Tapping into open innovation through intrapreneurship
Intrapreneurship can be an excellent pathway to business growth. Employees often have their own ideas about how customer experience or services can be improved and how revenue can be generated from new offerings, particularly if they are directly involved in these processes. Fostering a culture where they are empowered to not only share these business ideas, but also develop them can have a big impact on your organisation’s customer loyalty, growth and legacy.
Raiffeisen had already set up the framework of an initiative to spark intrapreneurship: Innovation Challenge 2022. Raiffeisen’s Innovation team reached out to Creaholic because they needed support in shaping the ideas into real opportunities for the business. Not only did the Creaholic Dream Team build a framework for supporting Raiffeisen’s intrapreneurs in developing their ideas, but they also offered innovation services for ideas that were determined to have potential. Several of those ideas are actively being developed within the organisation right now.
Empowering and coaching employees
The first step of breaking into the idea vault was establishing a culture that promotes, fosters and celebrates innovation. Raiffeisen had already cultivated that culture, so the co-creation between the organisation and Creaholic was focused on what skills and competencies were needed to help high-potential ideas move forward. Plans were already in place for the internal Raiffeisen Innovation Challenge 2022 and the Creaholic Dream Team made up of Christoph Frei, Roman Hungerbühler and Jere Greuter stepped in to help the winners of the competition with coaching and specific innovation services.
Combined power of coaching and innovation services
The approach that is in use today involves an on-going collaboration with Creaholic where our business and innovation experts guide, challenge and support Raiffeisen employees with winning intrapreneurship ideas. Thanks to our broad skillsets in innovation strategy, service design, customer service management and product development, we can offer a vast and diverse range of packages.
The coaching aspect involves three fit-tests where we roll up our sleeves and work together with the innovators rather than instructing them on what they should do or doing it for them.
Following that phase, the collaboration continues in the form of innovation services, which include:
Problem-discovery interviews
Lo-fi prototyping
Testing of prototypes
Innovation accounting
Pitching boost
Visualisation support
Intrapreneurship ideas that progressed
Several ideas showed huge potential and Creaholic was able to work with these teams on crystallising the ideas, finding the “sweet spot” between feasibility, customer desirability, viability and responsibility, and ultimately turning the idea into a reality.
CareNow
This non-monetary 4th pension pillar is built on time credits that are received when seniors in need are supported with tasks such as gardening, grocery shopping, transportation or cleaning. The hours recorded for completing these activities are placed in a “time bank” and can be used when the customer needs assistance when they retire. At the heart of this service is the goal of strengthening volunteering and creating non-monetary incentive.
What we did: Creaholic brought this idea to life by connecting to existing organisations and networks related and setting up interviews where we could listen and learn from their experiences. From there, we created a strategy for Raiffeisen to take the next steps in this direction.
Lokalbüro
This idea was born from the challenge of remaining close to customers while at the same time being confronted with sharply declining numbers of visitors to bank counters. With the transformation of the Neuenegg bank counter into a LokalBüro, Raiffeisen Sensetal can continue to make use of its offices by transforming it into a local hub where “advisors” – often retired seniors – who want to share their experience and network donate their time to answer everyday questions from members of the local community. Additionally, coworking spaces and meeting rooms can be booked. In this way, Raiffeisen maintains its connection to the local people by providing the space for these valuable exchanges to take place. The first pilot started in July 2023 in Neuenegg and if successful, the idea may spread to other Raiffeisen banks.
What we did: Creaholic supported Raiffeisen in validating the idea using a lean co-creation approach that involved filtering assumptions on which the idea was based and gaining important insights in workshops and interviews. In the implementation phase, Creaholic developed the manifesto and mission statement of the local office.
YoungMembersKids
The team behind this idea took on the challenge of improving the overall quality, consistency and future viability of Raiffeisen’s current offerings for children. The first pilot test launched in December 2022 redesigned assets tailored for kids which encouraged saving money in a playful way. The results showed positive feedback among parents and bank employees, as well as an increase in “bright-eyed kids” bank visits and money-saving activities. Together with further initiatives, YoungMembersKids serves as a first building block aimed at a more streamlined and contemporary experience that playfully teaches and supports children in money matters.
What we did: To help the team behind "YoungMemberKids" navigate through the uncertainties of their journey, Creaholic provided methodological coaching along the team’s innovation process. Additionally, Creaholic designed the prototypes involved in the pilot in close collaboration with the team.
Keep intrapreneurship ideas moving forward
Get in touch to learn how Creaholic can strengthen your organisation’s innovation cultureand support your team members with innovation coaching.
