Philips: ‘Participants exceeded our expectations’ 2014

The title says it all, Philips, participating company in last year’s edition of the New Business Challenge (NBC) is very enthusiastic about the challenge. The Philips students really made a difference. Finding a business model for replacing kerosene lanterns with solar lamps in Ghanaian households proved to be difficult, but the mixed teams of Ghanaian and Dutch students came up with a groundbreaking idea. Robin van Dalen, Project Manager Africa Innovation at Philips and involved in guiding the students last year, explains.

Robin, Philips is a large Dutch multinational, with an office in Ghana already, why did you decide to participate in the NBC?

‘Actually, there were three reasons for us to participate. In the last years we have performed a lot of research on the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) market in Africa. This market requires completely different business models and go-to-market models. At the time of the NBC we were working on implementation of our strategy on the ground. Therefore we could use innovative thinkers. Students and recent graduates are not yet stuck into mindsets and are therefore able to think out-of-the-box. So we hoped they would come up with fresh ideas. Secondly, as said it was quite new for us to bring BoP products to the market, so the NBC could help us to create notoriety. Last but not least, as sustainability is very important to Philips, we were looking for new ideas to implement this in our business model as well’.

What has the NBC brought for Philips?

‘The participants have exceeded our expectations. They really gave us new insights, bright ideas and a very innovative business idea. The winning team came up with a solution to the case where customers can get discount on solar lamps when they hand in their old kerosene lamps. In addition they came up with an extensive plan for maintenance of the lamps. It was a very concrete and realistic solution, since they spoke to potential customers as a base for their plan. They did not only present the idea, they were also able to talk to potential partners for Philips who were all enthusiastic and committed to the plans’.

So clearly you were happy with the plans of the participants, what about the implementation after the NBC?

‘First of all the results were a boost for everyone in the organization. Students were the accelerator for a new way of thinking about business in Africa. Regarding concrete implementation, the NBC was in the middle of the year when all budgets were already planned for 2014. However currently we are taking further steps and local and international teams are looking for budget for a project manager to implement the idea. So it not only ends with a nice challenge and a good idea, we are actually hoping to implement it shortly. This makes the NBC not only interesting for us as a company, but certainly for students as they can have great impact on new business in Ghana’.

What were the success factors of the NBC for that?

‘Students were the success factor, and mainly the mix between Dutch and Ghanaian students and their diverse background of studies and experiences. They complemented each other in the teams. Where Ghanaian students have plenty of knowledge on the structure of the local economy and local companies, the Dutch have knowledge on circular economy and sustainability. This diversity of knowledge and skills were the base for innovation. This, together with the structure of the NBC such as the preparation workshop and the availability of coaches and experts, made the challenge a big success for Philips’.