Innovation and Corporate Entrepreneurship
What is ICE? What can we do for you?
It’s rare to encounter entrepreneurs in large organisations. More often repelled by the sheer number of rules, procedures, and hierarchies, preferring to work in small, agile firms or to start their own venture. If they do end up in a larger firm, it’s usually due to the young entrepreneur’s belief that it’s better to learn their trade at a big company, so that they can learn from their mistakes before starting their own venture.
These preconceptions harm both entrepreneurs and corporations. Entrepreneurs often miss out on the chance to learn from large organisations, and corporations miss out on the energy, dynamism, and innovation that entrepreneurs create. It means that entrepreneurs lose out on skills, and corporations on profitable new ideas. So that, even though they have the most resources and know-how, groundbreaking ideas are much more likely to come from start-ups.
And, in the face of climate change and the drive to net-zero emissions, being innovative has never been so important. In order to improve their sustainability and meet these new responsibilities, corporations must act now to unleash their entrepreneurial potential.
ICE, jointly founded by Bocconi for Innovation (B4i) and SDA Bocconi, supports companies that want to figure out how to enhance their capability to innovate. By increasing their entrepreneurial energy, firms can harness their employees’ potential, break down inertia within their own firm, and replace passive reaction to market uncertainties with proactive action.
The corporate entrepreneurship equation
A key characteristic of entrepreneurs is that they act even if the outcomes are uncertain, but often they lack organization. Bureaucrats on the other hand are good at organizing a large number of people that need to work together but hate uncertainty. So the challenge large firms have is to:
- hire people with entrepreneurial drive and create a culture that boosts their entrepreneurial energy;
- reduce market-related uncertainties with modern market research tools;
- develop administrative processes that reduce uncertainties to the extent that the energy entrepreneurs have to follow-up on their ideas is high enough.
If the market uncertainty (i.e., how will clients react to this?) and firm uncertainty (i.e., how will my colleagues react to this?) are low, managers are more likely to act.
We link the start-up ecosystem with the established business environment
Bocconi for Innovation (B4i)
B4i selects the most innovative ideas and startups with the greatest potential to help them grow and succeed by investing experience, knowledge, time, and resources of the wider Bocconi community.
B4i selects business ideas and startups that propose innovative solutions to real market needs to join its Pre-Acceleration and Acceleration programs.
Formats
ICE Innovation Journey is a 5 step-path towards innovation grounded on multiple available formats. While every business’s Innovation Journey will be different, it may follow some common steps. Yet each step and format is fully customizable to your journey, meaning that you get format that’s tailored to your firm’s specific needs:
Action Research
Use innovation reports, assessments, startup radar and strategy driving tools to gain knowledge about best practices, innovative business models and technology trends, to face the industry evolution.
Executive Education
Access easy-to-customize education formats (ad hoc workshops, call for ideas, innovation contests, coaching and other customized programs) to foster corporate and innovation strategy and solidly build development tracks.
Innovation Eco-system
Communicate with entrepreneurs of early-stage business idea and startups, to investigate business opportunities by joining an experts’ club or annual networking conferences.
Verticals
ICE presents the following verticals, each characterized by a specific expertise gained in the area.
European FS (Financial Services) Tech Hub
A European hub for the exchange of ideas addressing innovation, governance and valuation topic. The Hub will support the operational needs expressed by members in financial services. The hub will coordinate research activities that will be published in annual reports and other publications. The hub offers tailor-made training courses, Workshops and training programs for the improvement of governance and valuation capabilities applied to the tech world. The hub will also support the implementation of innovative ideas in financial services through competitions between start-ups.
Digital Tech
Harnessing the most important technologies available today and applying them to a wide array of industries.
Examples include: B2B + B2C software, SaaS solutions, marketplaces, fintech, insuretech, marketing tech, adtech, HR tech, AR+VR, IoT, AI, blockchain, cybersecurity and more.
Made in Italy
Emphasising the skills surrounding Italy’s most famous brand mapping, focusing on fashion, food, and design excellences with a 360 business view.
Sustainability
Exploring the highly relevant role of climate change, social entrepreneurship, circular economy, smart communities & smart cities, and clean-tech.
Annual Conference
Organized by B4i and ICE, our annual Innovation conference aims to unleash technology and business innovation trends. We facilitate debate and ideas generation among academics, researchers, corporations, startups and investors.
- Exclusive 2-Days event
- Selected network of 100 participants
- Open discussion and networking opportunities
Team
Media
Explore a curated selection of articles and interviews featuring ICE – Innovation and Corporate Entrepreneurship and its initiatives.
