, store management, online department, marketing, IT, shop and office staff.From the data gathered here, we looked for suppliers to which a well-defined request is presented, being able to value what technology and service each one offers.The information of this part is summarised in the interview report and the KPI definition documentPilot phaseThe different pre-selected companies had to implement their product in the selling points chosen by the client: 2 in Barcelona and 1 in Madrid. The tasks to be done by Peninsula include:Tracking of the implementations in the selling pointsnn Analysis of the data gathered by the suppliersnn Work sessions with external experts to realise physical validation measurementsnn Monitoring of the pilot processnn The duration of this fase was 2 months so all the suppliers could act.The manually-audited measurement report in selling points gathers all the information during this period.Analysis and results phaseAn evaluation of the obtained results with the different technologies by the pre-selected providers and the conclusions that were highlighted during the comparison was realised, that is, analysing its price, considering both the installation and the maintenance and the reliability of their data, and also the different offered services, among which they value, besides of the already specified, the stay time in each shop area, the online/offline conversion and the visit in the selling point: gender and age of the client, country of origin or socioeconomic level.The information here is summarised in a comparative report with recommendations and the presentation of results in the clients headquarters.In Peninsula we offer our experience leading open innovation programs, creating pilots to improve our clients results.SHARE THIS ARTICLEShare on linkedinn LinkedInShare on twittern TwitterMás casos de uso

  • Programa Primer, pre-accelerating startups with the Government of Catalonia

    Programa Primer, pre-accelerating startups with the Government of Catalonia

    rnPublic AdministrationrnCategory.Technical Secretariat.Project duration.4 monthsrnPrograma Primer, entrepreneurship with the Government of CataloniarnThe Programa Primer by Catalunya Emprèn is an initiative by the Departament d’Empresa i Treball in the Generalitat de Catalunya, the goal of which is to promote the foundation of innovative enterprises in the technology area applied to several sectors, promoting the entrepreneur and innovator character of Barcelona and Catalonia in general.Through the creation of their own startup accelerators, the entities participating in the program (city councils, employers associations, academic centers, foundations, private companies…) carry out activities with the entrepreneurs, helping them in the development of their entrepreneurial projects: mentorships, specialised trainings, collaborative workshops with round tables and flipped classrooms, etc.With all that, they want to strengthen the Catalan business network and evolve in the area of new technologies in different sectors. In Peninsula, we’ve been in charge of the program’s technical secretariat.+100 mentorship hoursrn29 entities participatingrn55 developed initiativesrnDo you have a similar project and need a little help?rnLETS TALK!..Te llamamosrnTe contactamos lo más pronto posible..Starting pointrnThis new edition of the Programa Primer began in October 2020 and ended at the end of February 2021, and it started with 29 entities involved, which ended up gathering more than 319 participants in total in 17 pre-accelerators.As technical secretariat, in Peninsula we had to be the right hand of the client in the management and coordination both globally and in particular during the project, helping the different institutions so their incubators were a success, managing each one of them individually according to their needs, priorities and sectors.SolutionrnWe put at Programa Primer’s disposal our team, expert in acceleration and enterprise management, to be by the entities’ side during the whole process of developing their own acceleration programs, always adapting to each entity, their needs, rhythms and formats.Our experience carrying out programs like this was very useful to coordinate and develop facilitating, formative and communication dynamics so the entities could better orient their projects and move forward to the development of their entrepreneurship initiative.Communication with entitiesrnA fluid, bidirectional communication was kept with the participating entities, through a customised e-mail attention, regular calls to mentorships and other activities, and also a quality control survey.Coordination and managementrnThrough the project, a calendar of varied activities was defined to organise the partiicpants, and biweekly meetings were arranged to make a constant follow-up during the course of the program. In these, meeting minutes were elaborated to keep an exhaustive control and to perfect it as it went.Organisation of activitiesrnTo provide the program with content and to help the accelerators to enrich their projects, from Peninsula some activities to train the participants were organised. Among them, there were 6 collaborative days with round tables, workshops, talks and group dynamics such as flipped classrooms and mentorships, to give them management, innovation and marketing tools and ease their activity.Content creationrnAnother line of action we followed was the generation of noticeable contents that could be shared in the different communication channels. Through an editorial calendar, some social media posts were scheduled, and we also developed WordPress pages for each accelerator (followed by a training session to help them manage the platform on their own).ResultsrnThe Programa Primer by Catalunya Emprèn concluded once again an edition marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, but it kept its essence of fostering local entrepreneurship with global projection, innovation applied to technological advance and theme specialisation collaborating with organisations to create a company network and move forward in the entrepreneur ecosystem.Both the entities and the participating enterprises showed a big satisfaction with our consultancy, and they valued our flexibility. We were able to adapt in a very tight schedule, providing the maximum value and creating a program that was adjusted to the Generalitat de Catalunya’s expectations and needs.Very satisfied with the work, we expect to keep moving forward and facing new challenges to work for a leading territory in innovation and entrepreneurship.An acceleration process can be everything your business needs. Are you interested?.I want to know more!..Te llamamosrnTe contactamos lo más pronto posible..SHARE THIS ARTICLErnShare on linkedinrnLinkedInrnShare on twitterrnTwitterrnMORE USE CASES

