“Being immersed in the customer operations is a key to producing things that are credible and innovative, not overload stuff with fancy things and technology." In this episode, we welcome Director Business Innovation & Foresight, Hans Lind from the Vovo Group. As part of the Volvo Connected Solutions Innovation Lab, Hans’ job is to explore ideas that add value to the business and help it stay relevant in the long term. In addition to a brief dive into the Volvo Group and its strategy, we take a look behind the scenes of the Volvo Connected Solutions Innovation Lab and learn a lot about partnerships, the right team composition, but also about the importance of patience and a holistic approach when it comes to building up such a lab. Curious to learn more? Then tune in to get the full story! The episode at a glance: Who is Hans? (00:01:41) Hans, please complete the 3 sentence starters… (00:02:42) Volvo, Goals & Strategy Brief insight into the Volvo brand and its products. (00:04:55) What are Volvo’s goals for the nearer future? (00:06:37) How is Volvo attacking the upcoming transformation challenge? (00:07:27) The “Either-Or” game (00:10:11) Volvo Innovation Lab Size and structure of the team? (00:13:10) How do people get to the innovation lab? (00:14:32) What are the typical reasons why innovation labs fail? (00:18:31) Where to find external partners for the Vovlo innovation lab? (00:23:25) How to onboard these partners to fund something they didn't think of themselves? (00:25:03) What are the typical criteria by which the success of the innovation lab is measured? (00:26:25) How does the lab gain “street- credibility”, when it to comes to rolling out the lab outcomes to the real world? (00:28:51) What does the future for Volvo’s Innovation Lab look like? (00:32:15) Hans’ 3 actionable key recommendations to take away from this episode (00:34:19) Looking back. Hans’ Innovation Rockstar moment (00:36:17) *** FEEDBACK WELCOME If you would like to give us feedback on this episode or know someone who also has some thrilling stories or insights to share from the world of corporate innovation (maybe yourself?), just shoot us a note at [email protected]. *** LISTEN - LIKE - SHARE You like our show? Then leave us a rating or a review on Spotify or Apple Podcast and share it with colleagues and friends and whomever!