Success Stories of Companies Using the KICKBOX Program

What is the KICKBOX Intrapreneurship Program?

KICKBOX Intrapreneurship is a bottom-up solution for corporate innovation. By enabling everyday employees to partake in innovative practices, organizations harness the innovative power of their employees in a hands-on way. The program consists of different components, including access to an online innovation platform, a physical method toolbox, a 'guide to intrapreneurship' known as the KICKBOOK, and various innovation templates and downloadables. Using a stage-gate approach, innovators are guided through the innovation process in three different stages, including validation, exploration and implementation. 

ZF Friedrichshafen

Automotive industry

Innovation isn’t only limited to new companies looking to establish themselves in an industry. It should also enable organizations to keep evolving and adapting to the current landscape. Consumers are now more demanding than ever before, and only  brands that are truly innovative, can meet those expectations. KICKBOX can help companies successfully change their way of thinking. 

For ZF Friedrichshafen, a frontrunner in Germany's automotive industry, the use of KICKBOX has transformed the company’s workforce into a network of intrapreneurs. While in recent years, the automotive industry has encountered one of the biggest disruptions in over a century, KICKBOX Intrapreneurship has allowed the company to tap into a global knowledge base and work collaboratively to help ideas materialize into solutions. 

The program has yielded remarkable results thus far, with over 9 global divisions implementing it on a local level. One of the innovators at ZF for example, has developed a new test environment that makes the testing of chassis (vehicle frames) more effective and cost-saving compared to traditional testing environments.

Implenia

Construction & Real-estate industry

For innovation to thrive, organizations must foster a culture where all employees are invested in the process. While 59% of company executives aren’t sure they have the right people with the right skills needed to deliver high-quality innovation, many restrict themselves by failing to encourage intrapreneurship. For Implenia, a Swiss construction and real-estate company, the biggest obstacle they faced in terms of driving innovation, was how to involve the entire workforce.

Through KICKBOX Intrapreneurship, Implenia was able to reach all employees regardless of individual job roles, from office-workers to employees working on construction sites, to promote accessible innovation. By engaging the entire workforce, providing access to a digital platform, and an engaged top management; more than 30 ideas were submitted in the first year alone. The company's continued commitment to fostering manageable, measurable, and visible innovation has brought continued progress, including the registration of more than 3 patents since the introduction of the program.

One of these projects was designed by Manuel Entfellner, a construction manager at Implenia. He designed a yielding element for tunnel construction, made from high-strength, expanded polystyrene, which is much more light-weight and cost-friendly, compared to the conventional steel alternatives.

Swisscom

Telecom industry

Since implementing KICKBOX, Swisscom, Switzerland's leading telecommunications provider, hasn’t only been able to facilitate bottom-up innovation, more importantly, it has cultivated a culture where intrapreneurs have a voice. The program empowers employees to advocate for their ideas and utilize a structured process to assess the feasibility of their ideas, eliminating the need for approval from various levels of senior management.

With a focus on fostering new ideas, driving cultural change, and attracting top talent, Swisscom has recorded several success stories, including Help2Type, an easily configurable haptic keyboard for vision-impaired people. 

Discover the Power of KICKBOX for Your Company

The above case studies underline how KICKBOX Intrapreneurship can transform an organization's approach to innovation for the better. Through a guided approach, innovators are able to realise their ideas and contribute actively to the organization's innovation efforts. The company thereby fosters a culture that welcomes experimentation and encourages creativity, while simultaneously driving the creation of new or improved products and services.