werk_39: The Corporate Innovation Lab
If werk_39 is the Corporate Innovation Lab powering B. Braun’s innovation strategy, then Verhaert Innovation Academy is helping to power the lab. But this is not a place to simply drink a coffee, brainstorm with post-its or host events. In cooperation with customers and partners, B. Braun business teams come to werk_39 to develop solutions that create added value for their customers – “beyond the product”. Precisely beyond the existing product range in areas of services, digital solutions and new business models.
The team of Venture Development Managers are supported by a Data Analyst, a User Experience Designer, an Operations Manager and a Startup Liaison Coordinator. Together, they support over 10 teams per year to find problem solution fit and product market fit. They consider themselves in-house experts in applying Design Thinking, Lean Start-Up and Agile methodologies but still accept they can be supported by externals to further advance what they do and to increase their capacity and deliverability.
From Tuttlingen to the World
werk_39 provides well-equipped team-project rooms in a one-hundred-year old factory in the center of Medtech Valley in Tuttlingen, Germany, where corporate entrepreneurs spend approx. 50% of their time with the lab’s staff. They believe that innovation can only flourish in safe psychological environments where the selected innovators rely on 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration (aka hard work). To learn how werk_39 could scale up its innovation lab and offer its services to more employees (they have 63,000 employees across 60 locations) in a purely virtual setting, they partnered with the Verhaert Innovation Academy who have been refining virtual innovation programs since 2014.
Corporate Innovation Labs can become Digital + Virtual = Global
The Venture Development Managers from werk_39 were able to shadow the Verhaert Innovation Academy innovation process being applied to a team under a completely virtual setting – over a period of 5 months under COVID lockdown restrictions. werk_39 were able to make 3 key observations that could be relevant for any corporate innovation lab:
Nr.1: Labs can increase capacity without needing more space: If the lab had no more capacity i.e. not enough Venture Development Managers to support teams, they could rely on Verhaert Innovation Academy to support teams through the innovation process that aligns with and improves their existing processes, including making prototyping resources available to teams.
Nr.2: Labs can serve all employee locations – anytime anywhere: werk_39 has 2 labs in Germany and is restricted to serving mostly local teams or team members who can travel frequently to the labs. By adopting the virtual set-up from Verhaert Innovation Academy (with it’s globally distributed mentors) they can serve teams anytime, anywhere.
Nr.3: Labs can increase efficiency with hybrid support: werk_39 staff recognized that they could maximize their time and effort by ‘outsourcing’ parts of the innovation process to Verhaert Innovation Academy leaving them free to manage more teams and apply their deep hospital industry expertise. Examples of outsourced elements are:
- Intrapreneur Personality Tests to help with screening, forming teams and providing self reflection to team members
- Leverage latest E-learning modules and worksheets to educate teams on key innovation topics before, during and after the program
- Leverage Verhaert Innovation Academy’s Prototype Fund Team to generate a range of fast experiments and prototypes when internal resources are tied up or become too slow.
- Offer teams specialized coaching for challenging innovation topics to enhance the internal mentoring already provided.
Future Corporate Innovation Labs
As we emerge from the limitations and lessons COVID has placed on us, it is clear that the virtual workplace and therefore the virtual innovation lab will play a vital role in the future of any corporate innovation or digital strategy. We therefore encourage corporate innovation labs to consider how they can expand from their physical setting and provide support to the ever increasing number of corporate entrepreneurs looking to test new services, digital solutions and business models.
