Background

The Innovation Director of a global human capital consulting firm wanted to increase the innovation activity his team was engaged in. His objective was to secure innovative, future looking solutions with which they could augment their product portfolio and be seen as a thought leader by their clients. They were also looking for a safer way to explore strategic investments or partnerships with promising start-ups.

Challenge

The fragmented nature of the people tech market made it challenging for them to source good quality AI/digital start-ups. While the Director had a team of full-time staff focused on sourcing innovative start-ups and incubating them internally, they were keen on having an external perspective. Using the Hub looked attractive as the Hub team was made of experienced HR practitioners with a deep and practical understanding of their client issues.

Six month programme

After an exploration of ‘Future of Work’ trends, it was agreed that the Hub would help the consultancy around the expected rise of ‘gig workers’. Specifically, the firm was interested in flexible benefits for gig workers.

Over the six months of the programme, the Hub assisted the Innovation Director and his team in:

• Sourcing an AI based gig worker solution they were not aware of
• Negotiating an agreement for participation which included several benefits to the start-up:
  • Offer of the opportunity to co-create and work together on a design sprint for a wider benefits proposition for gig workers/self-employed
  • Get support on Product Development through in-house access pilots and client testing opportunities
  • Enable access to the firm’s network of industry experts and intellectual capital
  • An offer to get to hosted to the firm’s client, customer & networking events at their London client suite
  • Get regular feedback and mentoring

Outcome

The key aspect of the programme was an ability for both the consultancy and the start-up to test out a few working propositions without any commitments from either side around further follow-on. At the end of the programme the firm’s innovation team felt there was a high level of synergy between the start-up solution and their product portfolio and decided on a further investment.