Case Study: Novartis achieves breakthrough R&D ideas and company-wide co-creation with HYPE Innovation

Unbossing the Environment at Novartis’ Genesis Labs

Novartis, a global biopharmaceutical company, created Genesis Labs as part of its UNBOSSED culture to surface entrepreneurial, science-driven ideas from more than 20,000 R&D associates spread across multiple labs worldwide. The challenge was to bring together dispersed teams, encourage cocreation, and scale grassroots scientific proposals so the best concepts could rise above organizational silos.

To run its third Request for Application (RFA 3), Novartis partnered with Planbox’s innovation-management platform, enabling a two-month ideation phase and a pivot to a virtual pitch day during COVID-19. The program generated 160 ideas from 11 countries, 467 comments, 3,870 engaged associates, 49 refined proposals and 1,457 pitch-day attendees; a handful of groundbreaking ideas advanced to development and participants reported new cross-company connections and increased psychological safety.

Novartis

Aimee Reynolds

Genesis Labs Project Liaison