CEMS Magazine 2015: The Intrapreneurship Issue

Building

Outwards from Within Many of the world’s top companies are now encouraging staff to develop their own projects - for the benefit of the staff, the companies and the wider world too.

The

I n t rap ren eu r ia l

Issue

Universum

Google

Salesforce

The role of purposeful work, innovation, and entrepreneurship in grabbing and holding top young talent

How the system works and the competitive advantage it gives the company

The future of intrapreneurial activity is that everyone in every major company should be doing it

The New World Of intrepreneurialism

PUBLISHING CEMS, The Global Alliance in Management Education Executive Director Roland Siegers Director of Publishing Rebecca Rosinski

6

CEMS, the global alliance in management education, pays much attention to how our alumni operate in the real world of global business.

1, rue de la Libération 78350 Jouy-en-Josas France cemsmag@cems.org

Building Outwards From Within

EDITORIAL PRODUCTION SinoMedia Ltd Editorial Directors Rebecca Rosinski & Graham Earnshaw Design SinoMedia Ltd Contributors Rafael Garavito Tom Zacharski David Vincent Henry Kharoufeh Julien Remond Harry Yu Khiola Shukurova Luiza Dobre Mauro Sibilia Rita Järventie-Thesleff Stefan Ege Dr. Paolo Bavaj Photographers of Note Moyan Brenn Khairul Nizam Giuseppe Milo Vaduz Dennis Jarvis Berit Watkin About CEMS Founded in 1988, CEMS is a global alliance of 29 business schools and universities collaborating closely with 70 industry-leading multi-national corporations, 4 NGOs and 10,000 alumni to deliver the renowned CEMS Master's in International Management.

14

Google is famous for allowing its staff one day a week – 20% of their work time – to work on their own projects.

Tom Zacharski, a Google employee in Singapore, explains how the system works and the competitive advantage it gives the company.

Immersion in Innovation

18

The future of intrapreneurial activity is that everyone in every major company should be doing it. So says David Vincent, a CEMS alumnus who works with Salesforce and is proud of his intrapreneurial role and the contribution that it makes both to the company and his own future.

CEMS is a global alliance of academic and corporate institutions dedicated to educating and preparing future generations of global business leaders to enter into a multilingual, multicultural and interconnected business world through the CEMS Master’s in International Management.

CEMS promotes global citizenship, with a particular emphasis on these values: The pursuit of excellence with high standards of performance and ethical conduct; Understanding and drawing upon cultural diversity with respect and empathy; Professional responsibility and accountability in relation to society as a whole.

CEMS MAGAZINE

3

Attracting and Retaining the Best

10

Blending Structure and Creativity in the Corporate World

22

Companies are constantly seeking to find the ideal balance between necessary, structured processes and allowing employees the freedom to innovate

4

CEMS MAGAZINE

Arriving Home Abroad

26

Discussing the cultural implications of organizational management

Plain Business Sense as the Guiding Star

The role of purposeful work, innovation, and entrepreneurship in grabbing and holding top young talent. By Rafael Garavito, Universum Account Manager & CEMS Alumni (NHH/UB).

30

How Coloplast partnered with the CEMS Business project to discover new and innovative ideas

The Process of Disruption

36

Breaking out of the old and into the new is a difficult process for many corporations but maintaining the status quo can lead to a dead end

CONTENTS Perspectives on intrapreneurial trends amongst cutting edge companies, employees and members of the CEMS Global Alliance., exploring the implications and opportunities that the trends contain

Challenge is the Mother of Creativity

24

Seven students within the CEMS Club at the University of Sydney are on a mission to bridge the Australian entrepreneurial scene and the CEMS community through meaningful value adding projects. As they worked to lay a strong foundation for their new association, they faced considerable challenges.

But their ability to balance persistence and strategic adjustment led them to a fantastic opportunity. By CEMS student (USYD/NUS), Julien Remond.

Storming the Market in the 21st Century

32 Starting-Up from Within

38

Imagine the sense of ownership and freedom of launching your start-up combined with the security and ample resources provided by an established company

Turbulence isn’t something to be afraid of in business, or so says CEMS Alumna (ESADE/ HSG), Luiza Dobre of Google Switzerland, as she discusses how a business can be a “market disrupter” for good.

Caution!

Students at Work

42

The CEMS Club Helsinki at Aalto University in Finland addresses the topic of intrapreneurship in an exceptional way

From Interns to Entrepreneurs

A Mutually Beneficial Partnership

If someone has an innovative idea, they can either try to find a way to integrate the idea into their current role or start to build a new company

Dr. Paolo Bavaj explains how creativity is fostered within a company and how intrapreneurial projects benefit both the company and the participants

46

50

CEMS MAGAZINE

5

The New World Of

Intrepreneurialism A

t its origins, the CEMS Global Alliance was created to build a bridge between the academic and corporate worlds. This unique spirit of collaboration within the CEMS community is expanding in many exciting new territories, which comes to life more than ever in this edition of our magazine.

This issue of CEMS Magazine is dedicated to intrapreneurialism, and we’ve invited the CEMS community to provide their insights and experience on this very crucial subject. Companies that encourage an internal entrepreneurial spirit clearly benefit from the dynamism that is unleashed in the process. We will explore how creating an entrepreneurial environment within a company can help attract and retain young talent and we look at this process in action at a large number of our CEMS Corporate Partners and watch how this translates to work CEMS students and alumni are engaging in across the globe.

When people within companies are encouraged to operate in ways which parallel the business drive of entrepreneurs, it benefits both the individual and company. These lessons that are being taught in the classroom can also been seen in the way that our community operates in the real world of global business, and the flexibility, mobility and creativity that this talented group of individuals exhibit come together in these pages.

6

CEMS MAGAZINE

CEMS MAGAZINE

7

ACADEMIC AALTO | Finland | Aalto University School of Business CBS | Denmark | Copenhagen Business School CUB | Hungary | Corvinus University of Budapest ESADE | Spain | ESADE Business School EAESP | Brazil | Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo-FGV GSOM | Russia | Graduate School of Management, St. Petersburg University HEC | France | HEC Paris HKUST | Hong Kong S.A.R., China | HKUST Business School IIMC | India | Indian Institute of Management Calcutta Ivey | Canada | Ivey Business School KEIO | Japan | Keio University KOC | Turkey | Koç University Graduate School of Business LSM | Belgium | Louvain School of Management NUS | Singapore | National University of Singapore NHH | Norway | Norwegian School of Economics

8

CEMS MAGAZINE

PARTNERS NOVA | Portugal | Nova School of Business and Economics

RSM | Netherlands | Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University

SSE | Sweden | Stockholm School of Economics

LSE | United Kingdom | The London School of Economics and Political Science

USYD | Australia | The University of Sydney Business School

TSEM | China | Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management

UCD | Ireland | UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School

UAI | Chile | Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez

UB | Italy | Università Bocconi

UoC | Germany | University of Cologne

VSE | Czech Republic | University of Economics, Prague

HSG | Switzerland | University of St.Gallen

SGH | Poland | Warsaw School of Economics

WU | Austria | WU (Vienna University of Economics & Business)

CEMS MAGAZINE

9

Attracting and Retaining the Best Rafael Garavito, Universum Account Manager & CEMS Alumnus (NHH/UB) explores the role of purposeful work, innovation, andentrepreneurship in grabbing and holding top young talent..

10

CEMS MAGAZINE

R

apidly shifting business and workforce landscapes as well as increasing talent shortages in key roles stand out as two important challenges faced by management teams nowadays.

Companies that are accommodating to the work expectations of an upand-coming millennial generation will likely gain a competitive advantage in years to come. What role does innovation, collaboration, purpose and entrepreneurship play as magnets for talent attraction globally and to what extent do CEMS corporate partners meet the expectations of young talent in specific markets?

