Telenor Group launches intrapreneur program

NEW DELHI: Norway-based Telenor Group has unveiled a new innovation program for all employees to find our own budding intrapreneurs with the next engaging end-user products and services and to transition "napkin ideas" to pilot products impacting millions.

Telenor employees with a great idea for a digital product can apply to the Ignite Incubator, Telenor's new intrapreneur program. Here they get a chance to develop the idea into a testable prototype, or Minimum Viable Product. Successful pilots will then be given resources to develop into a product to impact the societies in which Telenor operates, and that millions of our customers will use in their daily digital lives.

Fundamental to Telenor's 2020 strategy

Last year, a target was set as part of Telenor Group's strategic ambition: in 2020, Telenor Group aims to have 300 million users spending at least 10 minutes daily on our services.

"We need to deliver superior customer experiences and offer a broad range of new engaging products to our millions of customers,'' says Telenor Group President & CEO Sigve Brekke.

"To be able to build those products, we first must test and explore product ideas. To do that, we need to deep-dive into our customers' desires. And who is best suited for the job? We are. It's time for us to roll up our sleeves and start innovating," he added.

Launching the innovation program at a global townhall for all 36,000 employees, Brekke encouraged people with ideas to step out of their comfort zones and seize this fresh opportunity.

Building the dream

"Ignite Incubator is a radical step up in Telenor's efforts in how we foster innovation internally, and is modelled on our work with external startup communities in our global markets, such as dtac Accelerate. Similar to that program, teams with the best ideas will get to spend 3 months at a startup incubator to take their idea into a working prototype. Ideas should focus on solving a validated customer problem as well as be locally relevant and/or have global potential," said Gunnar Sellæg, Head of Product & Innovation in Telenor Group.

By participating in Ignite Incubator, employees will get valuable hands-on experience in thinking about customer needs, innovation methodology and how to develop viable new products. It will also provide valuable lessons in an area central to Telenor Group's ambition to be the customers' favourite partner in digital life.

Ignite Incubator: how it works

All submitted ideas will screened and teams will be selected to pitch in front of an international panel in mid-June. Proposals will be judged on how the solution solves a customer problem, has a viable technical solution, and market potential. Up to 12 teams will go through to a three-month incubator bootcamp in either Norway or Asia to develop minimum viable products (MVPs) or testable prototypes. In December the selection panel and Telenor Group senior management will decide which should be developed further, either internally in one of Telenor's 13 companies or at Group-level, or potentially spun out as an external company.