Innovation constantly changes the world and new technologies are diving into every part of our life. On Oct. 19th 2018, Sodexo Open Innovation Day has been held in Shanghai sharing the open collaboration spirits of Sodexo and the company's vision in continuously improving Quality of Life services through digital and innovation. It was also the first time that Sodexo China showcasing the accelerated projects with XNode.
Martin Boden, Sodexo China Country President and Country Segment Director of Corporate Services, delivered an opening talk on “Innovation and Collaboration” to start the day. Sodexo has been operating in over 72 countries and regions with 460,000 employees worldwide to serve 100 million customers on a daily base. It is a traditional service company dedicating to Quality of Life services for over 50 years.
Sodexo always seeks for innovation to create new values while in the traditional service industry. Nicolas de Benoist, Group Innovation Director of Sodexo, mentioned in his keynote speech: "Sodexo has always focused on innovation and growth. We are driven by the real-time needs of our clients and consumers. In the past, we adapted to the requirements through rapid response and constant adjustments by Sodexo. Now, in an fast changing global market, we need to be more open and work with different partners to speed up innovation, build a digital and innovation ecosystem, and achieve innovation-driven business growth. So that Sodexo can meet the needs of our clients, customers and bring them smarter and better Quality of Life services.”
China is probably the most prominent and explosive country in digital development global wise, where end users experience unprecedented convenience and changing lifestyle. It is a great opportunity for Sodexo to digitalize and create new values to Chinese consumers in the daily life services. Since February, 2017, Sodexo China Digital and Innovation team has been established and led by Digital and Innovation Director of Sodexo China – Cheney Guo. The team has achieved three key milestones within 1 year.
How can open innovation be embodied? Sodexo has been initially validated in XNode's Outside-in Programs (working with startups). On Sodexo Open Innovation Day, a total of 8 startups have been selected by XNode and Sodexo showcasing new breakthroughs in facility management and food services to Sodexo's management team as well as business partners.
Among them, AEYE-GO and Leanloop are the accelerated projects at XNode. AEYE-GO is creating a smart dining environment and Leanloop is providing IFM one-stop service. The traditional solutions are in low efficiency and expensive. With the combination of latest technologies, cloud computing + big data + AI, the startups have achieved the leap of improving service efficiency and experience.
“Better work place, better collaboration” is the aim of Sodexo's Digital and Innovation team to drive real business collaboration and new business breakthrough. It is a win-win situation for startups to gain fast-growing opportunity and Sodexo to quickly integrate new innovation into the corporate. With the corporate resources of industry technology, a collaborative innovation ecosystem and funding investment, XNode's founder Wei Zhou strongly believes that more traditional corporates like Sodexo can enhance innovation capability and create new value-added products and services by working with startups in a more thorough, open and further way.
Sodexo China has 12,500 people at over 500 sites and serves 1,100,000 consumers every day. Since 1995, Sodexo provides a myriad of services to meet client's complex needs across the spectrum of corporate, education, health institute and seniors' home. In China, Sodexo is the only company, as the strategic partner of clients, to design, manage and deliver comprehensive service solutions of On-site Services and Benefits and Rewards Services. Improving Quality of Life of our employees and all those we serve is Sodexo's mission and commitment. Founded on it, through its integrated offering of Foodservices, Engineering Services, Lifestyle Services, Business Support Services and Lab Services, Sodexo helps companies and organizations improve performance every day.
XNode | Startup & Corporate Accelerator
We believe that in China today, successful innovation is a direct result of agility, speed and collaboration. Through continuous iteration, lean methodologies and by truly opening up – innovation can be brought to the market much quicker.
We empower innovators by building connections between startups, government, corporates and academia.
Startups are always looking for ways to scale through corporate assets, customers, channels and their brand. Corporates, on the other hand, are eager to innovate quicker with more impact.
XNode exists to bridge this gap. Bringing together the best of both worlds. Empowering innovators to create new innovations at lightning speed.
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