More than 250 business leaders and entrepreneurs gathered at the Design Museum in London last night to celebrate the best of big business innovation and entrepreneurship.

More information: Market Gravity

More than 250 business leaders and entrepreneurs gathered at the Design Museum in London last night to celebrate the best of big business innovation and entrepreneurship.

The fifth annual Corporate Entrepreneur Awards, hosted by Market Gravity, honoured winners in four categories: Best New Corporate Venture, Best New Product or Service, Best Market Disruptor and the People’s Choice Award, which guests voted for on the night.

This event celebrates the contributions of corporate entrepreneurs, both to their businesses and to society as a whole. These are people and teams who apply the mindset and methods of an entrepreneur to the innovation challenges within large companies. Encouraging innovation from big business is crucial, as new ideas from this source can have a correspondingly significant impact on the world.

All the winners shared the quality of entrepreneurial thinking, along with a disruptive approach that makes space for new propositions and has the potential to change the status quo. This aspect of entrepreneurship is epitomised by the evening’s guest speaker, Gav Thompson, Global Director of Business Innovation at Telefónica and founder of giffgaff.

Gav delivered an inspiring and entertaining account of his experience of disruption and founding giffgaff, the spin-off mobile venture that shook up the norms of the mobile sector. Guests live tweeted about his speech and his thoughts on corporate leadership. He advised on the need to break rules when working for large organisations; to be a successful corporate entrepreneur you need to persevere, use your skills and leverage your strengths.

A wide range of established companies submitted over 50 entries to this year’s awards: these include the BBC, Asda, John Lewis, Direct Line, Barclays, Sky News and Visa. Details of the award winners are below:

Best Market Disruptor: Hive Active Heating, from British Gas

British Gas created new brand Hive to make clever things simple; its first new product, Hive active heating, puts control of heating and hot water back into customers’ hands, allowing them to use their phones, tablets and laptops.

Judges were impressed by Hive’s compelling customer story, commenting:

“By establishing a new brand, separate to British Gas, they’ve found a way to access the customers of other energy providers.”

They were also impressed by the way the proposition was delivered:

“This is disruptive and shows great corporate entrepreneurship – Hive is the new home management service.”

Best New Venture: Retiready from Aegon

Aegon had had next to no engagement with over a third of its 2 million customers, and it was completely dependent on intermediaries for distribution. It created Retiready, an intuitive, mobile enabled, direct to customer pension and ISA sales tool.

Discussing Aegon’s entry, the judges were impressed by its market impact, commenting:
“Retiready has been very well received and has really set a benchmark for the industry.”

They added, “The fact that they were able to get it launched and scaled so quickly is really impressive”.

Best New Product or Service: Blue+Price Promise from EDF Energy

EDF Energy created a new product to encourage and reassure customers to change energy providers. The Blue+Price Promise promises to let you know if any tariff, from any supplier, would save you more than £1 a week.

Judges were impressed by the clarity of EDF’s proposition, saying:

“By telling customers that they could switch and save money, they’re actually building trust and loyalty.”

They were also impressed by the fact customers were at the heart of the service and said, “It’s transparent, honest, open and, most importantly, built on customer insight.”

The People’s Choice Award: Barclays Digital Eagles
Increased online banking used has driven a vast array of new technology, with over 50 changes in a six-month period, causing new challenges for Barclays staff and for the public. Barclays initially created Digital Eagles for internal use, but made it public to promote digital inclusion and demonstrate care for its customers.

Peter Sayburn, Market Gravity’s MD, commented, “Barclays Digital Eagles was a clear winner with a large majority of the votes this evening. The service really resonated with this group of big-company innovators.”

The judges were impressed by the venture’s clear customer focus and agreed it was “A smart concept that drives cost savings while targeting a group of customers that’s generally under-served”.

They also admired the quality of the service experience, commenting, “They have delivered way beyond business as usual – it’s a great experience, and really well executed.”

For further information
Fiona Elkins, Market Gravity: fiona.elkins@marketgravity.com

About Market Gravity
Market Gravity is a specialist innovation and service design consultancy. We work with the world’s leading companies to liberate big ideas, turning them into new, innovative services- helping to build tomorrow’s economy. Accelerating great ideas from ‘post-it’ to prototype, our unique combination of insight, commercial and prototyping expertise puts customers at the heart of the design process and our hands-on method builds momentum to launch. Together with our clients, we\’ve launched big ideas in electric vehicles, next-generation financial advice, renewable energy and digital commerce. www.marketgravity.com