Turning Your Innovation Program into a Runaway Success

Jesse ArundellSenior Open Innovation Consultant, Commonwealth Bank of Australia

“Unleashing Innovation” at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

Presented by: Jesse Arundell

Who do I work for?

CommBank is Australia’s largest financial institution, providing financial services to over 16 million customers through 51,000+ people in 11 countries.

51,800Employees

1,350Offices and branch

locations

11Countries

16.6mCustomers

Confidential. Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

Where did our current innovation journey start?

Organisationally, CommBank has identified a need to enhance its innovation capabilities to prepare itself for the future.

Be centred on delivering what matters

to our customers

Empower our people to be creative and to

generate new, innovative ideas

Create a new set of pathways to get new ideas

and improvements delivered in market

Increase organisational agility and speed to

market, powered by new ways of working

What we want to do

Confidential. Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

Where do we want to be?

We want to create a culture where innovation is everyone’s responsibility.

““

Confidential. Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

How do we get there?

To ensure everyone has the capability to innovate, we have developed an innovation strategy focused on building skills, and creating an ecosystem.

Design thinking & experimentation

Agile, lean & analytics

Open innovation platform

Innovation Lab network

Core Capabilities Innovation Ecosystem

Confidential. Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

What can we do with our new capabilities?

In order to capture the new innovative ideas and improvements our people are developing, we have built an open innovation platform with Spigit.

What is our open innovation platform?

Our open innovation platform is called ‘Unleashing Innovation’ and its aim is to transform all of our people into ‘Everyday Innovators and Improvers’.

Innovation Channels

‘Always On’ channels that are owned by business units across the Bank, that allow

them to collect, manage, review, prioritise and implement ideas and improvements from

employees across the Bank.

How our people canget involved

Confidential. Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

Innovation Challenges

Time-bound campaigns that are focused on collecting ideas to solve

specific questions, problems or opportunities across the Bank.

How did we land on this model?

Initially, we centrally managed the whole platform, but we scaled our efforts by treating the platform as a business and decentralising ‘Always On’.

Confidential. Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

Setup half yearly Innovation Challenges and opened up an ‘Always On’ Channel for “big

ideas”

Pilot Pivot Growth

Ran quarterly, sponsored Innovation Challenges, aligned to real internal problems and

opportunities

Scale

Decentralised and operationalised ‘Always On’

Innovation Channels, directly with BU’s

Ran sponsored Innovation Challenges, at anytime,

dependent on sponsorship and need

What has this model helped us achieve in the last year?

In the last 12 months, we have effectively operationalised this model across our organisation and are continually launching it into new areas.

15,000 Active users & 35,000 Registered

employees

25,000 Ideas + 75,000 Votes &

Comments

25 Innovation Challenges Launched

16 ‘Always On’ Innovation Channels

are Live

Confidential. Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

What is an Innovation Challenge?

An Innovation Challenge is a time-bound microsite on the platform that enables business sponsors to crowd-source ideas to solve specific problems.

Confidential. Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

What have we learnt along the way?

Innovation Challenges should focus on helping business sponsors solve problems that matter and be linked to a pathway to commercialisation.

Secure a senior sponsor for every

challenge

Focus on solving a specific problem or opportunity that

matters

Launch challenges with a big bang – aim to engage everyone

Have a pathway to commercialisation for

winning ideas

Confidential. Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

How does this work in practice?

We recently ran a challenge with our digital share trading business, CommSec, focused on generating ideas to make investing simple & easy.

Confidential. Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

Winners8 ideas were selected by

the CommSec leadership team to

progress

ImplementationAll 8 ideas were pitched, with 2 receiving funding

to be executed

ExplorationAll ideas were assigned an Innovation Coach to flesh

out the concept and understand D+F+V

What happened after the challenge?

The winning ideas from the challenge, as decided by an expert panel, had the opportunity to be explored and prototyped, prior to a final pitch for funding.

PrototypingEach idea was then

brought to life through a storyboard, wireframe or

clickable app

Confidential. Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

What is an Innovation Channel?

An Innovation Channel is a microsite on the platform that enables BU’s to collect, track and manage ideas and improvements for their business.

Confidential. Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

How do Innovation Channels work?

At any time, people from across the Bank can submit ideas or improvements to one of our BU's channels, which they then process and execute upon.

Confidential. Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

Automated

People work directly with their team leaders or experts in a BU to directly

deliver ideas and improvements

Self - Guided

People are empowered to raise, work through and track the

completion of their ideas and improvements by themselves

The Innovation Channel Processes

Centralised

People’s ideas and improvements are reviewed by a central team or

panel within a BU, prior to execution

What have we learnt along the way?

Innovation Channels, and the ideas and improvements within them, should be owned directly by internal BU’s and supported by the Innovation Team.

Setup your ‘Always On’ capability as an internal

product/service offering for your BU’s

Co-create channels and the idea management processes that underpin them, hand in

hand with your BU’s

Make your BU’s responsible for ideas and improvements

for their operations

Strategically guide, steer and help them get the most out of

their channel

Confidential. Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

How does this work in practice?

Last year we launched our first channel with our business banking division, focused on centralising the management of ideas across their teams.

Confidential. Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

ExplorationWe found 9 differing

approaches and processes to manage ideas and

improvements

LaunchWe kick-started the

channel by integrating it into their biggest annual

conference

CollaborationWe worked with their teams to build out a

shared idea management process

How did we build and launch it?

Together with the business, we explored existing approaches to managing ideas within their teams and then co-created a process to meet all their needs.

ImplementationWe then built, tested and refined the channel on the

platform with real users

Confidential. Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

What can you learn from our experience?

To truly ‘Unleash Innovation’ in your organisation, use the platform and its capabilities to empower your internal businesses to innovate.

““

Confidential. Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

“Unleashing Innovation” at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

Presented by: Jesse Arundell