Innov8rs Zurich

There are several ways of doing Open Innovation in a company, like partnerships and joint-ventures, working with startups or investing in startups, spin-offs, licensing or buying intellectual property, co-creation with clients or collaborating with universities.

At Telefónica they have a number of Open Innovation initiatives, but two years and a half ago they launched a couple of initiatives that represent their approach to early stage Open Innovation: Wayra Builder, a venture builder that allows them to create startups and invest in them, and Open Innovation Campus, their instrument to explore and implement innovation collaboration models with the academic world. In this talk Susana will explain how their early stage Open Innovation model works and share the learnings they had in their journey.

Susana’s professional career has been focused for more than 20 years on innovation. She is currently Head of Wayra Builder, Telefónica’s venture builder, our vehicle to create startups and invest in them. Previously she was Head of Telefónica Open Innovation Campus, which aims to explore and implement collaboration models that allow generating impactful innovation together with the academic world, also providing ways to address challenges and opportunities in the company. Before this role, she was Head of Innovation Portfolio at Core Innovation (Telefónica), her role was managing and evolving Telefónica’s intrapreneurship program and carrying out the internal ventures portfolio.