Kicking off Innovation – Community Event

It was that time again, the Kickbox Community Event brought together employees from different departments interested in innovation to learn together and discuss the future of innovation. Lourdes Martins kicked off the event with the ice-breaker question: "What's your favourite innovation?". After looking ahead to Kickbox's future vision and upcoming events, Chris Rüttimann shared exciting inputs from his Kickbox-GoldBox project and his journey through Silicon Valley. This was followed by a networking and aperitif together.

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Chris' story was inspiring, he shared his highlights and challenges from his time in the kickboxing programme. In the process, he shared his insights on how to turn his idea into reality. Chris repeatedly stressed the importance of benefiting from other people's expertise and not being afraid to ask multiple times.

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«Ask, Ask, Ask - be not afraid to ask people who can support you and your idea!»  - Chris R.

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Thanks to his courage and perseverance, Chris made it to Silicon Valley with his idea. There he was able to benefit from the knowledge and experience of his new teammates. The trip was an eye-opening experience with numerous learnings for him and the whole team. Chris noticed a significant difference when dealing with problems. "In America, people work in a solution-oriented way. In Switzerland, on the other hand, the focus is more on the problems."  

The Kickbox Community Event offered the opportunity to share common learnings and experiences. We were reminded that innovation is not just about technology, but about people and their ideas. Stories like this one from Chris inspire us and show what can come from a simple idea!  We would like to thank Chris for his interesting presentation and all the participants who attended the event.

We look forward to future events with the kickboxing community!

Swisscom Kickbox

Swisscom employees who have an idea can easily start and grow it with Kickbox . The physical box contains

• a starting credit of CHF 1,000
• 20% of the working time for 2 months
• a manual explaining the idea validation process and providing valuable tips
  
  

In a multi-stage process and accompanied by a coach, the idea is pushed forward, pitched in front of juries and, in the best case, approved for the next stage.

More information on the Kickbox programme
Link to the Swisscom Kickbox ideas platform