Innovating from within
Insights into the success of Raiffeisen Bank International’s Intrapreneurship Program
Like all banks, Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) is facing the major challenges of today: a volatile and dynamic environment with drivers such as digitalization, rapidly changing customer requirements, disruptive digital players, nimble start-ups and the resulting new demands on innovation processes need to be mastered and shaped.
The joint intrapreneurship program with RBI shows how internal innovation can be successful and what it takes.
Key Challenges
Internal processes: Complexity requires an efficient design and flexible response to change.
Regulatory requirements: New and changing EU legislation requires extensive adjustments that demand additional resources and time.
Technological changes: IT infrastructures must be modernized, and new technologies such as artificial intelligence must be integrated.
Improving the digital offering: In order to increase customer satisfaction, digital services must be seamless, personalized, and continuously improved.
Cultural change: Digitalization requires employees to be trained and motivated to use new technologies and pursue innovative approaches.
Approaches through the intrapreneurship program
1. Start of a joint pilot with RBI with a duration of ten weeks to test the program in the organization and iteratively adapt it to the needs of RBI.
2. The intrapreneurship program “Innovation Garden” began, building on the learnings of the pilot project, in various stages with:
- 6-week internal ideas competition
- 2 days of Innovation Jam with 20 topics and over 100 people
- 12 weeks of Innovation Lab with several teams
- Multiplication of the innovation mindset through the training of innovation ambassadors
As part of an ideas contest, over 765 ideas were submitted and discussed in six defined challenges on internal process improvements and new market/customer solutions. Almost 270 out of over 3.600 participants from 13 countries, applied to take part in the Innovation Garden. 100 people were then invited to the 2-day Innovation Jam event, where 20 ideas were further developed along the design thinking process. Ultimately, the eight best ideas and 40 most suitable “intrapreneurs” were selected for two intrapreneurship batches.
3. The batch teams tested many hypotheses with the customer using prototypes and were thus able to validate the problem and the solution. At Demo Day, the teams pitched these findings to the RBI Innovation Board, which decided which projects would receive further funding. The eight concepts were condensed into two projects for further development and implementation, which the intrapreneur teams turned into minimal viable products (MVPs).
In addition to a positive customer experience, this step-by-step further development of the topics focuses on examining the business sense and technical feasibility. For this reason, RBI has chosen the Talent Garden to continue its success story. Here, the RBI intrapreneurs could continue working on their project away from their usual mindset, their core business, and outside the company walls.
4. A major focus of the new program was on the “train the trainer” component: empowerment of RBI employees instead of active involvement. In Local Challenges, the innovation management software joolia was used for the first time to involve regional network banks more intensively in the process, away from a program for individuals towards a program for everyone. The innovation software supported the challenges defined by RBI,
From employee to innovation ambassador
The intrapreneurship program led to a significant increase in innovation awareness within RBI. This systematic integration of employees into the innovation process has not only increased the innovation potential of the organization but also set a promising trajectory for future growth. In two years of the intrapreneurship program, eleven innovation projects were created, which were further developed in three ongoing MVP projects. With its train-the-trainer component, the intrapreneurship program also produced around 35 trained Innovation Ambassadors from RBI's ranks.
