Finnish telecommunications company Elisa has been on a transformational journey—particularly since 2006, and in regards to its digital business transformation, where the focus has been driven by customer insight instead of technological prowess. The first step was developing a program for broadly discovering customer frustrations and business opportunities therein. This evolved into a separate department for new services and markets, generating several new digital businesses. Even though agile methods took firm hold in the technology development, the business mindset was still more about trying to scale fast than fail fast. Telecom companies need to ensure technical quality and make big investments in mature business areas, which is often the opposite of rapid experimentation. At the moment, Elisa has pivoted development of its new international businesses into strategic domains, which rigorously follow the Lean Startup principles. This means dedicated startup teams and using innovation accounting to guide regular pivot or persevere meetings and funding decisions. This keynote will share key learnings from Elisa's adoption of the Lean Startup methodology.

1. Veli-Matti Mattila, CEO, Elisa
Adopting lean startup within
a larger telecom enterprise

2. Our evolving mission
1877
Wadén brings
the telephone
to Finland
1882
Helsinki
Telephone
established
2000
Broadband
expansion
2006
Digital
services
Mid 1980’s
Integrated
telco services,
including mobile
Integrated
connectivity
Telephone
service to
everyone
Experiences
and
productivity

3. Unique telecom operator
Unlimited
mobile data
No cross-
border telco
acquisitions
Strong focus
on digital
services
Best-in-class
performance

4. Our passion
Discover
customer
frustrations
and needs
Agile
service
development
Build another
strong pillar
of business

5. Our challenges
Missing
learning
loop
Premature
scaling
Hard to kill
failing
ventures
Low startup
clock speed

6. 6
Our approach
Bottom-up
idea
generation
Rigorous
lean startup
practices
Reward
learning
Emphasis
on learning
speed
Focus on 4 business domains

7. 7
Our learnings
Make long-term
commitment
Own practices
for startups
Engage top
management
Implement lean startup itself through experimentation

8. veli-matti.mattila@elisa.fi
Thank you