Innov8rs Learning Lab on Foresight & Business Design, 15-17 November 2022

The future of mobility is complex and uncertain. With a strategic approach the ZF Innovation Lab wants to find out, what are the next topics and innovation areas in the overall mobility.

In the session we will discuss:
1. how to start a foresight initiative
2. some initial results
3. the derived next steps regarding innovation and ideation

Sebastian Grimm is heading the ZF Innovation Lab. He is also a founder of several startups. Sebastian’s role at ZF not only includes the incubation of new ideas but also the ideation and creation of a strategic vision of the next generation mobility.

In this session, Oz will share insights into setting up an in-house incubator for a power grid operator and explain how his team is delivering value to internal customers and the society while bringing cultural change to his organization. You will learn how corporate in-house incubators can deliver solution and cultural value to the organization by leveraging internal capabilities in a bimodal IT and a mission critical business environment.

Oz is an innovation and product Leader between both worlds, startup and corporate, having worked in the gaming, mobility and energy sectors. In these verticals, Oz has held operational and strategic roles in analytics, product development, product management, corporate innovation and R&D. Oz sees his expertise in building products, setting up and running innovation and R&D centers and digitally transforming legacy systems and organizations. In his current role, Oz is heading the in-house incubator of one of the largest power grid operators in Europe, Elia Group, building solutions and services to make the energy transition happen faster in Europe and globally.

We all want good ideas — and more of them — yet few understand how good ideas are born. When it comes to innovation, methods beat muses. Ideaflow dispels the myths surrounding creativity and innovation and provides a structured approach to solving the problem of solving problems, for good.

Jeremy Utley is the Director of Executive Education at Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design. He’s the host of the widely popular “Stanford’s Masters of Creativity” and is the co-author of “Ideaflow: The Only Business Metric That Matters” which was published last month by Penguin Portfolio.

Great ideas are frequently considered the starting point for innovations – both for startups and within existing corporations. And as corporate innovators, we design our programs and communication endeavors accordingly: To identify and foster great ideas. What would happen, however, if we knew that one of the major reasons corporate innovation fails is not because the initial idea wasn’t good or good enough?

In this session, Christian will share his learnings on why ideas from his experience across three intrapreneurship programs are *not* the best starting point, what to look out for instead and how to design employee innovation / intrapreneurship programs accordingly!

Christian is an experienced intrapreneurship manager with a deep focus on fostering entrepreneurial behavior in existing companies and has a strong background in entrepreneurship science. In the past, Christian has functioned as mentor and coach for startups and spin-offs from research institutes. He’s lead marketing & business development endeavors for a startup in the composite material industry before joining the intrapreneurship program of Deutsche Bahn as Engagement Lead. Christian co-founded the PowerLab, TenneT’s first intrapreneurship program, where he functions now as a program manager. Additionally, Christian helps organizations – leaders and individual contributors – to develop entrepreneurial mindsets and behaviors.

This session will share lessons from a team of corporate mavericks – Bankers turned Intrapreneurs. Join us to learn more about how we ideated, collaborated and partnered to launch a renewable energy start up in South Africa. Power Pulse, built and launched in a year helps corporates address complex regulatory environments, simplifies the decision-making process and ultimately accelerates access to alternative energy sources in Africa.

In this session we will share more about:
– What inspired us
– How to leverage client insights and partnerships
– The advantages of building from within
– Operating in uncertainty

Banker turned corporate venturer. Lizelle started her career in Investment Banking doing project financing for mining renewable energy projects. She later moved to the Power Sector team and managed relationships as well as strategy for the bank in the power, and particularly renewable energy, sector. During this role she joined the client discovery workstream focused on decentralized energy on the African continent. This design-thinking process led to the creation of PowerPulse, a digital platform focused on the solar power ecosystem in South Africa. Lizelle currently forms part of the leadership team developing PowerPulse. Kevin has been with the bank for the past 7 years. He is currently a Corporate Venturing Lead in the CIB Digital division and is the Co-Lead and Co-Founder for the Standard Bank PowerPulse renewable energy digital platform. Kevin’s career in the bank began in Structuring Advisory Investment Banking and pivoted into the digital innovation hub of the Corporate and Investment Bank where he is currently placed. He has been one of the key team members behind the design thinking and innovation process which was followed to ideate the PowerPulse digital platform business and is currently responsible for running the digital and operational aspects of the business. His passion for building new businesses within the context of digital transformation feeds his commitment to client centric innovations which are relevant in the 4IR. In his spare time, Kevin is an avid runner and digital transformation speaker. Jaco has been part of Standard Bank for past 20 years. He has been entrusted with a number of leadership roles in South Africa and other countries within our footprint. He has remained close to our client franchise in the Corporate and Investment Bank. In his current role as Head Corporate Venturing he is responsible for providing leadership and execution in building new ventures, not constrained to financial services.

How do the titans of industry stay ahead? Why do some fail, and some succeed? Is it resource abundance, global reach, or something else? We sit down with Lee Jeyes, the Head of Innovation for Walmart Canada for an interactive, fireside chat to dive deeper into:

– How to advocate for innovation, generate momentum and buy-in at big organizations
– How to rapidly identify the trends worth actioning and ignite new opportunities
– How to build a brand within an existing, dominant brand
– Biggest challenges and lessons learned throughout his journey at Fortune 1

With a passion for technology and innovation, Lee Jeyes has been able to bring this to the largest retailer in the world, Walmart. Over his career, Jeyes has been a part of major initiatives including the launch of Walmart’s online grocery business in Canada and driving $500 million in business value in a two-year period. As the Head of Innovation for Walmart Canada, Jeyes’ department exclusively focuses on radical and disruptive approaches to keep Walmart at the edge of innovation. On days off you will find him in Toronto walking along the water with his Great Dane, Wally, or making music in his plant filled loft.

Martina works with Fortune 500 companies to identify and implement disruptive innovation across North America, and has extensive experience in research and creative problem solving leading engagements with Disruptive Edge, an innovation consultancy for companies looking to become the disruptors of their industries. Prior to Disruptive Edge she worked on launching and funding innovation initiatives in international development, with roots in social sciences and a passion for meaningful corporate action on climate change.