Digital transformation is no longer a buzzword for financial institutions, but a necessity for success. With 76% of business leaders prioritising digital initiatives, the time to accelerate your innovation strategy is now.
One key avenue for this is through innovation challenges. In this article, we dive into the key tenets of running one and more importantly, making it a success for your organisation.
Overview:
- Defining innovation challenges
- Why financial institutions need innovation challenges
- 10 steps to running an innovation challenge
- Tips on making your innovation challenge a success
- Innovate with APIX
Defining innovation challenges
What is an innovation challenge? Otherwise known as "ideathons" or "idea challenges," an innovation challenge is a strategic initiative that fosters creative problem-solving and new solutions.
These challenges come in two primary forms: closed innovation challenges and open innovation challenges. While the former involves internal teams working on predefined problems, the latter invites external contributions and fosters collaboration.
Innovation challenges are swiftly gaining prominence, with 20 to 50% of financial institutions integrating them into their innovation strategy due to their demonstrated role in driving growth and tackling industry challenges.
Why financial institutions need innovation challenges
Innovation challenges have become an integral part of business strategies, and here’s why.
Drive innovation and growth
Financial firms must adapt to technological advancements and changing consumer expectations to remain relevant. Innovation challenges can be a catalyst for continuous improvement, enabling the advancement of products and services in response to these evolving market demands.
Gain a competitive edge
Innovation challenges provide financial institutions with a competitive advantage. By fostering creativity and encouraging fresh perspectives, institutions can distinguish themselves from the pack.
Prudential Asia gained a 50% reduction in time-to-market than its competitors through the PruFintegrate Partnership Programme, held with APIX. The innovation challenge resulted in the successful collaboration with three startups who worked on developing and implementing proof of concepts.
10 steps to running an innovation challenge
There are ten crucial steps to running your innovation challenge.
Step 1: Define your objectives and goals
Clearly outline the purpose of your innovation challenge. Whether it's improving customer experience, enhancing operational efficiency, or exploring new revenue streams, having specific objectives will aid in guiding the entire process.
Step 2: Identify relevant stakeholders
Engage with key stakeholders, securing their support and involvement. Establishing these relationships ensures that your innovation challenge receives the necessary resources, attention, and expertise needed to succeed.
APIX has addressed over 225 problem statements with a participation level of over 7000 fintechs with our innovation platform. Read more about our capabilities here.
Step 3: Select a relevant theme
Based on your objectives, choose a theme or topic that aligns with your strategic priorities. This ensures that the ideas generated contribute directly to your overarching goals.
Step 4: Define the target audience
Now that you have your theme, it’s time to Identify the audience, whether internally, externally or a combination of both. More importantly, tailor your challenge to resonate with the identified audience.
Step 5: Design the challenge structure
Craft a structured framework for the challenge, including timelines, milestones, and guidelines. Clarity in the challenge structure will aid participants, and yourself, in navigating the process effectively.
Step 6: Host on the right platform
Selecting the right platform is crucial for the success of the challenge. APIX, with its comprehensive services, can offer an ideal environment for hosting and managing innovation challenges. Our platform is designed to facilitate seamless interaction between financial institutions and fintech innovators, providing a global fintech marketplace, API sandbox environment, collaboration tools and insightful analytics.
Learn more about how APIX helped COP28 TechSprint to innovate sustainability on a global scale, reaching out to innovators from 31 countries in the area of financial technology solutions for climate action.
Step 7: Launch and promote
Promote your challenge through effective promotion and marketing. Leverage various channels, including internal communications, social media, and industry networks, to attract participants.
Step 8: Facilitate idea collection
Ensure a seamless process for collecting and organising ideas. Provide the necessary tools to support participants in contributing their innovative solutions.
Step 9: Evaluate and award
Establish a fair and transparent evaluation process. Recognise and reward standout ideas, fostering a culture of appreciation for innovation.
Step 10: Post-Project Communication and Reflection
Conclude the challenge with a comprehensive communication plan. Share the outcomes, celebrate successes, and encourage reflection to gather insights and learnings for future initiatives.
Tips on making your innovation challenge a success
Here are some tips that will allow you to gain the most from your innovation challenge.
Outsource the heavy lifting
Running an innovation challenge is no easy feat. Fortunately, solutions exist that help in easing the process so that you can focus on the key essentials.
APIX stands out as a comprehensive solution with our services that facilitate seamless hosting, collaboration, and evaluation, ensuring a smooth innovation challenge experience.
Foster a creative environment
Collaboration forms the groundwork for great innovation. To ensure your innovation challenge cultivates the best of ideas, a collaborative culture must be fostered and encouraged to ensure a diverse range of perspectives for solutions.
Adapt and integrate
A common oversight made is in neglecting the post-challenge debrief. While celebrating a winning solution is important, it is equally crucial to leverage the insights from aspects that did not work. This will enable continuous improvement by learning from feedback and experiences.
Innovate with APIX
As firms navigate the evolving landscape, innovation challenges emerge as a powerful tool for growth. To embark on this journey, consider innovating with APIX.
APIX’s platform helps to facilitate collaboration and ensure success in running innovation challenges for financial firms and companies looking to innovate. Reach out today to learn more about how you can accelerate your innovation journey.