Deloitte tells us that before too many more years have passed, the Millennials will represent 75% of the global workforce. “What do we know about this generation that will drive companies forward and allow them to outcompete in a volatile marketplace?”

Yearly topical studies and international surveys conducted by Universum identify the most attractive employers in the eyes of students and young professionals, the preferences of young talent when selecting employers, and the perceptions around the companies they prefer. Strong associations with important preferences are key to develop a strong EVP (Employer Value Proposition) as they improve a company’s ability to attract and retain the best talent.

What are some of these preferences and what does young talent want?

Universum’s most recent talent insight study reveals that graduates in business who want to join a startup rate being entrepreneurial or creative/innovative as their highest career priority (55 percent), followed closely by work-life balance in second place.

The desire for entrepreneurial spirit, creativity and innovation was most noticeable in Brazil, Canada, Finland, India, Mexico, Sweden, the UK and the US. Likewise, findings show that these students value independence and autonomy to a greater extent than other groups (particularly in Thailand, where students ranked it as their most important career goal).

Respondents with an entrepreneurial mindset also give importance to employers that can offer them innovation, attractive products and services, professional training and development, inspiring managers and leadership opportunities. In fact, from all regions studied and looking at a larger set of global research, training and development stood out as a top requirement for respondents when selecting employers in all regions except North and Latin America.

The desire to work for companies with attractive products and services was strongest in Western Europe. All regions indicated supportive leaders as a top 10 priority when choosing employ-

CEMS MAGAZINE

11

12

CEMS MAGAZINE

ers, and all except Eastern Europe and Latin America did the same when asked about creative and dynamic work environments.

How do CEMS corporate partners perform with regards to such important attributes?

Several CEMS corporate partners are highly ranked in the Universum Global Top 50, European Top 50, Latin American and APAC rankings overviews. Young talent often believes their work expectations will be met when working for them.

As an example, over 60% of business students in key markets that select L’Oréal Group believe they will find training and development as well as a dynamic environment in the company.

McKinsey & Co. is fourth in the list of companies most associated with inspiring managers and fifth with supportive leaders in Spain. MBA students in the United States believe Google to be the third most fast‐growing and entrepreneurial company, and yet the first position is taken by Salesforce.

Brazilian students rank P&G as a top 10 company with regard to supportive leaders though less highly with regard to attractive products and services. Deloitte and PwC are strongly associated with leadership opportunities in Canada, yet such associations are much weaker in China.

What does all this mean in practice?

All in all, the Universum talent surveys reveal the importance of entrepreneurial spirit, innovation, purposeful work and supportive environments as key motivators for talent to select employers, especially for potential employees with an acumen for startups. They also reveal that several CEMS corporate partners are strongly associated with such motivators; often an explaining factor for their good performance in several Universum rankings.

More importantly, the analysis also reveals that Millennials are not afraid of seeking their own ventures, be it at established companies or new startups.

It also indicates that both talent preferences and brand perception vary across different regions markets. It is likely that only those companies with a clear and reliable understanding of what the future workforce wants and which offer an appealing and streamlined EVP, will successfully cater to the expectations of this key generation.

Keywords for doing so are giving them an opportunity for “trial and error” within the company, easy access to leaders, and letting them decide on how to best weigh their work-life balance. Failing to do so might jeopardize companies’ business plans as they fail to attract and retain key talent; an element of outmost importance in any company’s people strategy.

About the Author Rafael Garavito is a 2010 graduate from the CEMS MIM program combined with studies in Energy/Natural Resources/Environment (NHH / Bocconi). He currently works for Universum on business development and as an employer branding advisor for national and international companies in Norway and Spain. Originally from Colombia, he now lives in Norway after having resided in the US, China, and Spain. he was part of the team that organized the CEMS Nordic Forum in Bergen in 2009.

Universum, world leader in employer branding, surveys yearly more than a million talented young people worldwide and is a trusted advisor for many Fortune 500 companies as well as local actors in more than 50 countries with regards to the improvement and development of their employer brands. The company delivers a full range of services within talent research, strategic consulting and brand activation.

CEMS MAGAZINE

13

Building Outwards From Within Google is famous for allowing its staff one day a week – 20% of their work time – to work on their own projects. CEMS Alumnus Tom Zacharski (SGH/CUB), a Google employee in Singapore, explains how the system works and the competitive advantage it gives the company.

M

y career with Google started in February 2011 with the AdWords customer support team in Dublin serving the UK / Ireland market. After a year, I moved to Google Headquarters in Mountain View, California and then I moved to frontline sales in Singapore. I’m currently working with the travel team, serving the largest online travel agencies and flight / hotel metasearch engines.

Working for Google means I also partly work for myself. The company has a program geared towards intrapreneurship whereby staff are allowed to use one day a week to work on their own projects. It’s a counter-intuitive program that allows for new ideas to flow, more job satisfaction, a greater sense of influence for both sides and is enormously successful.

The way it works is that you come up with the project idea yourself and either ask your manager to carve out some time from your core responsibilities or you devote time outside of work. It's very much like building a startup - it's hard in the beginning, but once you have a working prototype and your first "clients", you end up getting “investors”.

Getting an investor initially may just be a time allocation investment by your

14

CEMS MAGAZINE

boss. But that’s fine. It's not uncommon for Googlers to "fly under the radar" with their projects, release something and only then see management get excited.

Proactivity and innovation are very much valued internally in Google, even in a relatively more conservative part of the company such as the business/ sales operation (as compared to, say, engineering). I work in the Google sales area as part of the Global Business Organization which gets involved in improving processes, building tools, or organizing conferences / external events.

Generally we are given a lot of space, and as long as someone is performing well in their core responsibilities, no one will stop you from pursuing additional projects.

I started coding about a year after I joined Google. For my side project, I used a lot of external resources building tools and sites, mainly just for fun, without really believing it would take me anywhere. In Mountain View, I showed these sites to my manager and he asked if I'd be interested in building something internally. At the time my skill levels were minimal, but he still said it might be worth pursuing that project, as having a "business guy with coding abilities" could come in super handy for the team. Lots of sweat,

CEMS MAGAZINE

15

much understanding from our internal infrastructure and three months later I had built a tool that has been used by thousands of Googlers internally.

When I moved to the sales team in Singapore, I continued coding, building elaborate dashboards, a happiness tracker for our team and much more. Once I even built a tool for comparing Google products internally and it ended up being used by more than 5,000 people in the span of a few days and even got hacked internally by some product teams that wanted to see their product perform better in the rankings!

In cases where you are building a tool that would be used by a lot of people, say more than a thousand, you'll often need to get approval from an internal team called "The Tools Council" which decides whether your tool should be launched or not. They will provide you with a lot of resources if the tool's purpose, an engineering resource for instance, makes sense.

In general, this mirrors the way the external startup world works, and this is what makes the internal Google strategy is so successful.

This intrepreneurial approach creates immense satisfaction for staff members such as myself who are able to "incubate" our own ideas within a gigantic corporation. In a way you're building your own company within a company, you're leaving a visible mark thanks to your performance.

It's a great way to prepare for building your own startup in the future, and, if you're not into entrepreneurship, a great way to boost your CV or to just create something truly inspirational to talk about during future job interviews.

The bottom line is that innovation is highly valued at Google. Working on a project that you initiated and executed through to the end is seen as being very beneficial to your career. It can help gain quicker promotion or contribute to your semi-annual evaluation. In fact, it's not uncommon to see a nice bonus come in, or a slight salary bump, thanks to one of these big projects.

Google is also extremely flexible when it comes to changing the course of your career internally, so “intrapreneurial� successes can often translate into switching positions or teams.

