The SEB Growth Program is a business accelerator for entrepreneurs who believe that collaboration can help take business to a new level.
Why participate in the SEB Growth Program?
- You evaluate the company's challenges with a fresher eye and develop new solutions in cooperation with other managers
- You have the opportunity to create new partnerships
- You will gain knowledge about sustainable thinking and the possibilities of artificial intelligence to expand your company's business opportunities
- You will be supported by international and local mentors
The program lasts from August to November 2024.
The lectures of the program are held in English, the workshops in Estonian.
4
modules
15
teams
∞
new cooperation directions
0
euros ( At the end of the program, we kindly ask to make a donation to Junior Achievement Estonia to support youth entrepreneurship)
Who are we looking for?
Medium and large-scale companies focussed on innovation and cooperation
Companies with the ambition to develop
Companies operating for more than 2 years
The schedule of the Growth Program in 2024
| August 6 | Program application deadline | Apply for SEB's Growth Program |
| August 23 | Match-make webinar | The program teams will be invited to participate in a webinar, that will explain the co-creative nature of the program, introduce the process, manage expectations and invite them to matchmaking sessions at SEB. During the webinar teams will pitch their problems (ideas). Pitch guidance will be provided beforehand. |
| August 29 | Networking session at SEB Innovation centre | The program teams will be invited to a networking event at SEB premises to mingle with other participants. |
| September 6 | Modul 1: Co-creating innovation | To explore the horizons of open innovation and the co-creation potential. To map the innovation ambition and set the focus of future projects. The participants have defined the potential challenges they will be solving and have found the partner team for the joint innovation project among other participants. |
| September 20 | Modul 2: User-Driven innovation | To introduce the core principles of user-driven innovation. Participants know the distinction between explorative and validative customer research and are able to select appropriate methods to develop their idea. |
| October 4 | Modul 3: Conseptualisation | To facilitate solution design. Teams have compiled a general concept of the solution which is in sound with viable business principles, technological development, as well as built impact into the core of the business model. |
| October 18 | Modul 4: Market experiments | To prepare MVP for launch. To help teams to prepare pitches. The participants have prepared strategy for soft-launch (or a business experiment) of the idea, that will allow to bring validated data to final pitch day. |
| November | Pitch day and Growth Program graduation | To get an overview of teams’ progress over the program. To choose the teams to continue the mentoring with SEB experts. |
Program mentors
Jana Kukk
Jana is a co-founder of the strategic design agency Rethink and a service designer and the head of the d.Lab service design lab of TalTech. She has worked in the field of service design and strategic management consultation for over fifteen years. Jana has a PhD and she researched business service design and value creation in the course of acquiring the degree. Her articles have been published in international peer-reviewed journals and she is a co-author of the book ‘Managing Complexity and Creating Innovation Through Design’.
Jussi Hermunen
Jussi is the CEO of the consultancy firm Digitalist Finland. Previously, he has led the field of innovation of Ernst & Young in the Nordic countries and has headed the international creative agencies Idean and Fjord. He has over twenty years of experience in service design and user-focussed business development, and his clients include international brands, such as Ericsson and Adidas. For the last five years, he has primarily focussed on business model innovation, supporting the development of collaboration between different business functions.
Arvydas Pleta
With a solid track record of over 10 years, Arvydas excels in leading innovation-driven programs, holding roles such as SEB's Head of Innovation and Partner at Katalista Ventures. His expertise in fostering accelerators, hackathons, and bootcamps, along with strategy facilitation for diverse companies, aligns with his dedication to social business principles. Arvydas has mentored over 200 startups and SMEs across various sectors and adeptly led SEB's growth program in Lithuania at the beginning of 2024. He has collaborated with notable entities like Oracle, the European Innovation Academy, UNICEF, Telia, Tele2, Dojus Agro, Elektrum, EIKA, and Žalgiris. Furthermore, he imparts insights on social entrepreneurship and innovation through his podcast,
'Innovators in Action.'
Liene Kupca
Liene is a consultant and advisor with a wealth of experience across public and private sectors in Latvia and the Baltic region. As an author of «Futures Design» course and lecturer in the Service Design & Innovation Master's program - a collaboration between SSE Riga, the Latvian Academy of Art, University of Lapland, and the Estonian Academy of Arts - she brings a unique perspective to organizational change. She excels in steering transformative shifts, enhancing service quality, and fostering innovation with a human-centric approach. Her strategic insight is crucial for organizations that aim to smoothly transition through change and propel innovation.
Program tools to support your company’s growth
Innovative business development idea
Practical workshops and homework
- Understanding open innovation opportunities and the methods for sustainable business growth
- Creating a value proposition and testing with the target audience
New partner
Speed dating and matchmaking
- Mapping co-creation opportunities and brainstorming joint business opportunities
- A joint pitching session and expert support to further develop ideas
Experience and inspiration
Inspiring presentations and mentoring
- Four public lectures with a seminar and four independent homework assignments.
- Meetings with experts to help develop and refine business ideas after the programme
Guro Røberg: Collaboration as a strategic skill to be develop for business growth
Guro Røberg (Design Leader) introduces her experience with co-creation and shares best practices for innovative product development at SEB Innovation Centre.
- Building trust, connections and creativity to support innovation
- Innovating in business collaborations: what, how and why?
Participants' stories and previous seminars
See stories from the program alumni
Videos of previous seminars
Need advice on the program?
Contact our Innovation manager Anette Ustal
by e-mail anette.ustal@seb.ee or call at +372 52 401 88
Companies participating in the growth program contribute to the creation of a new generation of entrepreneurs
- Participation in the growth program is free. At the end of the program, we invite entrepreneurs to support Junior Achievement Estonia (JA Estonia) in order to contribute to the development of young entrepreneurship and the creation of a new generation of entrepreneurs.
- JA Estonia has made it a matter of its heart for young people to be able to try to be entrepreneurs during school time for 20 years already.
- The support received from entrepreneurs goes to the development of the entrepreneurship program. For example, there is a desire to supplement the program with a design thinking methodology and to pay more attention to environmentally friendly thinking.
- The companies participating in the growth program have supported Junior Achievement Estonia with a total of 17,360 euros.
FAQ
During candidate's selection to participate in the program, SEB keeps the right to give first-hand to own customers, however, it is not mandatory to be a SEB client to be invited to participate in the program.
The company's participation cost in the Growth Program is covered by SEB. However, at the end of the program SEB collects donations for Junior Achievement Eesti, to support next generation of entrepreneurs.
The Growth Program for companies consists of two parts. Every other week there will be a 6-8 hour long seminars, as well as work groups led by mentors and industry professionals. During the weeks between online seminars, Growth Program participants will complete tasks that can take up to 8 hours and sign up for individual mentoring sessions with the respective expert/mentor. Participants will be provided with all the necessary materials and information, as well as access to the online tools that will be used to support the program. Throughout the program participants will receive hands-on support from the program’s team.
When participating in the Growth Program, keep in mind that each team member representing the business will need to devote approximately 8 hours per week for eight weeks.
As the business trends emerging from the programme will call for strategic decisions and implementation, we are looking for business leaders (at least one) + one product/service manager to participate in the programme.
The goal of the Growth Program is to accelerate the growth of your company, ideally - by ten times in ten years your company's financial performance. As part of the program, you will gain knowledge and practical experience on how to develop a successful, customer-friendly product that is easy to scale in the global market. At the end of the program, under the guidance of mentors and experts, you will develop a 100-day development plan that will become the basis for achieving your goals
