Building on strengths
The three companies originally behind myky – Berner Kantonalbank, Energie Wasser Bern and Gebäudeversicherung Bern – began their collaboration in 2021 with the aim of combining their focus areas (banking, energy and insurance, respectively) to offer a particular target group something they couldn’t get anywhere else. With this eco-system, myky now offers homeowners considering a renovation focused on ecological enhancements a one-stop-shop for their specific needs.
Today, there are 16 other cantonal banks represented under NNH Holding that have partnered with myky and numerous on-going discussions with additional providers who are interested in being involved in myky’s vision.
How to structure a business eco-system
From the beginning, it was clear that the goal of the eco-system partners was to create a joint solution within the context of housing. However, questions about the right value proposition, target group and customer experience quickly arose. For Creaholic’s Dream Team made up of Angela Haas, Claudia Leu and Michi Karsch, the focus became helping the new myky team find the answer to one main question: “How can we lay a foundation for scaling the eco-system?”
As the employees came from different industries and departments and worked at companies with varying interests, the biggest challenge was to foster collaboration across these borders. Within this main challenge came smaller but equally important challenges, such as how to ensure team members from different companies remained equally committed, how to build the strategy and what form would be suitable for the future company.
Fully functioning trifecta
When the collaboration began, Creaholic’s role was to bring in the customers’ perspective to sharpen the value proposition and facilitate the collaboration between BEKB, ewb and GVB. This was made possible thanks to our hands-on approach where customer journeys were developed, interviews and tests were repeatedly conducted, and the vision and strategy were visualised. This visualisation of the concept and strategy helped guide decision-making by BEKB’s, ewb’s and GVB’s stakeholders.
A milestone of this phase of the project was the decision workshop that took place in our innovation factory. The three CEOs of the companies gave the green light for further financing of the business eco-system based on a pitch that Creaholic helped build. They understood that the success of such an eco-system, constructive collaboration at eye level is key. Creaholic provided this thanks to its experience and unbiased approach.
Boosting key results
Once the eco-system was established and myky’s services were formed, the importance of facilitating collaboration between the three companies continued to increase. The team introduced the “Objectives and Key Results” (OKRs) approach. This agile system provides clear focus and direction and is a method that Creaholic uses internally as well.
In quarterly two-day boost camps led by our Dream Team, the OKRs are reviewed, collaboration from the previous quarter is examined and new objectives are defined for the next myky cycle. This process helps the myky team align and to better allocate resources. Their focus, priorities, responsibilities and accountability for the next three months are clearly defined.
By implementing OKRs, we were able to ensure that everyone is working toward the same goal and focus their efforts on the most important outcomes, as defined by the entire group.
About Objectives & Key Results (OKRs)
Alignment through OKRs is a powerful strategy tool not only in business eco-systems, but also in internal projects. On one hand, OKRs enable and promote independence and decision-making capabilities among employees while also breaking down the strategy into actionable parts. OKRs are ideal in achieving a targeted implementation of strategy and achieving annual goals.
From innovation strategy to culture design
Whether you’re curious about building a business eco-systemor want to advance the evolution of your organisation’s culture,our Dream Team is ready for action.
