“The outcomes of the Intrapreneurship Program were above and beyond my expectations. As part of the pharmaceutical industry, which is very conservative and heavily regulated, we had our doubts regarding the potential outcomes of an internal innovation process. We are now deep into the process with outcomes in the form of clearly defined opportunities to impact our strategic KPI’s through employee-driven innovation ventures. It is our intention to adopt several of the ventures as part of our official work plans. In addition, this process has proven how far our employees can go in terms of their creativity, persistence, and willingness to promote the company’s goals through personal initiative and innovation, which to me was the most gratifying aspect of the whole process.”

Ohad Goldberg

Company President - AstraZeneca Israel

AstraZeneca, one of the world's largest pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies, sought to tap into the creativity of its employees in Israel and foster an internal innovative ecosystem. The project aimed to create a structured framework to effectively navigate employee ideation processes, measure success, and deliver greater value to customers, patients, and healthcare providers.

The collaboration between AstraZeneca and Spyre Group served as a successful example of harnessing employee creativity to drive internal innovation and create a positive impact in the pharmaceutical industry.

Client: AstraZeneca

Industry: Pharmaceutical and Biopharmaceutical

Project Goal: Harness employee creativity and grow the internal innovative ecosystem

Spyre Services: Intrapreneurship Program

Objectives

Cultivate an innovative ecosystem: Establish an environment that encourages and supports employee-driven innovation within the organization.

Effectiveness and measurability: Implement a framework to evaluate the success and impact of the innovation initiatives.

Value creation: Generate innovative ideas that provide significant value to customers, patients, and healthcare providers.

Approach

Spyre Group worked closely with AstraZeneca's management team to design and implement a program that would harness employee creativity and drive internal innovation. The following steps were taken:

Idea Generation: A structured process was implemented to solicit ideas from employees, encouraging them to propose innovative initiatives across various areas of the company's focus, including cancer, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, infections, respiratory, inflammation, and neuroscience research.

Idea Evaluation: The management team carefully evaluated the submitted ideas based on predetermined criteria such as feasibility, market potential, alignment with company goals, and customer value. The goal was to select at least three initiatives for further development.

Initiative Selection: Due to the high quality of the proposals received, the management team decided to give the green light to four initiatives instead of the initial target. This decision reflected the enthusiasm and potential impact of the ideas presented.

Intrapreneurship Program: Recognizing the value of ongoing idea generation, AstraZeneca decided to execute an additional pop-up accelerator the following year to generate more innovative ideas. This initiative aimed to further foster employee creativity and expand the pool of potential initiatives.

Outcomes

The collaboration between AstraZeneca and Spyre Group yielded the following outcomes:

Cultivated innovative ecosystem: The project successfully created an environment that encouraged and supported employee-driven innovation within AstraZeneca's Israel division.

Measurable success: By implementing a structured evaluation framework, the management team was able to measure the success and impact of the selected initiatives, providing insights for future decision-making and resource allocation.

Value creation: The initiatives selected demonstrated significant potential to deliver value to customers, patients, and healthcare providers, aligning with AstraZeneca's mission of improving healthcare outcomes.

Continued innovation: The decision to execute an additional pop-up accelerator reflected the commitment to fostering ongoing idea generation and maintaining a culture of innovation within the organization.