Marta Gil, Director of Strategy and Innovation at Sacyr, highlights the Spanish entrepreneurial ecosystem as "an example worldwide"
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In an interview with Business Insider Spain, Marta Gil, Director of Strategy and Innovation at Sacyr, explained the importance of this area for the survival of companies, especially after the health crisis resulting from COVID-19.
Gil explained that, in the case of Sacyr, innovation comes from several specific directions: on the one hand, it may be that the area itself identifies a challenge to be solved in some business segment or, on the other hand, it may be that the segments themselves detect something to improve.
However, there is also another source of innovation in the company that is channeled through the Sacyr iChallenges open innovation program.
The company's Director of Innovation explains that, unlike other companies, the approach is established as follows: either through the segments or through the area itself, a very specific challenge is identified, aligned with the business, which is then addressed through the program.
Gil points out that the challenges are really specific and cites as an example some that were answered in the previous edition, such as the monitoring of on-site variables in infrastructure projects or the improvement of the calculation of scope 3 in carbon footprint.
In addition, she also addressed the 'zero vision in lane cuts', dedicated to improving the safety of employees and road users when making an intervention on the road.
To respond to these challenges, anyone can participate in Sacyr iChallenge with a project. In fact, Gil recalls that, although most of the entities they have worked with are startups, the program is not closed to anyone.
"The call is open to any type of innovative agent, whether they are universities, large corporations, technology centers...", she explains.
In addition, the call is open to all countries, not just Spain. "This year we have tried to make a very important communication effort in other regions with the idea of being able to capture this innovative talent and incorporate it into our day-to-day business".
"We believe it is very important that through innovation we can help and encourage entrepreneurship in other markets, beyond our own," she stresses.
The only restriction: that they be implemented projects, not just ideas.
The only restriction is that they do not usually accept ideas, i.e., it must be a project that has begun to be implemented in some way, even if there is still a co-creation process ahead. "We want something that we can turn into a real business project relatively quickly," she says.
Asked about the type of innovative agents they usually work with, Gil is clear: they want entities that contribute good ideas and provide answers to challenges, but, above all, that are flexible when it comes to finding the best way to approach them.
"In the end, depending on the startup and on us, we don't always use the same formula: sometimes we propose a co-creation project and sometimes a client-supplier relationship," she says.
The innovation director specifies that it is important for the company to be open to exploring the best form of collaboration between the parties because "in the end, it has to be a win-win situation for both."
"We don't want to keep their intellectual property, or their people, or anything else, but we want them to be partners on the road in this sense," she stresses.
Gil explains that the company gains freshness, flexibility, and a different way of working, while they provide the startup with in-depth knowledge of the sector, as well as a real environment in which to test the project.
There is a "brutal ecosystem" around innovation in Spain.
After having contact with the entrepreneurial landscape in Spain, the executive states categorically that there is "a brutal ecosystem around innovation" in this country.
"There are a lot of innovative agents around everything that has to do with entrepreneurship: we are talking about accelerators, foundations, venture capital companies...", she explains. "Spain is an example worldwide of how entrepreneurship can be used to foster economic activity in the country."
However, although Gil believes that much progress has been made in this regard in recent years, she points out that "we still have a long way to go".
The expert points out that large corporations have long since realized the great contribution of having entrepreneurs or startups alongside them. "It's a brutal pairing. Both sides have a lot to offer and we work very well together," he says.
In addition, Gil explains that the situation arising from COVID-19 has created an opportunity to foster the digitization process in the broadest sense. Specifically, the directive points towards the Next Generation funds "where entrepreneurship, innovation, digital transformation of companies or energy transition" will be the fundamental focus.
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