But to what extent can other companies use the same idea? It's difficult. You need a much more "liberal" approach - people cannot be constrained by too many compliance rules. You need managers who recognize that when there is spare time for their employees it's better to let them pursue whatever they want rather than creating work for them for work's sakes. And you need a culture that encourages innovation, by rewarding successes and not punishing failures.

But at Google, that is what we have.

16

CEMS MAGAZINE

About the author Tom was born in the United States and grew up in Poland - a dual citizen from birth. He studied at the Warsaw School of Economics, completing his CEMS term abroad at Corvinus University of Budapest. He has a strong interest in entrepreneurship, U.S. politics and traveling, having visited more than forty countries so far. Starting in August 2015, he is pursuing an MBA at INSEAD.

CEMS MAGAZINE

17

Immersion in Innovation The future of intrapreneurial activity is that everyone in every major company should be doing it. So says David Vincent, a CEMS alumnus (UCD/LSM) who works with Salesforce and is proud of his intrapreneurial role and the contribution that it makes both to the company and his own future.

18

CEMS MAGAZINE

CEMS MAGAZINE

19

E

veryone at Salesforce is an intrapreneur. Working as a Business Development Representative at Salesforce’s Dublin headquarters means you have access to world-class training and the ability to leverage Salesforce’s powerful cloud infrastructure. Whether you’re suggesting a process change or attempting something more ambitious like I am, in building an app to increase people’s productivity, Salesforce has cultivated a supportive intrapreneurial environment.

The intrapreneurship project that I’m working on, Health-e, will help employees make the most out of their non-working hours by integrating timeoptimisation into their calendars and email. This means that they will be able to be more focused and productive with the time they do spend in the office. I work on this Health-e app it in my spare time, but I receive support, guidance, and advice from my manager and coworkers throughout the company.

I’m building the app using Heroku, Salesforce’s platform as a service (PaaS), which enables developers to build and run applications entirely in the cloud. It allows me to create personalised apps to help myself and my colleagues using skills I have gained during my time at Salesforce. My manager checks in with my Health-e app during our regular one-on-one meetings, my colleagues beta test it by integrating it with their own workload, and I can look up any Salesforce employee in our internal directory to ask them for advice.

Helping employees to make better use of their free time makes them happier and more productive at work.

20

CEMS MAGAZINE

Fostering a positive atmosphere of intrapreneurship by allowing employees the freedom to be creative has a similar effect: empower people to think outside the constraints of their day-to-day roles and they will respond by suggesting process improvements, coming up with great ideas and building useful tools.

I’m immersed in a culture of learning and innovation with creativity as a key element in my work environment.

I’m surrounded by many creative people and each week we get a dose of inspiration through updates on the latest innovations taking place at Salesforce. By having this entire eco-system around me to draw inspiration from, it makes the process of launching my own new ideas much easier.

CEMS, along with the Smurfit Business School in Dublin, enabled me to develop the skills necessary to get where I am today. Most of all, it’s the spirit of innovation within CEMS, which entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs alike harness, that has stayed with me. It is this spirit which is important, rather than the success or failure of individual ideas. It drives me to be better at what I do and to continuously improve myself.

The other benefit from my CEMS experience is the networking. Many CEMS alumni have gone on to be entrepreneurs and their stories inspire me.

Coindrum, a company that allows travellers to exchange different currencies for airport vouchers, is just one inspirational example, founded by a CEMS entrepreneur and very good friend of mine, Lukas Decker.

For me, working as an intrapreneur,

Salesforce gives me the tools, knowledge and support to generate my ideas and build on them quickly, and then amplify their impact both inside and outside the company.

Of course, my day-to-day role will always come first, but I find I am able to be the master of my own career here.

Skills I gain working on my intrapreneurial projects help me in my core role but also on my wider career journey: project management, time management, financial knowledge, customerrelationship management and presentation skills, to name but a few.

Speaking from my own personal experience, the freedom to be an intrapreneur has meant I have become more motivated and more productive than ever in my core job.

Other companies could certainly learn from Salesforce’s open approach to intrapreneurship, an approach in which intrapreneurs add value to their organisation and which breeds innovation throughout the company.

About the author David Vincent is a CEMS Alumnus, studying at UCD and Louvain School of Management. He is halfFrench and half-Irish, grew up in Brussels and studied in Belgium, the USA and Ireland and has also spent some time living in Poland .

CEMS MAGAZINE

21

Blending Structure and Creativity in the Corporate World Companies are constantly seeking to find the ideal balance between necessary, structured processes and allowing employees the freedom to innovate. Henry Kharoufeh of Hilti, believes his company has found that niche.

22

CEMS MAGAZINE

I

am the Director of Organizational Learning / Regional Sherpa in Asia-Pacific at Hilti. I was born in and completed high school in Palestine. In 1978, I started my university education with an engineering degree in England. In the last 30 years, I have worked in different countries in the Middle East, the Asia-Pacific region and in Australia in a variety of roles in engineering, sales and organizational learning. I have been residing in Australia with my family since 1992.

Our core competency at Hilti is our unique and differentiated culture called THW - The Hilti Way. Entrepreneurial behavior is part-and-parcel of THW culture and is embedded in our culture journey. All new hires experience a THW orientation for two days and learn about acting and taking responsibility with an entrepreneurial spirit. The culture of entrepreneurial behavior helps to foster innovation, creativity and self-responsibility, people feel energized that within the framework they can act and take decisions on behalf of the company depending on their sphere of influence. This creates the empowerment culture and a feeling of making a difference where our people feel that they are doing worthwhile work and not a just a job.

Finding the right people to hire who thrive at working in an environment of creativity and innovation within the process, is a consequence of our entrepreneurial approach that we continually face. This sets a positive trend as it taps into human potential of having more resources, innovation and creativity than people are letting on in their current jobs. This

philosophy drives the engine for people coaching and personal growth and generating a feeling of doing something worthwhile.

Our entrepreneurial behavior is guided by a set of principles that gives people the chance to innovate, take calculated risks, seek opportunities and act as if it was their own money. Every team members is empowered to act by finding ways to serve customers and go the extra mile in a consistent manner. Being a corporate entity with reliance on structured process to bring about product and service serve customers and deliver consistent customer experiences, the entrepreneurial guidelines help to keep a balance between process on one side and individual freedom to act on the other. This balance in itself is unique to Hilti culture as the company gives clear empowerment to act within the guidelines set and trusts the people to do the right thing within our framework of values.

Entrepreneurial projects and initiatives at Hilti spans our innovation on products and services to finding ways to create enthusiastic customers at every level of the organization with different face to face interactions. A recent example was the introduction of highly differentiated products that make life easier, such as cordless tools, active vibration reduction in breakers, active torque control machines that are safe to use. Innovation in services include such things as fleet management, mobile service centers on big projects and also Shop in Shop.

CEMS MAGAZINE

23

Challenge is the Mother of Creativity Seven students within the CEMS Club at the University of Sydney are on a mission to bridge the Australian entrepreneurial scene and the CEMS community through meaningful value adding projects. As they worked to lay a strong foundation for their new association, they faced considerable challenges. But their ability to balance persistence and strategic adjustment led them to a fantastic opportunity. By CEMS student (USYD/NUS), Julien Remond.

24

CEMS MAGAZINE

T

he catalyst for innovation and creative thinking often comes when seeking to overcome a particular challenge. This is a skill set that can be beneficial for both intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs alike. The CEMS Club Sydney Business Development Department (BDD) was created to address just such challenges in the support of a long-term vision to operate more integrally with the CEMS program at the University of Sydney and further build visibility for CEMS in Australia. With over 1,000 CEMS alumni and students involved in the founding or co-founding of ventures worldwide, the BDD recognized the perfect opportunity to achieve these goals: CEMS Students would provide pro bono consulting services for local entrepreneurs.

