Pascal Latouche - Open Innovation

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Innovation and Technology Set

coordinated by

Chantal Ammi

Volume 10

Pascal Latouche

First published 2020 in Great Britain and the United States by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms and licenses issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned address:

ISTE Ltd

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www.iste.co.uk

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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Hoboken, NJ 07030

USA

www.wiley.com

© ISTE Ltd 2020

The rights of Pascal Latouche to be identified as the author of this work have been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020936632

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-78630-575-6

First of all, I wish to thank my children, because they help me to advance every day. Most certainly, my thanks go to Mrs. Chantal Ammi, because she has always been there to support the apprentice author that I am. Finally, for all the entrepreneurs who took the time to answer my questions and beyond the entrepreneurial ecosystem in which I progress.

Without becoming self-centered, this book, in retrospect, is probably also a way for me to thank myself for wanting to weather the storm….

There was a time when, for the most part, start-ups offered “pure and hard” technological innovations. While this time has not yet come to an end, we have observed during the last two years, the appearance of other innovations (processes, HR, communication, marketing, legal, etc.).

All these innovations do not escape the appetite of major groups, which intend to maintain their positions. Developing relationships with start-ups has now become strategic for many of them. In the framework of such relationships, the impacts inherent to the innovations proposed by start-ups cover a much wider field than the mere question of integration into Information Systems. Indeed, these innovations are transforming large groups from within. We can now speak of integration in the plural form because there are multiple dimensions to consider.

Through observations, anecdotes, testimonies, it is a question of presenting the three major protagonists of the scene that is going to be played out before us. It is the corporate open innovation system that welcomes start-ups, and the two players from different worlds, the start-up CEO and the employee of a business unit (or business line) of a large company. We’ll see what obstacles stand in their way time and time again.

However, these obstacles can still be overcome by the action of the members involved in the corporate open innovation system team, who are true architects of interactions. Their skills, their involvement and their ability to dispose of useful resources can enable them, by manipulating the large group’s internal ecosystem as well as the start-up’s external ecosystem, to address the objective: to marry (contractually) protagonists from two different worlds (the world of start-ups and the world of large established companies/institutions).

Replacing the human being at the heart of the process, a process of bringing together start-ups and large groups is the challenge that needs to be faced. For this, it is a question for each person to become aware of his or her own environment, as well as that of others.

Enjoy!

Pascal LATOUCHE

May 2020

What were you doing in November 2013? For my part, it was in November 2013 that I discovered a vocation of which I had not been fully aware until then.

A combination of circumstances put me in the shoes of someone who had to implement something that was unknown to many in my company: a corporate start-up accelerator. You will understand that I do not wish to go into more detail than that on the basis of circumstances, assuming that I owe myself a certain level of reserve as to what happens within the company of which I am still an employee. I pay tribute to this company, by the way. In any case, the story began like this and, as it turns out, would take me on many journeys….

Let’s get back to the point at hand. So here I am, called to launch quite quickly (in three months), a corporate start-up accelerator. Do you know what this is? Without extending myself at this stage, I will just tell you that this is a type of open-innovation mechanism tasked with making internal teams within a company interact with external ones, for example, start-ups. I had previously worked a lot on marketing, sales, innovation from R&D (internal innovation) and with the world of developers (those who code). In hindsight, I guarantee you that this did not predestine me to hold a position as head of a corporate start-up accelerator and did not presuppose my ability to do it well. Indeed, I had never created a start-up and this ecosystem was quite unknown to me in fact.

In marketing, I had never really designed products in digital format! However, I knew from all my previous experiences within the current company (Telecom) and from all my experiences before this company (Agro-Food), how to put a given product or service on the market (positioning, competition, price, preferred channels, etc.). As a marketing expert, I recognized that I was, because I had been to the right professional (business) schools.