From zero to Ericsson ONE

The only life raft that large corporations can cling to is innovation, a word that has been spread so thin, and stretched so far, that all other buzzwords bow their heads in deference.

In response to disruption, corporations in this highly collaborative and forward thinking ecosystem are transforming in unexpected ways too.

If we get it right, Ericsson ONE is where buzzwords will go to die.

Creating game-changers and unlocking entrepreneurs

Like most corporations of its size, Ericsson has tried and exhausted most of the traditional routes to enter new business — for example, acquisitions or new and large global teams set to tackle new industries. These strategies work well in the face of competition, but are too complex, costly and risky to effectively combat disruption.

Enter, the intrapreneur.

Most crucially, we allow our startups to pursue growth instead of profit within Ericsson, in their formative years — something that is not possible for large corporations to do without alienating their shareholders. This is because Ericsson ONE is officially part of the company’s growth strategy, and embedded in the business area Technologies & New Businesses. Oliver is just one of the many entrepeneurs working to build and scale ideas with Ericsson ONE.

It takes a village to raise an idea

While it’s incredibly important to have the internal mandate, funding and processes in place for Ericsson ONE to succeed, it is equally, if not even more crucial to leverage the pace and creativity of the startup and innovation ecosystem.

Innovation is not a private territory, but an open ecosystem that empowers and accelerates the ambitions of all those who meaningfully engage with it. No one knows this better than Jonas Almeling, who has recently joined the Ericsson ONE Sweden hub. As the founder of Startup Grind in Sweden, he brings with him more than a decade of experience building global communities and relationships with startups, VCs, corporate incubators and investors. He has built the incubator for Business Sweden, and is an entrepreneur himself.

Today, Ericsson ONE has projects that are incubating under the strategic themes of autonomous vehicles, smart manufacturing and logistics. Jonas will design and lead a community-driven approach to test, develop and scale these platforms and solutions with the startup and innovation ecosystem. Ericsson ONE is also exploring a number of themes on it’s watchlist, such as immersive entertainment, gaming, security, data brokering and more. Working closely with the Ericsson ONE Design & Technology team, Jonas will have the responsibility to spot new trends and deliver design-driven explorative projects and engagements that can help grow the watchlist with new growth vectors.

This means stronger, direct, outcome-focused collaborations with Ericsson and startups as well as exploring how to bring new ideas into Ericsson from the outside-in. It is also an oppportunity to give back to the community, by opening up opportunities to scale globally, share tools and perhaps even co-create solutions together. There are already a number of unique initiatives in Sweden that can transform this lofty ambition to a well-grounded reality:

Jonas and the Ericsson ONE Sweden hub will not only build and scale ideas, but also deploy this community-driven approach across all the countries under Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Ericsson is not the first company to take a page out of the startups’ playbook, nor is this our first foray into the innovation ecosystem. Like most corporate innovation journeys, ours can probably be summed up by (the patriotically appropriate choice), “Mamma Mia, here I go again” by Abba.

But, failure is just a stepping stone to success and we have tapped into our rich reserve of learnings and experiences to build the foundations for our efforts. We are also building an incredible and diverse team of entrepreneurs, designers and technology experts who want to be architects of the future with us.

At Ericsson ONE, we can’t wait to explore what your ideas are made of.

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