The Origins of KICKBOX
The original idea of an intrapreneurship program like KICKBOX, was established by Mark Randall, at Adobe. His vision: Enabling employees to contribute to company-wide innovation in a easy and gamified way.
Following a keynote he attended, by Mark Randall himself, David Hengartner, Co-founder and CEO of rready (formerly known as GETKICKBOX), decided to adopt the program and implement it the company he was working at, namely Swisscom. "We adapted their idea and adjusted it according to our needs," states David.
The KICKBOX intrapreneurship program is an innovation program which can be deployed company-wide, to foster a culture of innovation and develop new internal products or even branches, but also spin-offs and joint projects with partner companies.
KICKBOX works in a way that allows every employee with a compelling, brilliant, and exciting idea, to apply for the program and get the chance to develop an initial idea into a concrete project or even a prosperous business endeavour.
In addition to spare working time and a start-up credit of CHF 1.000, the employees partaking in KICKBOX receive valuable support from both internal and external specialists.
The program allows for a certain degree of controlled freedom for the employees, which, while it does cost both time and money – is absolutely worth it. "If the ideas generated from the program end up as profitable business areas, all resources were well spent", says David.
Intrapreneurship Goes Global
While initially, the program was implemented only at Swisscom, it has since grown to include a customer base across the globe.
Four years after being introduced at Swisscom, Dave Hengartner and his Co-Founders decided to spin-out KICKBOX into an independent company (rready).
The program has since been tweaked and adapted even further, and can be bought and implemented from enterprises all over the world. 'It’s kind of Innovation as a Service,' says David Hengartner. Collaborations with different universities are also implemented – for example a course for students of ETH and HSG and the ETH course Lean Start up Academy.
This successful innovation program shows that also big companies are flexible and encourage their employees to think innovatively and in an entrepreneurial way and to develop suitable processes. «With KICKBOX, we globally promote the internal entrepreneurial spirit and are able to strengthen the culture of innovation according to the motto: try fast, fail fast, learn fast,» summarizes David Hengartner. By using the right methods, also big enterprises can inspire their employees and awaken their start-up spirit. Like that, many new ideas will get the chance to arise, grow, and succeed.