  • Promoting startups with the government of Japan

    Promoting startups with the government of Japan

    rnPublic AdministrationrnCategory.Matchmaking.Project duration.2 monthsrnJETRO, building bridges between Japan and Spainrn9 Japanese startups are willing to land in Spain with the help of Peninsula. Our challenge? To find the right partners to ensure a win-win between Japanese startups and Spanish corporations.The Spanish headquarters of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), in charge of business and trade relations between Spain and Japan, needed to detect some corporations in our country that could be interested in technologies and services from 9 Japanese startups from their base, and in Peninsula we were asked to carry out a matchmaking for them with some enterprises from our network.Technology exchange, products exports and imports, talent flow, industrial cooperation… These are just some of the goals JETRO aims to achieve with these initiatives, that want to create links between companies from Japan and other countries to ease Japan’s internationalisation.35 arranged meetingsrn16 corporations involvedrnDo you have a similar project and need a little help?rnLETS TALK!..Te llamamosrnTe contactamos lo más pronto posible..Starting pointrnIn order to find Spanish corporations willing to meet with the 9 Japanese startups with international growth aspirations, a first part of startup analysis was carried out.In Peninsula we carried out a work session with each one of them to, besides analysing their value proposition and seeing how to translate it to potential partners, realise recommendations about how to contact European companies and elaborate their one-page deck.SolutionrnTo encompass a bigger number of corporations and to make sure each startup could have valuable appointments that could really turn into real collaboration, we did both a mass email campaign and a customised contact with some enterprises, besides of a close follow-up to schedule and organise meetings to make it a smooth and efficient process.STEP 1. Contact and recruitmentrnAt first, and after having analysed every startup to know their business model and the needs they satisfied, we contacted potential corporations within our wide database in two different ways: through a more large-scale emailing campaign, and through one-to-one contact with corporate executives that were already in our network.STEP 2. Management and schedulernFrom there, we established an individualised contact with all the leads from the interested corporates that wanted meetings with one or more startups from JETRO, so we could align agendas, solve doubts, see the most optimal moment to arrange the meetings or satisfy some particular needs that could arise.STEP 3. Matchmaking and introductionrnOnce all the meetings were scheduled, we handed the startups and the corporations a personalised calendar with all the calls for their online meetings, and the contact details from the other side were given to them in case there was any inconvenience. Besides, the day of the meeting, members from the Peninsula team worked as enablers, introducing both companies and making sure there were no technical issues.STEP 4. Follow-uprnAfter celebrating all the planned meetings, the members of our team contacted personally with each involved party to make sure every meeting had gone well and to check whether they had found opportunities to explore in future meetings, to evaluate if the executed matchmaking had been successful.ResultsrnAlthough at the beginning of the project we agreed with JETRO to set 27 meetings (3 for each startup) we finally arranged 35, given the fact that some corporations were interested in several startups. The meetings were very useful, they helped to present the Japanese technologies in Spain and to find potential partners both now and in the future.With the project finished, many startups are still in touch with the corporations, planning to carry out pilots of their products in the companies, setting new meetings or even introducing other partners and new corporations with room for collaboration.Finding the right partners can be everything your business needs. Are you interested?.I want to know more!..Te llamamosrnTe contactamos lo más pronto posible..Compartir este artículornShare on linkedinrnLinkedInrnShare on twitterrnTwitterrnMás casos de uso