Testimonials

I am delighted to provide feedbacks on the IpOp model and the training proposed by Raphaël Cohen. Since 2013 I chair the international ISO committee on innovation management (ISO TC 279). This international committee gathering 50+ nations will publish a referential of good practices on innovation management in 2018. Raphaël Cohen has been appointed as convener of the working group on tools and methods. He inspired a new mindset and effectuation mindset in his working group of innovation specialists.

Raphaël presented ISO delegates the IpOp model, he has designed. He shared his entrepreneurship experience through a model. With his academic practice, he had been able to translate his successful entrepreneurial mechanisms into a consistent model. I did appreciate his unconventional approach and his ability to challenge established institutions.

To spread innovation and intrapreneurship culture in Airbus, I designed learning solution on innovation management. I integrated Raphaël's lecture in a training program for the development of our intrapreneurs.

Raphaël has immediately captured the stakes of such a program. He respectfully challenged me to improve the learning experience. He has a powerful approach to impact and give audience an unforgettable souvenir of his 'performance' (it is a real performance...he does not deliver training or animate a workshop, he is unconventional). Our intrapreneurs who have been trained with the IpOp Model confirmed that it has improved their ability to analyze innovation projects in a more holistic manner and that it has changed the way they look at their projects.

I recommend Raphaël Cohen to any type of organization wishing to increase innovation capacities and empower intrapreneur profiles.

I am happy to provide feedback on the collaboration between Nestlé R&D and Professor Raphael H Cohen. I was part of the selection committee that had asked Raphael 10 years ago to design and run the 'Innovation and Entrepreneurship' training program (originally called MicroMBA) to boost innovation and intrapreneurship at Nestlé R&D. As this program has been facilitated by both Nestlé executives and external top-notch professors selected by Raphael, it combines internal and external perspectives to open participants' mind.

One of the characteristics of this program is that each group of about 5 participants must identify a real innovation opportunity that fits Nestlé strategy and objectives. The group must then develop a compelling opportunity case to convince management to give the green light. The next and most demanding step is to turn this idea into reality: engaging with all stakeholders to implement at least a pilot to demonstrate real feasibility.

During the last 10 years this program has delivered close to 50 real bottom-up innovations that have either been implemented as originally intended or have planted the seeds for further opportunities. Purina's Simply-Fit is an example of an innovation initiated by this program. They include not only new products but also new services, new business models, new marketing strategies and new processes.

Besides the fact that, thanks to these projects, the program pays for itself, it represents an additional channel of bottom-up innovation for Nestlé R&D. With 10 cohorts representing about 230 people, we now have a community of agile and audacious change agents looking for opportunities, even after graduating from the program. As they have increased their business savvy and networking skills, our scientists also interact more effectively with the other functions in the company. Many of them have indeed been promoted to handle more complex responsibilities.

The high success rate of the Nestlé Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program projects shows that we have had very talented people attending the program. They have enthusiastically embraced the IpOp Model developed and taught by Raphael H Cohen. As the backbone of the Nestlé Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program, this rigorous and demanding innovation toolbox has helped participants to efficiently cooperate in groups on their project while using a shared vocabulary. The IpOp Model terminology and perspective has now permeated our innovation culture with concepts such as Pain/Need/Desires, Benchmarking on Customer Decision Criteria or the relentless but crucial cataloguing of Unknowns.

Another key component of the Nestlé Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program is the emphasis on Fair and Caring Leadership that teaches participants how to manage a complex project in non-hierarchical teams with members located on different continents. As a very humanistic team management approach which has also been conceptualized by Raphael H Cohen, it allows participants to learn the keys to true engagement in the implementation phase. It helps them grow as leaders and team players, while fostering agility and intrapreneurship.

It has been a pleasure cooperating with Raphael and I look forward to continuing interacting with him. I have appreciated his deep commitment to our success as well as his down-to-earth and solution-oriented approach to maximize the outcome for both Nestlé and the participants.

