SCG unveiled its progress on two
years of investing and developing in digital startups and its strategic
direction for 2019-2020 to augment organizational
capabilities with digital transformation aimed at better satisfying customer’s
rapidly-evolving needs and fueling and
accelerating business growth. SCG has invested
in startups for open innovation through a corporate venture capital “AddVentures by SCG”, developed and
accelerated its internal startup through a startup studio “ZERO TO ONE by SCG”, and strengthened
the company’s digital technology capabilities.
Dr. Joshua Pas, SCG Corporate Innovation Director, and Managing
Director of AddVentures by SCG disclosed, “In the previous 3-5 years, it is
salient that new technology and business models have been tremendously and
speedily developed on top of the progressively-changing customer’s behaviors. SCG took a dynamic approach to adapt into the new business
environment by not only sustaining its focus on deep technology research and
development but also driving digital transformation through development efforts
and partnerships with potential startups that bring about digital technology
and innovation to boost business competitiveness. With this approach, SCG can create solutions, products, and
services to meet the needs of all customer groups as well as increasing
opportunities for better and faster growth,”
SCG realizes the
importance of innovation process and mindset to the digital transformation
journey. SCG decided to adopt startup work
process and culture, and has established “ZERO TO ONE by SCG,” a new startup
studio which focuses on developing early-stage startups turning their ideas to real businesses. An enterprise internal startup “HATCH-WALK-FLY” program was
initiated to invite passionate SCG employees with entrepreneurial spirit to submit
their business ideas and kickstart them to form a new business through a three-stage development program. The program starts with “HATCH” to help get
insights, identify problems and validate ideas; “WALK” to develop
products that meet the customer needs and validate the market and business
model; and “FLY” to expand the customer base to accelerate growth in a typical
startup path.
“Apart from providing funding, the studio puts its best resources
to assist startups to learn, speed up business growth, and increase the chance
of success by implementing startup playbook, which provide a guide on work
process, tools, and performance evaluation scheme for startups at different
stages. Mentoring sessions are provided on a
regular basis to equip startups with tips and experiences by experts from both
within SCG and experienced startup founders from outside. What’s more, ZERO TO ONE by SCG also supports software
development, as well as professional accounting and legal services to allow
startup founders to focus on customer and product development. Until now, SCG has incubated more than 50 startup teams, from
which 7 teams are in WALK stage and 4 teams are in FLY stage at this moment. After this stage, startups are to expand the customer base and
build multiple-fold business growth,” said Dr. Joshua.
To speedily drive
digital transformation, SCG pushes on “Open Innovation” by leveraging its
corporate venture capital (CVC) “AddVentures by SCG” to enhance
potentiality and entering joint-venture with
digital startups in Thailand and other regions to build business partnerships
with digital technology specialized business.
Dr. Joshua said, “AddVentures by SCG has made considerable progress in forging
collaboration with startups in the past two years. The investments include: 1) Fund of Fund and Direct Investment
with the total of 13 investments to date which in line with the SCG’s business
growth strategy – 2 VC funds and 11 direct investments
in startups; 2) Joint venture partnership with
growth stage startup globally to create new business for SCG by adopting proven
technology and business model to Thailand and Southeast Asia which currently,
about 6 startup partnerships are in negotiation and market validation stage;
and 3) Commercial collaboration with over
100 startups by leveraging its products and services to strengthen SCG existing
business operations.”
For the AddVentures
by SCG’s business strategy and development direction in 2019-2020, Dr. Joshua said, “Next year, we will advance network building with startups
worldwide via funds and startups investment in new regions such as China,
Israel, USA, and other global innovation hubs. For Southeast Asia, we will focus on investing in Indonesia,
Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam by expanding growth in other regions for these
startups with SCG’s strong network and expertise aimed at building a new
business drive for SCG. By 2020, SCG is expected to have
about 4-6 investments.
The joint venture
partnerships will be created progressively with ZERO TO ONE by SCG to conduct
market validation and localization. By 2020, SCG is
expected to build new businesses through 4-6 joint venture partnerships.
For Commercial
collaboration, SCG will modify the work process to be more systematic and agile
on top of seeking potential startups through a global network to push forward
profound projects to help SCG gain advantage edge in the future. A series of concrete 10 projects are foreseeable.
The strategy of
ZERO TO ONE by SCG is not only to drive growth for the startups in the hands of
AddVentures by SCG, but also to catalyze in-house startup development. SCG is also seeking new startup opportunities via partnership
and collaboration with external organizations that are interested in co-developing business through Venture Builder Program. SCG will also be able to leverage knowledge and experiences of
startup development to accelerate innovation for SCG’s core business units, in
which ZERO TO ONE by SCG can help establish startup studio in each unit. This will effectively enhance the overall SCG’s innovation
ecosystem.”
“However, the
digital technology capability development for SCG employees is important too as
it will help make digital transformation a reality. The implementation of Data Analytics is put in place to help
analyze data for product and service development enhanced department
operational process, and development to meet diverse customer needs. The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Blockchain will help streamline
operational process and services”, Mr. Joshua concluded.
Any startups
interested in working with “AddVentures by SCG” can get more information at www.addventures.co.th and facebook.com/AddVenturesbySCG or LinkedIn: AddVentures by SCG and more information on ZERO TO ONE by SCG at
www.scg.com/zerotoone