Innovation Is More Vital Than Ever: KITE Webinar Recap
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, enterprises in every industry are facing major changes to the way they do business as well as in customer behaviors. Corporate innovation functions have been championing a vision for digital transformation, business acceleration, open innovation and addressing disruption. It’s no surprise that leaders from the board to C-Suite and beyond are looking for these capabilities now more than ever. How are corporate innovation teams stepping up to these urgent challenges?
To answer this question, we recently kicked off our new series of KITE webinars with the timely topic, Innovation Is More Vital Than Ever.
Our four speakers from across industries joined KITE Founder and CEO Mark Silva to openly discuss work life pre-pandemic and now, how startups remain relevant to their innovation initiatives, ways they get due diligence done faster, and the importance of maintaining human connections.
→ Watch the complete webinar +several highlights. Check out the discussion highlights below.
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Highlights from Innovation Is More Vital Than Ever
SPEAKERS
- Gary Binstock — Director of Technology, Strategic Innovation and Technology Alliances, Colgate-Palmolive
- Bobby Esnard, Startup Partnerships Program Manager, Capital Group
- Jen Marcello, VP & Director, Business Transformation, AllianceBernstein
- Marie-Christine Razaire, Associate, Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures
- Moderator: Mark Silva, Founder and CEO, KITE
WHERE INNOVATION STANDS TODAY
Bobby Esnard of Capital Group said that timeliness, their principle in working with startups, remains more true than ever.
“I think now is a great opportunity to help everyone in the organization to understand that we can get quick alignment on capabilities and diligence. We can get to a quick yes or no on a partnership. A lot of the barriers to innovation are being reassessed… So we have a great opportunity to drive the team faster than maybe we ever did before.”
Jen Marcello of Alliance Bernstein outlined their two innovation tracks: revolution (new commercial ideas) and evolution.
“We’ve shifted a bit to really support the business today, given the environment that we’re in. But I think we’re using the same capabilities and still building towards our mission, which is really about accelerating, having our salespeople reach our customers digitally.”
Gary Binstock of Colgate-Palmolive said the company has immediate, keep-the-business-running needs, and startups and startup innovations are helping right now. These include 3D-printing spare parts that they cannot easily get and IoT technology that connects the plant to equipment providers and to supervision. “Now it’s vital because the supervision — a lot of them are staying at home,” noted Gary.
Also, new business models like home diagnostics, self-care and telemedicine are “percolating” and “taking on new importance” due to COVID-19. “I think a lot of those were kind of bubbling and [we were] dabbling in it, but I think it’s going to be a paradigm shift now.”
[ Btw, here’s more on the Colgate smart electric toothbrush Gary mentioned.]
Marie-Christine of Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures said startups they invested in related to financial security, a key area for the company, are more important right now. She noted that people are spending more time looking at their budgets and called out their portfolio company Splash Financial, which helps people refinance their student loans.
“We’ve been doing a lot of work as well with our other portfolio companies…There’s been more interest from the business units to see [whether they] can they bring on their solutions maybe even faster.”
On making new investments:
“We’ve been quite clear that, like everyone else, we’re really focused internally right on helping our [portfolio] startups and their needs and making sure that they get [what they need.]…We’re not slowing anything down. We’re just trying to be conscious of where people’s minds are. So when we do make that introduction, there is that alignment.”
Mark Silva of KITE shared the startup perspective.
“Founders are more open to the partnership conversation than ever before. I think you’re going to be able to get time with not just the CRO, maybe even the founder…We’re seeing them circling the wagons, making sure that they’re taking amazingly good care of their customers.”
ON SPEEDING UP DUE DILIGENCE
Jen:
“We’ve accelerated the process by having a conversation first about the goals. And then secondly, what capabilities are we bringing to bear against those goals? So I think that’s been really helpful.”
Bobby:
“Some enabling infrastructure and good relationships within your firm can be incredibly helpful. We have a great relationship with our strategic sourcing and procurement team. They really understand our process. And so when we’re talking about accelerating diligence for a proof of concept, they understand that’s a different conversation than accelerating due diligence for a product that we’re looking to push into enterprise production.”
Bobby also noted, “Thinking about what are the key questions that need answering in order to take the next step, not the last step but the next step, is really helpful as a framing device.”
ADVICE FOR OUR MOMENT
Gary:
“We’ve got to be a little careful engaging senior management, they’ve got a lot on their plate. So I’m being personally more selective, a little more laser focused. And again, if it is something that fundamentally can help our business at this very moment, then that’s stuff that [I] will push hard.”
Bobby:
“Any good behavior that you’ve built on your team with respect to remote collaboration, now is a great time to take that forward.”
WHAT THEIR FUTURE WORK MIGHT HOLD
Jen:
“Some of the things that we discussed around enabling our wholesalers and reaching customers digitally, I think, although we’ve been working on that for some time, I think it is going to become the new normal. And so it will be a sustainable kind of capability that we’re building.”
Gary:
“We have got to figure out how to keep the people aspect going. We are humans, we want to interact. Part of the beauty of the Valley ecosystem is the meetups and the cocktail parties and getting to know people as a person…If I go back a few months ago…90% of people [on a Hangout] had their camera off and people were distracted. And now people are being more present [on video calls.]”
Marie-Christine:
“We’ll be able to be more creative with networking. I’m part of a women in VC Slack group that’s been really helpful not only for myself, but also to make introductions for startups for relevant investors… There’s been a big push here in Milwaukee to get on the map, so to speak. And it’s one of the reasons I moved here…And so while I’ve been single-handedly hyping up Milwaukee as ‘Brooklyn without Manhattan,’ I don’t think that’s a long-term solution. It’s nice to see that there’s been more openness from people in other areas to network or connect or have Zoom happy hours.”
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