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Merck KGaA - Innovativstes Unternehmen des Jahres

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Company: Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Hessen
Company Description: Merck, a vibrant science and technology company, operates across healthcare, life science and performance materials. Complementary to R&D in these sectors, the Merck Innovation Center facilitates and scales up new businesses beyond the company’s current scope. It provides dedicated support, clear governance and decision making in a protected start-up-like environment.
Nomination Category: Kategorien Unternehmen / Organisationen Awards
Nomination Sub Category: Innovativstes Unternehmen des Jahres - Mehr als 2.500 Mitarbeiter

Nomination Title: Exploring the unexplored: Reinventing Innovation at Merck

Beschreiben Sie der Jury die Aktivitäten und Leistungen der nominierten Organisation seit Anfang Juli 2017 (in bis zu 525 Wörtern):

Anticipating the 350th anniversary of its foundation, Merck asked itself a vital question: How can innovation help us to make a positive, sustainable contribution to society in the future? In 2018, we unveiled our answer in the form of the new Merck Innovation Center in Darmstadt. But this story isn’t just about a building – it’s about the evolution of a living, breathing innovation ecosystem.

The Merck Innovation Center empowers internal and external entrepreneurs to build next generation businesses. It provides a protected yet open ecosystem within Merck’s corporate structure that successfully bridges the gap between startup-style agility, and the complexity of a global corporation. Creating it involved challenging existing structures and processes, and replacing them with more flexible approaches. The payoff: Simplified collaboration that pushes the boundaries of Merck’s business.

The Merck Innovation Center has two primary roles:

1. Developing new technologies and businesses that go beyond Merck’s current activities;

2. Transforming Merck’s culture from process-focused, to innovation-obsessed. This means giving people the freedom to think in new ways outside of their daily work, try novel approaches, and drive Merck’s business forward together.

So, what does this mean in practice?

To set the strategic direction for our innovation efforts, we define subject-specific Innovation Fields. One example is Clean Meat, which focuses on culturing meat at scale, without harming animals.

Via internal ideation programs, every Merck employee can get involved with the Innovation Center. The best new ideas are developed into dedicated innovation projects and taken towards market-readiness through our novel New Business Builder function, based on the classic Company Builder approach – the first of its kind in the corporate environment. It provides the dedicated support, clear governance and decision-making required to efficiently grow and scale innovation projects.

There are currently 23 innovation projects running, two of which have already developed their first minimum viable products. Project founders are offered a novel incentive model which includes the option to participate in revenues. Rapid idea testing and improvement is facilitated by a dedicated Makerspace for prototype construction.

Crucially, the Innovation Center story is not all about Merck. In 2018, we refocused our Accelerator Program on connecting startups with innovation projects. We also ran our first ‘Makerthon’ together with Deutsche Telekom, which challenged participants to create hardware solutions for pre-defined challenges in just 3 weeks.

­Whether internal or external, and whatever the discipline, the Innovation Center provides innovators with everything they need to create new, viable businesses that will shape Merck’s future. Our bespoke Innovator Academy provides online and offline training in cutting-edge innovation methodologies. A great example is the introduction of the Working Out Loud methodology in Summer 2017, supported by Board Member Kai Beckmann (see PDF).

The Innovation Center has come a long way since its inception as a prototype in 2015. In the last 12 months, we have successfully applied everything we have learned to reinvent our innovation ecosystem: from launching new Innovation Fields, to opening the Makerspace, reshaping our Accelerator program and implementing the New Business Builder approach. Have a look at our infographic for facts and figures that prove our success!