Initially, it was difficult to engage anyone and the prospects looked dire. After an emergency meeting with our team of Aman, JeanBenoit, myself (Julien), Kiran, Roberta, Sebastian and Shivaankar, we realized that maybe we were taking the wrong

approach. We decided that we should start by testing our credibility in a more public and demonstrative manner.

To achieve this aim, the BDD decided to investigate a partnership with The Entourage. Founded in 2010 by Jack Delosa, it is the largest community of entrepreneurs (60,000 members) in Australia, which is known for its annual convention, the “unconvention�, promoting Australian entrepreneurs and innovation. The Entourage, through Francis McCarthy, replied almost instantly and agreed to meet with the team. After several days of preparation, the team finally drafted a partnership proposal that they hoped would capture and retain The Entourage as a partner in their ventures.

Finally, the day of the first meeting arrived and Aman and I went to The Entourage offices to discuss the potential partnership. Francis immediately showed interest in the idea presented and agreed to partner up with the CEMS Club Sydney in order to help promote both of our communities. The Business Development Team

is now integrated into The Entourage work structure with an aim to assist with specific business projects. These include development projects The Entourage is working on internally, but also the organization of events aiming to bond the two organizations. The first event will be held at the very beginning of the term 1 this year, ensuring a quick and energetic start for the second round of the BDD. The BDD of the CEMS Club Sydney is becoming one of the active promoters of the entrepreneurial scene in Australia. For example, the CEMS Club Sydney and its BDD are organizing an entrepreneurship forum/ skill seminar, cohosted by The Entourage and Nova Global (a high achieving talents community).By working along with The Entourage to help the development of the entrepreneurial community in Australia, they are promoting an exchange of information and knowledge, which is the source of improvement and innovation. The aim is now to make the CEMS students become the main point of contact for entrepreneurs in Sydney and in Australia.

About the Author Prior to the CEMS program, Julien Remond studied at the ESSEC Business School (France), where he obtained a Bachelor in Business Administration degree. Having lived in seven countries, he attaches great importance to understanding the environment and the people around him.

From left to right: Roberta De Giloramo, Julien Remond, Aman Chawla, Kiran Hebbar and Sebastian Gietl, members of the Business Development Department of the CEMS Club Sydney.

CEMS MAGAZINE

25

26

CEMS MAGAZINE

Arriving Home Abroad CEMS Student (TSEM/UoC/SSE), Harry Yu discusses the cultural implications in organizational management following his experience participating in a CEMS business project in Sweden.

CEMS MAGAZINE

27

O

ne of our biggest takeaways from the Business Project experience was that a good recommendation will only work out if you take the implementation perspective into account.

Not every student gets the opportunity to work on projects requiring real solutions to current challenges, but our project on the Henkel Nordics e-commerce strategy was one of these. Being able to work on a project like this provides the best insights that we can take with us as indicated from X-model (a model widely used at the Stockholm School of Economics). One of our key learning points from this project was to ensure that we include the perspectives of stakeholders and be more implementation-oriented.

During the project, we learned that organizations often do not operate in the most efficient manner and established procedures are not always the result of active and thought-through decisions. When change happens slowly, sometimes there is lack of monitoring

28

CEMS MAGAZINE

and controls. Several times we found ourselves surprised by this situation.

There was, despite the evident benefits, limited cooperation and information sharing between departments. Inevitably, all these issues work as obstacles that prevent transforming promising proposals into satisfactory results. To implement new solutions in a company, one needs to understand how it really works in practice and how to adapt change management to the specific situation. Generic solutions are often too simplistic.

With more than 15 million Nordic consumers already shopping online in 2013, e-commerce is working its way into the strategic agendas of top management in many industries. This project is aimed at helping Henkel Nordics evaluate the potential that e-commerce involves for their beauty product category in the Nordic region, thereby providing a basis for fixing their own e-commerce strategy accordingly to facilitate sales growth and branding.

First, the Swedish online beauty care market was assessed. Once we had an appreciation of the potential, we investigated in depth what this opportunity could mean to Henkel. We conducted an analysis from a product perspective, using theory on product attributes to guide e-commerce product allocation complemented by more thorough empirical analysis of the retailer landscape.

We also suggested internal restructuring to ensure that the suggestions could feasibly be implemented. To reap the most from the opportunity, an implementation plan was prepared, including how to: 1) best allocate products (complex products in vertical retail channels and low positioned products in horizontal retailer channels) 2) develop retailer relationships (choose carefully after certain criteria and build cooperation) and 3) adapt the organization to the new strategy (more even division of tasks,

facilitating information sharing and cooperation between divisions) The short-term suggestions such as "retailer-targeted marketing" were fully accepted by the sales department and generated lively discussion between the sales and marketing departments, while the long-term strategic changes such as organizational restructuring needed more time to be communicated to management, and the result are not yet known to us.

I appreciate how CEMS business projects are carried out in the Stockholm School of Economics. There is free choice plus manual adjustment during BP selection, a process seminar once every two weeks, and an academic report required for the school plus a practical report for the corporation. Despite a pretty heavy workload, the overall process was carefully designed and of high quality. Personally, I gained a lot, a fruitful knowledge, plus valuable experience on team-building and peer feedback.

I really appreciated this three-month teamwork exercise in association with my teammates - Malin from Sweden, Kristin from Norway and Rosie from the Netherlands. Working with them provided me with many interesting insights.

One of these insights provided by Malin was on the Swedish “roundabout” speaking style, which surprised me. I had always assumed that people in the West were straightforward and were more concerned about self-awareness and personal freedoms. Observing Malin, she had strong opinions, but wasn’t pushy with her ideas, which helped create a positive collaboration within the team.

This style is similar to how we conduct business in China, in which moderation, collectivism and harmony are inherent in the culture.

Understanding all of this helped me to better understand how to approach our business project with Henkel.

About The Author Harry Yu is a Chinese student originally from Tsinghua University in Beijing. He has been involved in two CEMS terms abroad, one in Germany (2014.082015.01), the other in Sweden (2015.012015.06). He is now back at Tsinghua completing his master’s thesis.

CEMS MAGAZINE

29

Plain Business Sense as the Guiding Star CEMS alumna (CBS/UB), Khilola Shukurova of the Global Wound Care Business at Coloplast explains how her company has partnered with the CEMS Business Projects to discover new and innovative ideas for her company.

I

f we look around, we see the world is full of impressive examples of great entrepreneurship, starting with such companies as Microsoft and Google, and these days definitely including many companies in China. I recently visited Chengdu in western China, often called China’s Silicon Valley, and had a chance to meet with a great bunch of Chinese entrepreneurs there who are driving big change through perseverance. I have a lot of respect for people who are driven by their goals and believe that they can make things happen - and they really do.

It is very important to keep the spirit of entrepreneurship alive no matter what kind of an organization you work for. In the highly competitive environment in which we operate, the race is hard and often you need to be simply the best at what you do to keep your leading position. So people who do challenge the status quo and are willing to explore “terra incognita” while keeping their feet on the ground are very valuable for a global organization.

In Coloplast, I can refer to the principle that we hire for a career, not for a job.

From very early on, people are given responsibility and the opportunity to make a difference. You have to be ambitious and driven to keep up with the fast pace of the global market and the

30

CEMS MAGAZINE

ambitious targets we are pursuing.

We recently partnered with the students of the CEMS Business Project, tasked with digitizing our communications at Coloplast Global Wound Care as a part of our larger digital strategy. Wound Care is a dynamically developing business and digital channel representing an important communication platform that we need to explore further. We have received a good overview of the current landscape using both assessment and benchmarking.

