How Amaris Consulting supports Edenred’s in-house innovation by designing a yearly open innovation challenge for its intrapreneurs
Edenred is the global leader in payment solutions for the working world. Whether it’s mobile applications, online platforms, cards or credit-cards, these solutions aim to improve the user’s’ quality of life, increase companies’ efficiency and boost suppliers’ revenues.
The group brings together a unique network of 50 million Edenred internal users and 2 million partner merchants in 46 countries through more than 850,000 corporate clients.
A quest for agility
Following a 2011 partnership with investment fund Partech Ventures to support disruptive startups, in 2017 Edenred championed an in-house international innovation program encouraging employees to work on and develop their own innovative projects within the company.
The Edenred Factory’s goal was to allow disruptive, high-potential ideas to emerge within the group, with a view to converting them into concrete projects. The idea was to combine the agility of a start-up with Edenred’s ability to take a product to market through its international network.
Structuring innovation and boosting intrapreneurial spirit with Edenred creative teams
Following a challenging first year, Edenred wanted to find ways to better support and mentor its intrapreneurs, as well as take their projects to market.
The program had to be reshaped to allow for a more solid organizational structure and step-by-step progress framework.
Edenred teams had to be equipped with the right tools to build a viable product and prepare a solid pitch for the executive committee.
The selected project would be incubated for a period of 6 months, during which the project owner focuses exclusively on developing their idea. Edenred needed to establish a workflow creating momentum for its projects in order to take them to market.
Finally, this international incubation program had to adopt a coherent cross-country approach, supporting intrapreneurs on a regular basis.
A 3 step intrapreneurial program to generate great projects and accelerate through open innovation
Create the structure (ExCom project selection)
- Define project scopes & objectives
- Attract quality projects & talent
- Select most promising projects
Training and pitch bootcamp (ExCom pitch)
- Train the project owners on innovation methodologies
- Support the project owners for their Executive Committee pitch preparation
- Team Building and Talent Networking Events with intrapreneurs from the group
Accelerate (ExCom decision to go live)
- Incubate projects locally with the help of Amaris’ experts and coaches (Agile & Scrum)
- Analyze market & consumers behavior
- Develop an MVP
- Test it on the market
Testimonials:
Partners in innovation, from conception to launch
As well as being a partner for innovation throughout all Edenred locations, Amaris and the Mantu group also supports the next stages in the innovation cycle; market rollout.
Our extensive range of integration services ensures that the innovative product or service is embedded successfully within a company’s offerings, after which comes product promotion, scale up, and continuous development; Amaris Consulting and the Mantu group is on-hand at each step of the journey.
“We have a partner by our side who enables us to offer our creative teams innovative methods identical on all our locations, and supports us with great agility, flexibility and reactivity in the production and market rollout of new solutions.
— Agathe Thomas-Chocat, Open innovation manager – Edenred
“Our active involvement does not stop once the market testing phase is done. Our Mantu ecosystem of expertise and brands supports our clients in launching projects on the market.”
— Julien Lacaze, Future of Work” Director – Mantu
Building Edenred’s future business while implementing a strong innovation culture
By using a host of innovation methodologies already tested and honed at Amaris, we empowered Edenred’s global talent community to convince their executive committee to move forward with intrapreneurial projects.
One project involves a mobile app to optimize how logistical operatives interact on site. This app has the potential to revolutionize the way different logistics stakeholders operate in Brazil, but also worldwide.
It’s an example of how ideas emerging from the intrapreneurship program can be developed locally, then implemented on a global scale.
The program is also a chance for natural brand ambassadors and the most creative talent to stand out as their project gains visibility.
Edenred also benefits from increased agility throughout the intrapreneurial cycle.
This program is another major step in Edenred´s transformation journey.
Edenred selected Amaris Consulting and the Mantu group to support their transformation in a long-term global partnership.
