The C-Lab program is an in-house ideas incubation program for employees to develop their creative ideas into meaningful offerings. This strong culture of innovation among employees is being encouraged globally, including India.
Employees can pitch in their ideas twice every year, while staying in the company. The idea goes through an online voting and is reviewed by experts. The final idea pitches happen in front of 100 employees, an evaluation group and 10 executives of Samsung.
Mark Sohn of the Creativity and Innovation Center, Samsung Electronics said, “We are striving towards hybrid innovation, which combines the know-how of a large corporation and the spirit of the challenge of a small venture company to spread everywhere in Samsung.” This program aims to cultivate a creative culture at Samsung that inspires employees to freely propose innovative ideas and solutions that respond to the world’s challenges.
Multiple opportunities are given to teams to show their progress and receive feedback. The C-Lab fair held every November gives them a chance to get feedback from external customers by showcasing prototypes at global exhibitions such as CES, MWC and South by Southwest.
With over 1,507 employees in 365 C-Lab projects globally, the C-Lab program has enabled 59 startups.
The C-Lab Outside program vitalizes the startup ecosystem and promotes job creation, helping startups to grow their business through financial aid, mentoring, consultation, business cooperation and infrastructural support.