I have been working with Raphael H Cohen for almost 5 years and I look forward to continue developing this fruitful partnership.

Raphael H Cohen has definitely introduced the concept of Intrapreneurship in our organization. By using the IpOp Model that he has designed, he has brought a tangible and effective process which is now identified as a key contribution to our company innovation practice.

During his training programs (Agility Booster) or in the specific supports that he provided us with, Raphael H Cohen has always been committed to share his skills and knowledge for the benefit of our employees and the entire organization.

For an organization like ours very committed to technological innovation Raphael H Cohen's expertise brings additional value by stretching innovation beyond technology.

His academic approach combined with his practical experience in entrepreneurship has proven to be powerful tools for people development. The experts constituting his network are also part of the success of his programs.

Driven by a particularly acute business savvy, with a passion for innovation and an unconventional approach for training, Raphael H Cohen has often been a source of motivation and enthusiasm for our people. He has also managed to perfectly understand, adapt and immerge himself into the corporate culture of our company.

Finally his always respectful but constructive way of forcing us to challenge our own practices has very frequently proven to be appropriate and in line with our needs.

For all these reasons I recommend without restriction Raphael H Cohen to any organization wishing to increase its agility while engaging its managers in a continuous development process.

We are pleased to provide this feedback on the Master of Bühler Management (MBM) programme developed and run by Raphael H Cohen.

Bühler initiated the MBM in 2012 to train talented, predominantly technically skilled, employees to utilize their skills to bring greater commercial impact for the company and to develop their skill sets as individuals to be more successful. To achieve this we focused on the skills required to be more intrapreneurial and utilized the IpOp model as the backbone of this programme. In 2015 the initial regional scope was expanded to cover the global Buhler employee base.

There have been four cohorts representing about 110 participants who have been trained in the IpOp Model and its use for real projects. The program consisted of about 18 days of training session run by reputed business school professors with real-life experience as entrepreneurs or senior executives.

In addition to the structured education and training, each group of about 5 participants, with members from different cultures and functions located on different continents, had to identify, analyse and start to implement a real project. This project allowed them to apply the tools they had been exposed to, had to be aligned with the company strategy and needed to be signed off by the head of the business responsible it impacted. Since altogether 22 fully analysed projects have been developed with different kinds of innovation (new products, new processes, new selling tools, etc.), the MBM has not only been a training program but provided also an additional channel of innovation that complements the other innovation channels, such R&D and the Innovation Challenge.

The IpOp model brings considerable value to an organisation and is applicable in many cases to support decision-making. The basic modules of understanding your customers, their business issues, the market, your uniqueness against competitors, the business model and then building an appropriate solution touch the basic weaknesses of many technology companies. The identification of clear unknowns resolved the major frustration of project managers and steering committees of providing an analysis of what the potential threats are that they will address in the next phase of the project, thus making decision making easier.

The model has been embedded not only the MBM programme, but also in our Innovation Challenge process and training and the corporate M2M basic research process. Approximately 160 employees have been trained in the IpOp in addition to those on the MBM.

The MBM programme contributed to:

1. Deploy the Buhler spirit, common management culture and knowledge customer base world-wide
2. Increase the interaction and synergies between the different business lines
3. Improve the participant's cultural intelligence by exposing them to different cultures
4. Awaken the intrapreneurial spirit of the company
5. Increase focus on real business opportunities
6. Help employees to perform outside of their comfort zone
7. Teach them how to work in non-hierarchical teams that are geographically distributed
8. Improve idea selling, presenting, pitching of ideas and success rate of approval
9. Increase basic skills to make employees business savvy
10. Enable employees to meet the demands of the VUCA world

Raphael H Cohen has made a significant contribution to the Innovation culture transformation of Bühler and with his knowledge, hands on entrepreneurial experience, network of trainers and entrepreneurs and benevolent approach to his participants we are convinced he can add value to the innovation culture, spirit and process of most organisations.