The CEMS group of students – Team KHAMP – came up with the customized definition of the digital communication strategy as given below: A digital communication strategy specifies how a firm can achieve a set business objective through applying digital tools when communicating its value proposition to a specific group of audience via digital channels. The second stage of the project was to map the needs and best practices of a digital communication strategy available globally both in the healthcare industry but also in the area of consumer goods. We received a pretty wide and detailed overview including benchmarking and feasibility assessments. Final delivery of the project consisted of recommendations and a roadmap for Coloplast Wound Care

CEMS KHAMP group and Khilola in front of the Coloplast H

Bussiness Unit to increase and improve customer communications.

The CEMS Business Project has a uniquely global approach. As CEMS represents a fantastic multinational crowd, it has a unique flavor of covering a project from multiple cultural aspects, which is an important driver in this globalized world, and especially in the case of the Internet, the borderless platform.

For CEMS students, the project is a good opportunity to apply knowledge in a real business setting, test out some theoretical models, and work in a multinational team setting. From the company perspective, it is a great opportunity to engage and receive different input and points of view.

We agreed with students that we would keep them aware of the project’s

development and they agreed to provide further input and facilitate some of the data upon request. Now, this project really is our joint “baby” and we all want it to succeed.

Freedom to operate is an important prerequisite with any project when you are dealing with a talented group of people like CEMS students. At the very start, we defined our business project objectives and the scope of operations to ensure that it would be deliverable within the required time frame and with the resources available.

One of the key points is to be realistic, and remember that sometimes less is more. I would say plain business sense was the guiding star, and it has proven to be the right one.

About the Author Khilola Shukurova was born and raised in Uzbekistan in Central Asia. She has lived, worked and studied in seven different countries. She started her career in consulting and then switched to the customer side of the pharma industry.

Today, she is Head of Strategic Global Marketing at Global Wound Care. She is a CEMS Alumni, graduated in 2004. Home school Copenhagen Business School, Host School Bocconi University.

Headquarters in Humlebaek, Denmark.

CEMS MAGAZINE

31

Storming the Market in the 21st Century Turbulence isn’t something to be afraid of in business, or so says CEMS Alumna (ESADE/ HSG), Luiza Dobre of Google Switzerland, as she discusses how a business can become a “market disrupter” in a CEMS conference in Switzerland.

32

CEMS MAGAZINE

CEMS MAGAZINE

33

S

martphones, digital photography, 3D printing, sharing economies, cloud computing, or electric/ autonomous cars are just a few recent examples of disruptive innovation that shook up businesses – with winners and losers in the industry. Yet how can established companies stay at the forefront of innovation and benefit from new technologies, changing regulation, and digitally empowered customers in a constantly changing market? What are the new strategic moves that business leaders need to master to stay at the forefront of the next disruptive waves?

And what might be the “next big thing” affecting your job?

These were some of the topics discussed during the last CEMS LC Switzerland Alumni conference, which took place at Google Switzerland in April.

The six distinguished keynote speakers, coming from large companies like PwC and Google, well-established start-ups like Uber, as well as smaller successful start-ups, shared different perspectives

34

CEMS MAGAZINE

on the topic of disruptive innovation in a 20-min TED-like presentation event.

The great relevancy of the topic brought together almost 100 CEMS Alumni working and living in Switzerland.

Mr. Michael Müller, former McKinsey consultant and now co-founder of several companies (Acrea and Nezasa), shared with the audience the concept of “organizational forgetting”, highlighting the importance of destroying old routines, structures, cultures and assets (CARS) to make an organization change and be able to stay innovative.

When it comes to innovation. Mr. Müller is a master of the lean enterprise (a concept developed by Eric Ries with the book “The Lean Startup”), which he adopted when establishing the two companies he co-founded. The concept of lean enterprise goes beyond building extensive business plans and developing fully-fledged solutions towards considering fewer hypotheses to accept uncertainty and validating them by running frequent experiments that allow entrepreneurs to

test, adapt and adjust each element of their vision.

Michael stated that “When you learn something doesn’t work, do it differently.

Forget multi-year, thoroughly planned digital plan- prototype and change until it works. Every setback is an opportunity for learning how to get where you want to go.”

Through this process, we can learn when and if it’s time to make a sharp turn called a “pivot” or whether we should persevere along our current path.

Once we have a process that’s throttled up, the lean start-up offers methods to scale and grow the business with maximum acceleration.

Jörg Winkelmann, an expert in Branding, Marketing & Communications, with more than 30 years in leading positions in IBM and now co-founder of several start-ups talked about disruptive innovation through valuesbased branding. Mr. Winkelmann talked about the fact that a company must figure out its core values and understand

why it exists beyond the profit motive, together with putting its employees at the core of its existence. In the context of new realities (digital and disruptive), these are the most sustainable assets a company can have.

Dominic Olonetzky, CEMS Alumni and PwC Consultant, talked about the fact that we are living in a moment of historic opportunity for example, he pointed out that investment in fintech businesses tripled to $12.2bn in 2014. He also mentioned that businesses that can combine the right levers can achieve exceptional growth. Disruption surrounds us everywhere, but it’s important to bring structure to opportunities by thinking in ecosystems, choosing the playing field wisely and setting the rules of the game.

Dr. Patrick StĂźhler, CEMS Alumni and founder of Fluidminds, is a pioneer in the area of business model innovation and runs also the blog.business-modelinnovation.com.

CEMS MAGAZINE

35

The Process of Disruption Breaking out of the old and into the new is a difficult process for many corporations. Maintaining the status quo is always the easiest route, but following this path can lead to a dead end. Luiza Dobre discusses how to create the process to continual innovation.

F

or the past 20 years, disruptive innovation has been positioned as the holy grail of corporate leadership, in part driven by evangelists like Clayton Christensen. As the business world becomes more competitive, and the media is focused on new breakthrough products, the pressure on innovation leaders within established organizations to focus on “Big I” innovation is more intense than ever.

Successful new companies can indeed disrupt an industry. Amazon disrupted book retailing. Its ascent caused the failure of the incumbent book retailing king, Borders. Uber disrupts the transport industry. Airbnb disrupts the hotel industry.

And the list goes on and on.

At an initial glance, disruptive innovation makes sense. What company wouldn’t want to come up with the next iPhone or online bookstore? In the right circumstances, disruptive innovation can be a valid path to drive the long-term survival and growth of a mature organization. However, most companies don’t operate in an environment that allows them to foster drastic innovation.

Two conditions are required for dis-

36

CEMS MAGAZINE

ruption. First, a substantial fraction of the market must prefer the product or service of the new company. Second, the incumbents must be unable to respond and replicate. When those conditions are met, a new entrant can gain sufficient market share that existing firms fade into irrelevance.

Pushing forward with disruptive innovation, especially in organizations with a vested interest in the status quo, requires extremely strong, well-coordinated and directly-involved leadership, with the full backing of key internal and external stakeholders. To drive disruptive ideas or concepts, organizations need to first address cultural barriers. The most efficient and quickest approach is to focus on building networks of key employees who “buy-in” to innovative thinking and want to support the development of new ideas, either directly or indirectly. This approach allows the organization to efficiently focus on those that want to drive innovative ideas, provides a ready pool of resources to support development, creates a level of permission for ideas to move forward, and helps build a network of champions for

ideas when released.

But maybe the smartest approach is to partner with a start-up once its technology shows some promise.

Leading disruptive innovation requires new mind sets and behaviours, both for leaders themselves and for the organizations that nurtured them. Leaders must embrace ambiguity, live with uncertainty for long periods of time, and confront the critiques of naysayers both inside and outside of their organizations.

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, summarized the essence of the leadership challenge when he said, “Any time you do something big, that’s disruptive, there will be critics… We are willing to be misunderstood for long periods of time.”

