Category winner: Enel's Innovability:
Global Open Innovation and Sustainability

Who – the protagonist

Francesco Starace is the CEO and General Manager of Enel S.P.A, a global energy company. He joined the company in 2000 becoming CEO in 2014 and, in the five years that followed, Enel’s drive for sustainability and innovation saw them become one of the world’s leading integrated electricity and gas operators across five continents.

What?

The case focuses on Starace and Enel’s achievements in the last five years. It explores Enel’s developments in their dual goals of sustainability and innovation – or what the company calls ‘innovability’. These strategic pillars embrace the notion of 'open innovation' using its innovation hubs, crowdsourcing platform and digitalisation, but with sustainability remaining at the core of the organisation.

Why?

Starace believes that technology and business model innovation are the key to reducing CO2 emissions and creating a more sustainable future by boosting renewable energy production. He sees the sustainability of Enel as essential to determine its long-term future as a leading 21st century energy provider.

Where?

Enel is an Italian founded multinational energy company that now has operations across five continents.

When?

The case explores the period between Starace being appointed CEO in 2014 and the World Economic Forum in January 2019.

Key quote

You could say we could continue to do our own business the way we used to do, and probably nothing would have happened in the next five years to us. We would probably be fine. But if we wanted to go and look beyond that, we should change immediately […] sustainability is needed because without it innovation cannot fly in an energy company." - Francesco Starace

What next?

Clearly successful, with share price rising 66% in the last five years and much international acclaim, Starace maintains his sense of urgency, knowing that the energy sector’s transformation towards sustainability will happen faster and deeper than people think. He wonders if Enel is adapting fast enough to harvest all the opportunities that this transformation unlocks.

Discover how this case works in the classroom.

“We used this case for our Master in Management Global Strategy Course in 2020.

“We like teaching this case in the classroom because it allows the students to take a deep dive into what it would take to implement open innovation in a large organisation and the implications of such an approach. We believe the case provides excellent background materials to enable the participants to debate their opinions as they put themselves in the shoes of the managers. We also like the extensive complementary teaching materials such as the interview videos.”

Tina Ambos, Professor of International Management, and Katherine Tatarinov, PhD Student and Teaching Assistant, at the Université de Genève.