I have recently shared my views on why Sanoma is sponsoring intrapreneurship and how we deploy innovation accelerators. In this post I would like to explain the next steps we are taking with the accelerator program.

#commerceaccelerator goes to college

One of the three core customer groups served by Sanoma is the advertiser: we provide effective solutions to advertisers based on our reach and consumer insight. We plan to further boost our innovation in this domain by running a #commerceaccelerator in the Autumn this year – an accelerator with a difference.  The core process and principles of earlier accelerators remain in place.  But this time we intend to work with a group of leading European universities; about half of the participants will be students. We believe this will further enrich our idea and talent pools and give opportunities to potential new employees.

#contentaccelerator goes to bootcamp

Feedback at the end of a day at bootcamp. Thanks for the photo Lassi.

Earlier this week we selected the five concepts that will go to the #contentaccelerator bootcamp to be built as protoypes. They include i) a service to hear the news in a new way ii) a content marketplace iii) a fashionista community iv) a service to help parents to discover the talents of their children and v) a learning solution that mashes up the real and virtual worlds.  Project leaders will join us for four days in Amsterdam, coming from Poland, Belgium, Finland and The Netherlands to build their prototypes and to make their pitch to establish a new venture.  Congratulations to them on having won a place and good luck to them in Amsterdam!  We are all super-excited about the bootcamp and I expect that we will create one or more new ventures as a result.  I feel energized and upbeat just writing about it.

#mobileaccelerator goes to work

Four “mobile first” concepts have received funding as new ventures following the #mobileaccelerator and we are prototyping a fifth concept too. The teams for these ventures were formed at the beginning of April and given funding and coaching for an initial period of 12 months.  At the end of that period we will decide whether to boost, continue or terminate the venture.  Alongside the intensive coaching, we track the progress against Key Performance Indicators at the end of each quarter.  The first round of these formal reviews takes place at the end of June.  The teams are enthusiastic and are moving forward fast.  I am very curious what we have learned and what the results are – where we stand in our goal of bringing these new ventures to market.

Thanks for joining us

So that’s where we stand today with the innovation accelerators at Sanoma.  I would really like to thank everyone who has joined us on this journey so far and helped to bring it to life, either as a participant or facilitator.  Respect to you for standing up and showing your ambition.

This is the final posting in the series.  Thanks for reading.