Few business schools, let alone companies, prepare their leaders to live with being misunderstood or criticized, especially for extended periods of time. When it comes to leading for disruption, recognizing that “the soft stuff is the hard stuff” can make the difference between success and failure. Any individual leading disruptive innovation must listen, explore, act, persist and seize.

CEMS MAGAZINE

37

Starting-Up from Within Imagine the sense of ownership and freedom of launching your start-up combined with the security and ample resources provided by an established company. This was the experience of CEMS Alumni (UB/NHH) Mauro Sibilia during his time at Sappi, a paper manufacturing company. He writes here about an opportunity he was given to start an intrapreneurial business in digital health.

38

CEMS MAGAZINE

I

have always been a traveller (as a matter of fact, I started travelling without my family when I was nine years old), but it is only with CEMS that I really started living abroad rather than just travelling. Since I started the CEMS degree with a Block Seminar in Copenhagen, I have lived in Norway, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands and visited several other places too. Currently I work at the Directorate General for Competition at the European Commission, and the company I used to work for, Sappi, is the one that sponsored the intrapreneurship project described in this article: AddApp. Sappi is a paper manufacturing company with headquarters in Johannesburg (South Africa), operations on three continents (Africa, North America and Europe) and has around US$6 billion of global annual turnover. I used to work for the European division, which has eight factories, 16 sales offices and more than 5,000 employees.

I joined Sappi straight after I finished my CEMS degree at the beginning of 2009 for a two-year graduate programme, during which I worked in Human Resources, Finance and IT. After these two years, I became a project manager reporting directly to a board member and for the following three years I was responsible for managing cross-functional projects of a European scale. When the company started a project looking for new revenue streams out of grassroots innovation ideas, I helped my line manager to manage the project and also volunteered to be part of it.

The Idea The process of generating and filtering ideas resulted in the end in only three ideas being pitched to the C-suite, of which one was mine. Here it is: Currently, people like you and I are constantly creating a huge amount of data about ourselves. We track our jogging with smartphones, we check-in to places we visit, some of us track our sleep,

others track their steps, some again track their calorie intake or blood pressure and some others have smart-scales tracking several parameters of their bodies.

The explosion of personal data tracked in a digital way is a result of the so-called “quantified self” movement, to which we can ascribe also all the fitness tracking and wearable devices now on the market, such as Fitbit and Jawbone. Back in 2013, they were forecasted to grow 16 times in the coming five years, and as a market segment they are on track to do so.

All these data are currently in unconnected silos. Each source is very specific and does not interact with the other data available. My idea was to create a platform that would collect your personal data from different sources, analyse them and give you insights about your body. Very specific suggestions would result, such as: “We noticed that when your protein intake goes up, your average speed/km increases” or “When you fall asleep before 23.30, the following day your salt intake is lower than usual.”

The pitch to the board focussed mostly on intellectual property and on cost estimations. The board members was mainly concerned that the idea might be replicated by competitors and they also wanted to be sure that we got our cost estimates right, to avoid having unexpected bad news six months down the road. With regard to the growth es-

timates, they were very interested in the future prospects of this market and in the idea of being an early entrant in a sector which was about to be booming.

Sappi saw the potential and funded the venture in its early stages with amounts which were very low in comparison to Sappi’s total budget. When the prototyping was completed, we needed specific programming skills which we had to buy in the market since Sappi could not provide them; moreover, we needed a bigger budget (according to the business plan we had pitched), and Sappi therefore agreed to let external investors in.

Currently the idea is to operate as a separate company under the original name of AddApp. To have a successful innovation, I would recommend a startup needs to: 1. Solve a real need of the end users 2. Include a sector that is still relatively small and with huge growth potential.

3. Make sure you get the timing right. In our case, we had a window of opportunity to become relatively big in a small but growing sector before some giant (Google, Samsung, Apple and the like) entered.

4. Exit options for early investors. In our case, if we managed to attain a good position in the market, when one of the above-mentioned giants entered, we would have been a likely target for acquisition, giving an exit opportunity to the early investors at a good premium.

Some companies think it is easier to innovate close to their business, but for intrapreneurship ideas, this might raise some eyebrows in the C-suite, given that once the mother-company exits the investment, there will be a new competitor out there which they helped to grow. In our case, the intrapreneurship idea was completely detached from the mother company’s business (digital health and paper manufacturing having not much in common), so there was no risk of creat-

CEMS MAGAZINE

39

ing a competitor. Quite the contrary, the main problem turned out to be that many other Sappi employees struggled to understand our work and did not really see why a paper manufacturer should invest in digital health.

On the positive side, the C-suite executives had long experience in the paper world and I think this was an eyeopening experience for them to see how other sectors work, new business models, and to experience the difference in pace of work between the corporate world and start-ups. Furthermore, as an employee taking part in an intrapreneurship project, this helped my visibility vis-_-vis the

40

CEMS MAGAZINE

board. As a general rule, I think intrapreneurship projects are good for companies looking for some sort of breakthrough innovation as long as such projects are given great autonomy.

I want to stress once more the “open� nature of intrapreneurship. The ideas we pitched could have covered any sector, from health to 3D printing, from cosmetics to industrial goods. We were a pilot project where the innovation ideas had no boundaries, and it turned out to be a complete success for the company. Sappi subsequently tried a second round of intrapreneurship, this time bound more tightly to the production assets of Sappi

and, in my view, it was less successful.

As for the autonomy, myself and another colleague working with me on this idea, we were given separate offices in a separate location and full autonomy on how to spend our budget. This made me highly committed to the idea and made me really work on it as if it was my own.

If I had been at the same desks with all the other Sappi colleagues working around me and with the C-suite people looking above my shoulder, it would have been much more difficult, not to say impossible, to make the idea thrive and make a stand-alone business out of it.

Making hay will the sun shines on the fields of intrapreneurialism Intrapreneurs are high-performers ready to take a risk and, in most cases, looking for a new position (inside or outside the company). The best idea with intrapreneurs is to keep them initially as employees and give them more autonomy and responsibilities (see for example the point made above about having my own budget and freedom on how to spend it).

By supporting intrapreneurship, a com-

pany can retain such high-performers for a longer time and benefit more from their hard work in light of the renewed high commitment that intrapreneurs will put in their ventures.

In conclusion, my experience with Sappi was a great opportunity and I loved it. Career-wise it gave us a huge boost to be able to manage something in an autonomous way. On a more per-

sonal side, it is very rewarding to see the price-tag that people put on our work/ ideas when they invest in them. I found myself thinking “Wow, my idea is worth this much? I have to make it happen now!”

About the Author Mauro Sibilia was born and raised near Milan, Italy. He did his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration at Bocconi, and a master’s degree in General Management at Bocconi, complemented by the CEMS MIM degree. He is currently living in Brussels, Belgium. He is fluent in English and French and has some basic knowledge of Polish.

CEMS MAGAZINE

41

42

CEMS MAGAZINE

Caution!

Students at Work The CEMS Club Helsinki at Aalto University in Finland addresses the topic of intrapreneurship in an exceptional way. Each year, club members organize an event called CEMS Stage to which notable guests are invited to discuss topics ranging from overcoming challenges to cultivating personal ambition. Rita J채rventie-Thesleff, academic director of the CEMS MIM program, tells the story of these remarkable students.

CEMS MAGAZINE

43

T

he CEMS Club Helsinki (CCH) has the reputation and practice of being well organized with clear areas of responsibilities. Usually there is an official position available for all the students who want to assume an active role in the club, including: corporate relations, communications and PR, humanitarian & social events, and alumni relations.

The CCH organizes many other company events, like the Nordic Forum, when taking place in Helsinki, and other social activities.

Both home and incoming students have praised the CCH as an engaging experience that supports extremely well the evolution of the CEMS spirit.

