“OUR WHOLE PROJECT IS BASED AROUND CO-CREATION” SOCIETE GENERALE 2014-2015 I 31 Why is an open innovation strategy so important today? Aymeril Hoang The need to innovate has never been so strong: digital technology has brought about great changes in our clients’ behaviours. New competitors are putting pressure on our traditional business models. We intend to make the most of digital technology to better understand our clients and offer them a relationship that is continually providing new added value. As the changes underway are radical, we also need disruptive innovation, which can only come from co-creation: even a brilliant mind cannot find the solution alone. Through our entire innovation network, we are therefore trying to open up to the various communities around us and to their creativity. How do you work with these ecosystems outside the company? A.H. Our clients are our first source of innovation. In France, our retail bank has for years been exploring co-creation with its clients on the online “SG et vous” platform, which combines highly responsive after-sales service on Twitter with a platform designed to collect their ideas and suggestions. New features for our banking app have resulted from this dialogue, perfectly meeting the needs of its users. This is one reason for its success, it has now been downloaded over 3.5 million times since 2010. We also have strong links to the world of SMEs and start-ups, through the Open Innovation Institute for example, which we founded with École Centrale Paris. Societe Generale is also a founding member of the Pacte PME (SME Pact), which fosters partnerships between small businesses and large corporate groups. This is how Boursorama learned about Yseop, a start-up specialising in artificial intelligence. Societe Generale has locations in the capitals of the digital and creative world: Paris, New York, London and Bangalore. It is building ties with the local communities of these cities: entrepreneurs, universities, suppliers, etc. What about the Group’s employees? What role do they play in the innovation network? A.H. We want them all to be part of the digital transformation process, which is the point of our Digital for All programme (see pages 32-33). They showed great enthusiasm in 2013, during PEPS (Projet Expérimental Participatif et Stimulatif or Collaborative, Inspirational and Experimental Project), a giant brainstorming session on the bank of tomorrow in the digital age. This collective discussion gave rise to several concrete projects in 2014, such as digitising contracts and client documents, and some initial pilots for telecommuting. We are working to encourage the emergence of internal start-ups. We are proud to be recognised for our digital maturity. A trend has emerged and will grow even stronger. INTERVIEW WITH AYMERIL HOANG, HEAD OF INNOVATION @SocieteGenerale We are working to encourage the emergence of internal start-ups. www.societegenerale.com/open-innovation
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