An entrepreneurial minded person does not always have to start his or her own business. Often, it is also possible to be an entrepreneur inside a corporation. Whether this concept has long been overlooked, more and more large companies start corporate entrepreneurship initiatives fostering entrepreneurship within their businesses. Since 2014, HHL supports well-established companies in creating successful projects together with students using formats like hackatons and Design Thinking workshops. Topics include e.g. digitalization, business model innovation and new work. The most recent project was done in collaboration with Porsche.

Corporate Innovation with Porsche

The Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG Chair of Strategic Management and Digital Entrepreneurship organized a corporate innovation seminar on the topic of “New Work” in collaboration with the Porsche Digital Lab and the newly founded CODE University from Berlin. Within these three month project, 30 participants had the opportunity to develop innovative solutions in the field of New Work to strengthen Porsche’s attractiveness as employer.

The kick-off event took place at the site of the Porsche plant in Leipzig where participants could get special company insight. The students worked in three groups covering the topics: Collaboration@Porsche, Services@Porsche and Digital Leadership Coach. The vibrant mix of management and IT students closely supported by several coaches as well as Porsche staff created a unique, dynamic and inspiring atmosphere. After a series of workshops and lectures, the students developed their ideas further to well-grounded concepts and created first prototypes for their solutions. At the end of the project, the teams presented their results to a jury of Porsche executives and industry experts, who awarded the best solution. The project was a great learning experience, not only for the students from HHL and CODE University but also for the Porsche representatives. The feedback of both parties was very positive as the following students summarize:

Florian Fischer: „The Corporate Innovation Seminar is a great way to gain insights into the daily work of our cooperation partner Porsche AG. Especially the chance to work on solutions that may actually be implemented is very exciting!”

Lisa Bubner: „This hackathon is a real hands-on experience that gives us the chance to not only be close to nice Porsche cars, but also to get an understanding of how business is done in a successful German premium car manufacturer. Working in close cooperation with Porsche AG but also Porsche Digital Lab adds a new perspective to our studies, which is truly enriching.

Companies not only benefit from the great learning experience, but may also gain real profitable solutions.

The concept for the Porsche real-time insurance service “Porsche Shield” was the winner of a previous corporate innovation seminar together with HHL.

You can find the service here.

If you are interested in organizing a corporate entrepreneurship program with HHL, please contact Sigrid Fischer.