The Call for Entrepreneurship "Innovative Business Ideas" is an internal initiative open to Leonardo’s entire workforce, which aims to unearth ideas that have the power to transform the products and services of the future.
The competition is proving a valuable way to stimulate and build an entrepreneurial mindset in Leonardo’s people, supporting them in proposing and implementing their business ideas, thus enhancing the company’s expertise and know-how.
The Call for Entrepreneurship encourages proposals that leverage existing products, services and technologies to create new solutions and business modes that could be applied beyond Leonardo’s existing markets.
The initiative was launched in June 2020 and attracted 94 proposals divided into three different areas. Each area is closely linked to the Be Tomorrow -Leonardo 2030 strategic plan, particularly in terms of the company’s commitment to ‘Master the New’:
- Augmented Services: Ideas to transform Leonardo's products and services through new features and digital services that distinguish them from the competition.
- Digitalisation: Ideas that exploit digital technologies to transform and improve the customer experience or that transform and improve the way we work.
- Improving Quality of Life: Ideas to build Leonardo solutions that make a difference to humankind, citizens and the environment.
A total of 230 employees participated in the contest. On March 3, 2021, the jury, led by Leonardo CEO Alessandro Profumo and featuring some of the company's senior leaders, announced the three winners. The winning submissions were chosen from a shortlist of 10 projects previously selected by a technical jury.
The event was live-streamed and was also attended by Leonardo employees, who were able to vote digitally as members of a ‘popular jury’ to award a special prize.
The winning project was entitled ‘Centre of Excellence for simulation, instruction and digitalisation in healthcare’. Also on the podium were projects on a ‘Sustainable Modular Container’ and on a ‘Safe identification system for drones’, which took second and third places respectively. The project ‘Innovative chemical imaging microscope for tissue diagnostics and cancer detection’ won the special prize voted on by the popular jury.
The winning teams will be be supported to incubate their ideas, accelerating the potential route to market.
