- by Cindy Ranchon
- April 21, 2022
When M1 Limited, one of the major telecommunications companies in Singapore, welcomed a new CEO Manjot Singh Mann, he and his COO, Mustafa Kapasi, decided to blow an innovation wind in the company, starting with customer-facing teams, and the marketing department in particular. To help him complete this mission successfully, we designed and facilitated a Startup Immersion Program, in partnership with the VC and startup accelerator Startup-O.
build a vision
First step : Identify challenges and define ambitious targets.
To craft and align on a shared vision, we led the marketing and IT teams to co-design a new marketing platform for M1 with a tech-enabled and user-centric approach. Think of it as writing the same book in 2 languages simultaneously, making sure both audiences completely understand and align on both versions.
Following this collaborative workshop, we worked with 5 marketing leaders from the team to reframe their challenges into moonshots, so they could stretch their impact beyond their own expectations and perceived capabilities. While the goals they set for the company are confidential, we can share that they focused on providing a first-class, smart, personalised and creative experience for their customers, partners and collaborators alike.
upskilling through co-creation
In order to reach 2 ambitious objectives at once – finding innovative solutions for the marketing team while engaging and upskilling its talents, we designed the M1 startup immersion program.
We started by sourcing and assessing dozens of startups able to address the challenges identified by the teams and eventually zeroed in on 5 of them with the leadership.
We connected each startup with a duo of M1 marketing champions. Then we conducted a 5-week program providing a mix of hands-on content on the new ways of working and weekly milestones to reach. This enabled the startups to find the necessary internal support, through their champions, to make progress on a potential collaboration, while offering the champions a unique opportunity to collaborate and learn from disruptors. .
At the end of the program, startups and champions co-pitched their PoCs to the M1’s leadership, where 2 of the 5 solutions were selected for further developments: LoopMe & PI.Exchange.
