Enel's Innovability: Global Open Innovation and Sustainability

The case describes how the Italian multinational Enel Group, one of the largest power utilities companies in the world, embraced the transformation of the energy sector, combining open innovation with sustainability – or what the company calls “Innovability”). CEO Francesco 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. From 2014, he makes innovation and sustainability his strategic pillars, embracing the notion of ‘open innovation’ – harvesting ideas externally (rather than just in-house) from an ecosystem of start-ups, SMEs, universities, researchers, suppliers, other corporations, and employees.

Discuss how large multinational corporations can make ‘open innovation’ a global strategy, setting up innovation hubs in different parts of the world and putting sustainability at the core of the organization.