MediaMarktSaturn N3XT managing director, Sonja Moosburger, was the guest of honor of the masterclass “Improving the Corporate/Startup Relationship” that took place on October 22nd at Porto Innovation Hub.
Sonja Moosburger brought to Porto her career experience dedicated to the relationship between large companies and startups, in the latest masterclass of ScaleUp Porto.
The guest, responsible for managing MediaMarktSaturn N3XT, a subsidiary of Europe’s largest consumer electronics retailer, with brands such as Media Markt and Saturn, began by addressing the growing need that large companies have to contact and create partnerships/relationships with startups to ensure more effective innovation processes in their products and services.
Sonja began by setting an example for her company and showed participants a corporate approach to this type of strategy, highlighting the role of a human resources unit dedicated solely to innovation.
Several concrete examples of different pilot projects were given, as well as their significance for companies, without forgetting the expectations generated for the startup, thus helping participants to understand both perspectives of the same relationship.
In the second part of the masterclass, Sonja Moosburger focused his “class” on sharing experiences with participants and explained which mechanisms are most effective for the corporate/startup relationship, as well as the timings and budgets of each of the different types of partnership.
“Startups give companies easy access to innovation”
Following the masterclass “Improving Corporate / Startup Relationship”, Sonja Moosburger chatted with the ScaleUp Porto team and made clear some of the strong ideas of his presentation.
“Startups give corporates a easier path to accessing innovation. If a corporate accepts that working with startups can help it, that can make it faster, and can help it decide what’s relevant and what’s not, then that corporate has the ideal mindset for today”, says the head of innovation for retail group MediaMarktSaturn.
Asked about the advantages that a corporate/startup partnership can bring to both parties, Sonja points out “quick access to innovation” for companies and “opportunity to open many doors and gain access to new markets” for a small emerging company (startup).
About the secret to a good first contact, the German expert points out “the ability to be direct” as a successful ingredient for a good first approach with the head of a large company or an investment fund.
“If I had to pinpoint a secret to success, I’d say be direct, as direct as possible, so that I can quickly share information if the first contact arouses my interest. Being direct is crucial. If they get a negative answer, move on”, he says.
Earlier, during the masterclass, Sonja had made the MediaMarktSaturn N3XT workflow clear: research and definition, pilot design, testing, evaluation, communication, and product / service launch.
