In 2018, Roche Diagnostics created an open innovation platform through a global Silicon Valley based eco-system venture fund, Plug & Play to have access to a screened portfolio of start-ups in the digital health care solution domain. This enabled the company to create links between strategic priorities (point of care solutions, molecular diagnostics, diabetes care and tissue diagnostics) and start-ups focusing on digital healthcare innovations. There were a number of challenges to overcome – ranging from acceptance of the business to work with start-ups, setting legal frameworks that would allow collaboration between the business and the start-ups and ultimately converting the results of the three-months collaboration projects into ongoing contracts that would ultimately lead to new solutions that could be offered in the market. While the initial collaboration between the business and the start-ups over shorter periods of time worked, the scaling of the collaboration and the establishing of the business model for joint value creation still had to be worked out.
Learning Objective
The goal is to learn about how to successfully create an innovation ecosystem that enables start-ups to work with large multinational firms on innovation activities that will ultimately create value.
