35 business leaders celebrate completion of inaugural 'Innovation Accelerator Bootcamp'

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

Business

Sat, September 30, 2023 | 06:33

Companies

35 business leaders celebrate completion of inaugural 'Innovation Accelerator Bootcamp'

Posted : 2021-12-06 14:18

Updated : 2021-12-06 14:42

Participants in "Innovation Accelerator Bootcamp" pose with program organizers for a group photo at a hotel in southern Seoul, Dec. 3, the last day of the business training course. Courtesy of PERSOLKELLY Korea

By Hwang Dong-hee

A total of 35 executives and up-and-coming business leaders celebrated the completion of "Innovation Accelerator Bootcamp," a new training program launched by human resources consulting firm PERSOLKELLY Korea and INSEAD.

After finishing the five-day course, which was conducted virtually from Nov. 29 to Dec. 3, the participants and program organizers gathered in Seoul on Dec. 3 to share their experiences.

Chris Sotomayor, the team leader at PERSOLKELLY's learning academy, said he was glad that the inaugural program ended successfully.

"Based on all the participants we spoke with, they all had a great experience. They were able to meet some new people and got some good ideas they can use in their work," he said.

Antoine Duvauchelle, a professor of Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise at INSEAD, one of the most prestigious business schools, said, for more effective education, he used Horizon Ventures Accelerator LiveCase, a virtual teaching tool he co-developed. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the tool has been used in many education programs, including Harvard Business Publishing Education.

Among the subjects "Innovation Accelerator Bootcamp" offered were customer-centric value propositions and ecosystem business model innovations. After each session, participants were divided into small teams for projects such as creating a new product or service concept.

Duvauchelle explained that the program was carefully restructured with a series of artificially-created scenarios to provide "core sessions" of business methodology, starting from understanding the customers, building a solution to amaze them, then building a product/business, and finally serving customers over the long term.

"We hope we managed to give learners not only new tools, new skills but also a new mindset and energy to hopefully carry beyond this program," Duvauchelle said.

Participants attend the last session of "Innovation Accelerator Bootcamp" at a hotel in southern Seoul, Dec. 3. Courtesy of PERSOLKELLY Korea

"We are collecting a lot of feedback from the participants. We are going to make some changes to roll out next year," Sotomayor said.

"This is just the beginning of PERSOLKELLY's relationship with INSEAD. We'll continue to offer other developmental programs in the future."

He added that the company may introduce new courses to focus on Korean markets.

Kim Eun-jin, president of IAA Korea (INSEAD Alumni Association) and vice president at BlossomMe, said the association will provide support for the improvement of the program.

Jeon You-me, managing director of PERSOLKELLY Korea, also promised the company will continue to expand and invest in the educational sector next year.

donghee@ktimes.com