Infiniti Lab: From startup partner initiative to catalyst for brand, business and cultural transformation

In his book Gorillas Can Dance, Dr. Shameen Prasantham, Associate Professor of International Business and Strategy at CEIBS, cites our founder Sheelpa Patel’s work with the automotive corporate accelerator INFINITI LAB as one of his favourite examples of a startup partner initiative. 

Created and led by Sheelpa Patel for luxury vehicle maker INFINITI Motor Company, this innovation lab began life in 2018 as a three-month global accelerator programme at the company’s HQ in Hong Kong. Thanks to Sheelpa and her team’s entrepreneurial and intrapreneurial efforts, however, it became the catalyst for brand, business and cultural transformation across the entire organisation.  

Internal Engagement is Key 

Prasantham’s book offers large corporations a proven guide to partnering and collaborating with startups to improve their prospects of innovation and growth. In it, he explores the challenges that corporates face when they’re unable to get their teams to buy into the idea of engaging with startups. His section on the INFINITI LAB describes how, under Sheelpa’s leadership, the programme went beyond merely creating external interfaces with startups to focus instead on what needs to happen inside the organisation for startup partner initiatives to succeed. 

In particular, Prasantham identifies three key strategies of Sheelpa’s which helped the INFINITI LAB succeed where others do not:  

(1) Cultivating internal champions

Patel devised several initiatives that together secured senior executives’ explicit endorsement for the LAB. Their buy-in helped to connect the dots and paint a ‘bigger picture’ of where the corporation was going. Not just across INFINITI, but engaging the broader Renault/Nissan/Mitsubishi Alliance.

(2) Persuading opportunity generators 

This strategy entailed persuading key INFINITI regional business unit leaders of the potential benefits of collaborating with startups, as well as aligning startup engagement outcomes with the units’ various KPIs.

(3) Enthusing roving ambassadors

Recognising the importance of employee engagement for initiatives like INFINITI LAB, Sheelpa ran a number of small campaigns that helped INFINITI employees to become active, informal supporters of the initiative.  

Read Shameen’s article in full here.