Heraclitus said that one does not bathe in the same river twice. In the same vein, Luis Fernando Díaz says today that the business ideas that enter Innóvate never come out the same.
Díaz is not a philosopher, but he is a professional in EPM’s New Solutions Management. Innóvate is Innóvate Emprendiendo, the training program of Public Companies of Medellín that supports university students or company employees, with good ideas and desire to find innovative solutions.
“What we are looking for with Innóvate is to train young university students or intrapreneurs so that their initiatives can be implemented or developed in an effective way. We have some rules and that is that the initiatives are aligned with EPM’s strategic focuses, which are currently four: digital transformation, energy transition, hydrogen and circular economy,” explains Díaz, professional in charge of the program.
Entrepreneurship Olympics
This training process, explains the spokesperson, lasts between three and four months, applies to all places where EPM and its subsidiaries are present, and has several filters. First, a large group—with a maximum of 50 teams—begins a basic training process with innovation and entrepreneurship modules on topics such as design thinking, finance, brand architecture, among others. There the group is refined into 20 teams that participate in an advanced training process and then an evaluating jury ends up selecting the five winners of each year.
The eighth edition of Innóvate Emprendiendo is already underway and will choose 50 teams with innovative ideas on topics such as circular economy or energy transition. Here we tell you what it is and why it represents an opportunity for young people with the initiative to create a business.
Beyond all the support and training, the winners have access to the possibility of accelerating their initiative if it reaches a point of sufficient maturity and attend a closing event, which last year was in Panama and this 2023 will be in Guatemala. The exchange of ideas with entrepreneurs from other regions and other countries is also a plus of the program:
“In an innovation ecosystem, when the development of skills outside is promoted, we are somehow growing inside. That is a basic rule of innovation because some of those entrepreneurs who train with us will be the ones who solve the challenges we face. EPM and that they are also global challenges,” explains Díaz.
Photo: Courtesy EPM
Carlos Enrique Vélez Restrepo, for example, was one of the finalists of Innóvate Emprendiendo in 2020 with his Mappex project. Being in the program helped him give value to his venture and receive legal support to have all the papers in order:
“Mappex consists of applying the Internet of Things, that is, 4.0 technology, to mobility in what has to do with the transportation of people and merchandise to achieve efficiencies in the use of vehicles. Because we were finalists, Ruta N supported us to be leveraged and with legal support. “It is key support both in the capabilities that may be lacking in the company and in the technical and commercial part,” he said.
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