The CEMS Club Helsinki (CCH) came up with the idea of organizing an annual ‘intrapreneurial’ event, CEMS Stage, in 2012. The aim of the event is to act as a source of inspiration for current and future professionals, while offering a networking opportunity to share thoughts concerning the topics at hand. The themes over the years have revolved around striving for your personal best in leadership, personal growth and intrapreneurship.

The first CEMS Stage event in April 2012 focused on ‘Different Faces of Leadership’. In 2012 Mr. Bruce J. Oreck, the then U.S. Ambassador to Finland was one of the prominent speakers of the event, sharing his personal story under the title: Breaking Boundaries .

In 2013, the theme of the Aalto CEMS Stage was Personal Growth, and it featured the Canadian-Finnish speaker Mr. André Noël Chaker who delivered a speech with the title Making the Impossible Possible. Mr. Chaker’s book The Finnish Miracle argues that there is a set of original national values and ways of doing things in Finland that has given the country a competitive advantage in developing an enviable level of peace and sustainable prosperity. The book also introduces the “Possibility Model”, an inspiring roadmap towards greater personal and business success.

In 2014, the theme was “Turning Challenges Into Opportunities”. Eloquently

44

CEMS MAGAZINE

opened by CEMS student Jeremy Dentisty, discussions continued with a speech from Saku Tuominen, a former ice-hockey player, a TV producer, writer, entrepreneur and chef. He currently works as the cofounder and creative director of the ‘Idealist Group’ whose mission is to improve the world with bold ideas that are executed well. Saku Tuominen’s main message to the CEMS Stage audience was to encourage each and every person to find his or her creativity. “Only by trying out your ideas you can see what flies and what doesn’t. If the idea does not take off, you can leave it behind you and if it does fly, the doing can provoke an incredible passion within you,” he said.

His message was echoed by the next speaker, Mikko Hyppönen, the Chief Research Officer of F-Secure and Harry “Hjallis” Harkimo, a Finnish businessman, sportsperson and a member of the Finnish Parliament. Mr. Harkimo reflected openly on his own life, emphasizing the importance of believing in yourself and in your own interests and following your intuition.

The CEMS Stage shows that the ‘CEMSies’ are very intrapreneurial indeed and can be characterized as having a very strong ‘drive’! This event required a huge organizational and promotional effort, which resulted in the venue being fully booked with approximately 250 people attending. The process brought the team even closer together as everyone played a role in the successful outcome.

As a former business practitioner and the current Academic Director of the CEMS MIM programme in Aalto Business School, I see intrapreneurialism as the driver to influence and to contribute over and beyond one’s own immediate operational responsibilities. Personally I think that an intrapreneurial attitude to work even in the corporate work might be a key to success, but also something that can make work more meaningful and fun. Events like CEMS Stage help to remind us to continue to keep that drive going both in our careers and as an extension to our personal lives.

CEMS MAGAZINE

45

From Interns to Entrepreneurs It can be difficult to combine intrapreneurial activities with a corporate job, but if it’s done well, a person can greatly increase their managerial skills . If someone has an innovative idea, they can either try to find a way to integrate the idea into their current role or start to build a new company. Koç University CEMS Alumni Stefan and Ege chose the latter.

B

efore CEMS, Stefan didn’t think of himself as an entrepreneur.

“When I joined the openminded community of CEMS at Koç University, I discovered a whole new environment full of different cultures, inspiring people and stories,” he said.

“During my time at CEMS and then my internship at Google, I was motivated to consider creating a new project, driven by a new-found entrepreneurial spirit.”

Ege also credits his work at a major consulting firm as being the source of his entrepreneurial ability to keep an eye on the big picture. “Through my experience as a consultant, I learned to see what others don’t usually see, how to approach issues differently and produce solutions for others,” he said. “One of the most crucial things gained during work experience was learning to listen to the needs of the market.”

Through extensive research on Turkish consumer behavior and internet trends in Turkey, Ege and Stefan came to realize that there was a big need for an easy-tonavigate online reference platform for consumer household electronics. With the older and less tech-savvy consumer

46

CEMS MAGAZINE

in mind, they wanted to give this consumer group the freedom to shop without having to rely on young relatives more knowledgeable in technical terms.

Readers would also be able to easily follow the household durable goods market and decide on the best product according to their needs.

From this thinking sprang the concept that became Onumubunumu.com.

“We started planning OB nearly three years ago,” said Stefan. “We further tested and developed our project over the course of a year and during that time we undertook meetings with firms related to our topic to promote our upcoming project, with an official launch in June 2014.”

The website contains seven main product categories, and offers a wide

range of information on new products and upgrades, a glossary section, and a Q&A section on common consumer issues, like ‘How often do I need to clear my coffee machine’s filters?’

"We consider unique content an important advantage for onumubunumu. com" said Ege. In addition to the information update sections, the website includes a comparison module to allow visitors to make an effective comparison of products in the same category. Stefan and Ege are also currently working with a video production agency to record product reviews and test videos.

The development group now includes a team of seven people, with responsibilities divided between sales & marketing, product development,

CEMS MAGAZINE

47

social media management, software development, content creation and management. OB’s current income model is dependent upon advertisements and sponsored content such as advertorials.

To help promote the site, the team works with a writer who attends product launch events, keynotes, corporate interviews, as well as press releases.

The two continue to collaborate with their previous employers, while also leveraging the CEMS network.

“Both of our previous employers, Google and Accenture, are really openminded with regard to intrapreneurial activities and especially Google openly encouraged us to do this,” said Stefan.

“We continue to seek opinions and expertise on development of the Project from our contacts within both Google and Accenture, usually in a mentoring capacity.”

48

CEMS MAGAZINE

Ege and Stefan also contacted other firms, including CEMS Corporate partners Indesit, Vodafone and Arçelik, to seek their opinions and investigate sponsorship and advertising opportunities.

“We have drawn on the support of the CEMS community in a number of ways. Our contacts, from both fellow classmates, and the alumni network have been hugely helpful in setting up meetings with firms. Our connections through the community at some key industry players offered significant guidance to turn our idea into a viable business model and start-up. Overall, the most important value we have gained as part of the CEMS community is the courage and motivation to pursue our dreams,” added Ege. Sometimes global firms are not able to localize their marketing strategies

in specific markets since they are too centrally HQ-dependent and do not encourage intrapreneurial activities.

This forces them to communicate and interact with local customers in ways that don’t always tally with a country’s situation and needs. When employees are encouraged to develop a project on their own, the result can sometimes become an essential project for the corporation, as was the case with Google AdWords, for example. Ege and Stefan encourage companies to establish systems to foster and increase intrapreneurial creativity, which they feel leads to an improvement in the managerial abilities of staff as well as promoting essential team working skills.

About the Authors Stefan was born in Istanbul and completed his primary and secondary education in Istanbul. He studied Computer Engineering at Koรง University. During his studies, he completed a mandatory internship at the software development department of BNP-Paribas (in Istanbul) and the marketing department of Microsoft Turkey. He then joined the CEMS MIM Programme at Koรง University and completed his Semester abroad at HEC Paris. While in Paris, he worked with PSA-Peugeot Citroen Group on Social Media Management. He then returned to Istanbul to do a nine-month internship with Google. After completing mandatory military service, Stefan and Ege began to develop onumubunumu.com.

Ege was born in Kirklareli, Turkey and completed his primary and secondary education in the same city. He studied Control and Automotion Engineering at Istanbul Technical University. Ege has completed a number of engineering internships at both global firms such as SMC Corporation and some local firms. After finishing a four-year undergraduate program , he was accepted into CEMS at Koc University, where he met Stefan.

They founded the CEMS Club and Ege was the founding president. During his abroad semester, he studied at the University of Cologne where he completed a work placement at Accenture.

