Groundbreaking growth program for SEB

SEB is a bank that holds a leading market position in the Nordic and Baltic markets. SEB has a broad portfolio of services both for private and corporate customers. They have a reputation for reliability and innovation in the financial sector.

Challenge

SEB has invested in the Baltic countries’ business and innovation ecosystems for years, initiating and implementing growth programs as a supportive measure. The objective is to support innovation and the creation of new high-value products and services to deliver business growth. After running multiple rounds of the Growth Program for small and medium enterprises SEB was looking to renew the content and approach to innovation.

Solution

We developed a tailor-made program specifically for SEB to support SMEs to promote confidence in using co-creation within an open innovation environment. The program facilitated new joint business ventures between 2-4 companies. We employed various innovation frameworks and service design tools to ensure that even seasoned program participants get to experience a format new to them.

The program was delivered in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. To ensure diverse and engaging experience we invited colleagues from Digitalist Finland and Katalista Ventures to co-facilitate with us.

The program consisted of 5 modules and an introductory day:

• SEB Innovation Day marked the beginning of the growth program. With industry-leading guest speakers, the day aimed to spark interest in collaborative innovation and sustainable business growth.
• The first module focused on co-creating innovation. Its goal was to explore the horizons of open innovation and the potential of co-creation, selecting potential cooperation companies, defining innovation ambitions, and setting the focus for future projects. Additionally, the target audience and primary questions were identified to conduct user research for problem formulation.
• The second module was about user-driven innovation. The objective was to identify areas with the greatest potential for creating maximum joint value, define the scope of the value proposition based on customer insights, and outline the tasks for the ideation phase.
• The third module highlighted conceptualization and sustainable business models. It aimed to encourage collaborative ideation and draw inspiration from analogies in various fields.
• The fourth module involved market experiments. It aimed to map out joint innovation monetization opportunities and adopt a mindset of experiment-based decision-making.
• The program concluded with a pitch day to a professional jury. The aim was to evaluate teams’ progress throughout the program and select teams to continue mentoring by the SEB experts.

Results

• A record number of applicants applied for the SEB Growth Program in 2023 and 2024. 
• A number of joint ventures were launched to the market immediately after the program was concluded.
• Strong cross-industry partnerships have been established.