Unleashing initiative-taking, the goal of the Open Innovation Challenge
How can employees be involved in innovation? That’s the question CNP Assurances asked itself. And the initiatives have created a real spark. Pierre-Alain Lesaulnier talks about the full range of them, from hackathons to the Open Innovation Challenge, which he runs.
Our goal was to get as many employees as we could together and to enable them to take part. We set up an IT platform and invited CNP Assurances employees from across Europe to log in to find out about the themes we had chosen and to get together in teams to come up with ideas for projects.
Of the forty or so projects put forward, more than one-third came from the European subsidiaries ! Our employees and customers were asked to “like” their favourites. The top 10 projects were then reviewed by a panel of experts, who listened to pitches from the teams and cut the field down to a shortlist of five - three from France, one from Spain and one from Cyprus. The projects were nurtured for four months in an incubator before the prizewinners presented their prototypes to a single panel of judges, explaining their business model, their target and, where applicable, the technology solution. The judges gave the go-ahead for four projects to enter production. The fifth project, which has lofty ambitions, could lead to a change in strategy for the subsidiary in Cyprus.
“The Open Innovation Challenge gives employees a chance to try out something new, become more independent, gain new skills and work in groups - and not necessarily with their office colleagues !”
Pierre-Alain Lesaulnier, Head of Monitoring, Benchmarking And Strategic Marketing Innovation
“The goal was to improve customer satisfaction. We took four months to firm up an idea, develop a prototype and create a set of specifications.”
Stéphan Guenver, Customer Experience and Information Systems
(In a sidebar)
Close-up look at a successful project
Stéphan Guenver was one of the first prizewinners of CNP Assurances’ Open Innovation Challenge. He sums up the competition that changed his life in five words.
The idea
Give policyholders a way of updating the contact details of the beneficiary(ies) of their life insurance policy in just three clicks and in three minutes at any point throughout the life of the policy.
The team
I was fortunate to be able to choose my team mates. We were all experts in our fields, all from different backgrounds and all had the ability to contribute added value. That ratcheted up our capacity to get things done and enabled us to complete the challenge in four months.
The lessons
Taking a chance is essential. I was able to overcome my limitations. The hardest part was stopping afterwards !
The name
“Filae” as in “filiation”, passing on your capital to your loved ones.
Your future
A new journey is beginning for me with a new position at CNP Assurances !