CEMS MAGAZINE

49

A Mutually Beneficial Partnership Dr. Paolo Bavaj, Corporate Director of Henkel Adhesive Technologies Innovation, New Business Development explains how creativity is fostered within the company and how intrapreneurial projects benefit both the company and the participants.

I

t’s extremely important for us at Henkel Adhesive Technologies to capture megatrends and identify significant innovation opportunities.

So we came up with the Foresight Management, Scouting, and Incubation concept. This eventually evolved into our New Business Development department.

Essentially, it acts as a bridge between the corporate and entrepreneurship worlds. One of our objectives is to start incubation programs or invest in startups that develop interesting upcoming innovations. We want to then bring them in to scale up their business and expand Henkel’s overall Adhesive Technologies’ portfolio.

That’s why we try to get into the start-up scene as much as we can.

We have a strategic partnership with MassChallenge in Boston where they host over 120 start-ups of every kind annually. We are also the co-founder of the recently launched German Technological Entrepreneurship Centre in Berlin. These engagements give us access to many start-ups and we are still exploring avenues on how we can see and evaluate even more.

Henkel can offer a number of significant resources and opportunities to these start-ups. Many entrepreneurs

50

CEMS MAGAZINE

CEMS MAGAZINE

51

52

CEMS MAGAZINE

outside of a corporate environment would find it difficult to acquire these benefits on their own.

The first and most obvious one is the support of a large company. With access to 130,000 retail customers, distribution to several million endconsumers, and over 5,000 technical sales representatives, we possess a wealth of expertise across many different technologies and geographies that many start-ups simply don’t have.

Secondly, working from within Henkel offers cultural insights into how a large industrial and public company operates. For example, entrepreneurs are frequently unaware of the real extent of stakeholder engagement and alignment that must be done within a large corporation.

The department is driven by a team of proactive scouts who help bridge this corporate-entrepreneurial gap. They ensure we avoid working in silos and that our work brings value to Henkel as a whole.

Being a scout allows you build very extensive internal and external networks to facilitate bridging that gap. Our scouts have the opportunity to head out and visit other companies to learn more about new, interesting technologies and innovations. Then, a large part of a scout’s responsibility is to align new potential innovations we find with all relevant Henkel stakeholders.

Thirdly, we foster a very supportive work environment. We strongly encourage our scouts to try out different

things as much as possible. And we are okay when things don’t go as expected.

We’ve worked on things that have been incredibly successful, but we’ve also worked on some that haven’t been so.

But that’s okay; it’s all part of innovation – you don’t know what you don’t know until you try.

When you’re part of a start-up, you don’t always have this luxury. You may not be able to test things out in this way and have a support community to encourage you to keep going.

A concrete illustration of what we do here is Vitriflex, a promising start-up specializing in barrier layers we invested in.

We conducted a Foresight Management workshop in 2013 to envision the lighting industry in year 2025. Participants concluded that OLED lighting would be a big upcoming trend.

But what relevance would this have to Henkel Adhesive Technologies?

Our scouts then did a deeper dive into the issue; we realized that barrier layers between different components of an OLED light would be an essential part of facilitating that trend. That is when we found Vitriflex.

We knew Vitriflex would be able to meet the technical requirements at a viable price point because they had a working prototype. We then invested in it because we believe we can scale this technology and commercialize it in a way that would be hard for them to do alone. This collaboration then enables Henkel to access the markets for OLED displays.

About the Author Dr. Paolo Bavaj has a PhD in chemistry and has always worked in innovation.

He spent 15 years working with the specialty materials company Celanese and in 2010, joined Henkel Adhesive Technologies in its Strategy and Business Development department. He now leads the Adhesive Technologies’ New Business Development scouts.

CEMS MAGAZINE

53

Annual Events

CEMS events around the globe

This is the biggest CEMS gathering of the year, taking place annually at the end of November, and is hosted by a different CEMS Academic Member school each year. The 2015 edition of the four-day Annual Events will take place from 26 to 29 November 2015 and will be hosted by the Graduate School of Management, St Petersburg. The Annual Events bring together the entire CEMS Community - Students, Alumni, Corporate Partners, Social Partners, Academic Members, and Guests - for plenary meetings, workshops, panel debates, and community dinners and parties. The Graduation Ceremony will take place on Saturday 28th at the world-famous Mariinsky Theatre. A networking brunch organised by the CEMS Alumni Association will take place on Sunday.

54

CEMS MAGAZINE

Career Forum The popular two-day event (comprising a job fair, accredited skill seminars, company presentations, and pre-scheduled job interviews) attracts an impressive array of companies and over 1000 students and young graduates from all over the world. For companies it provides the ideal chance to meet and interview potential hires, raise awareness of their corporate brand and career opportunities. For students and young graduates it offers a rare opportunity to meet with recruitment experts from over 30 multinational companies in just one place, network with peers and maybe even take the first crucial step towards full employment by a CEMS Corporate Partner. The event is available exclusively to CEMS Corporate Partners, CEMS MIM students and CEMS MIM graduates with between 0 and 4 years of professional experience. This years’ event will take place on the beautiful new campus of the Vienna University of Economics & Business.

Regional Events Every year, CEMS students from across the globe join forces with CEMS Corporate Partners to host workshops, skill seminars and case study competitions around a particular topic.

Asia Pacific Forum (New in 2015!): 21-23 September 2015, hosted by the National University of Singapore.

DACH Forum: Digitization, 28-31 October, 2015, hosted by the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland.

Nordic Forum: Innovative Leadership, 15-18 April, 2015, hosted by Copenhagen Business School, in Denmark.

V4 Conference: Business at the EU Eastern Frontier, 22-24 April, 2015 hosted by the Warsaw School of Economics in Poland.

Marenostrum: Doing Business in Emerging Markets, 8-9 May, 2015, hosted by Koc University in Turkey.

Benchmarking Meetings: CEMS also organizes events to give the opportunity to its Corporate Partners to network, discuss and exchange bestpractices on HR and business themes of common interest. The agenda, content and delivery of the meeting is developed in close cooperation with Corporate Partners.

Previous meetings have covered issues like work-life balance, sustainability, attracting talent in emerging markets, attracting & engaging future leaders with a focus on Millenials. The most recent event was hosted by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in June on the subject of attracting and retaining high potential graduates as they enter the workforce.

Local Events: There are also many local networking events that are held frequently across the globe by local CEMS Club or Alumni Local Committee. You can find the dates for these events at cems.org.

CEMS MAGAZINE

55

PHOTOGRAPHY Special thanks to the many CEMS students, alumni, academics, Corporate and Social Partners who have shared their personal photos to illustrate this issue of CEMS magazine. We also express our deepest gratitude to the Creative Commons community who have licensed their photos for noncommercial use in the spirit of borderless creativity

Moyan Brenn

Khairul Nizam

Giuseppe Milo

56

CEMS MAGAZINE

Dennis Jarvis

Berit Watkin

CEMS MAGAZINE

57

From ftp

Recreated PMS

New logo

Recreate logo

http://www.lvmh.com/

LVMH

Original (from ftp)

NEW

Modify logo

http://www.schneider-electric.co.uk/

a global bridge between the academic and corporate world

JOIN THE MAERSK LINER GRADUATE PROGRAMME Do you hold top grades in a Post-Graduate Degree?

Do you have 1- 3 years of work experience?

Are you passionate about global trade?

Are you a pragmatic and holistic thinker?

Are you driven and innovative?

Do you want to learn from and exchange ideas with colleagues from around the world?

Do you want to establish a long-term career in shipping and logistics?

The next programme commences in September!

Scan the QR code or visit our website for more information about the Maersk Liner Graduate Programme and how to apply.

www.maerskline.com/career