Jean-Marc Frangos, Managing Director of Products & Services Research and Open Innovation at BT Group is looking to optimize the London-based telcom company’s external innovation process – scouting for new technologies from Silicon Valley, Israel and Asia.

The case discusses different steps which Mastercard has followed in its digital transformation journey. They involve opportunity framing, creating innovation pathways, finding digital transformation opportunities, and innovation with partners within adaptive ecosystems.

The case describes how 30-year old Freddy Macnamara (CEO) launched Cuvva, a start-up in the UK car insurance industry in 2014, which pioneered mobile-only car insurance via a pay-as-you-ride application.

The case describes General Electric’s transformation from an industrial manufacturer to an industrial analytics giant. It opens in 2009 when CEO Jeff Immelt decides that GE, a hardware maker, needs to be more capable in software. The narrative traces his early efforts to consolidate and coordinate software capabilities in a central unit (GE Software Center) headed by Bill Ruh in Silicon Valley.

The Swiss company TAG Heuer, maker of luxury watches, is part of the LVMH group (Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton). In 2015, CEO Jean-Claude Biver is deciding whether to launch its first-ever fully connected Swiss watch, manufactured in partnership with Google and Intel.