Creative Talks: Stories of people who turned a pandemic into an opportunity

Corporates are constantly looking for ways to drive growth, stay relevant in the market, and find impactful ways to leverage their resources. Enter venture building - a systematic approach to designing, building, and operating new startups, also known as ventures. Venture building is a rapid, methodical process that allows a variety of ideas to be developed, validated, and iterated into a single venture. 

In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, AI is no longer a distant possibility—it's a driving force behind innovation. As companies look for ways to stay ahead, the integration of AI into the venture design process has emerged as a game-changer. To explore this transformation, we sat down with Ross VanSlambrouck, an expert in AI-enhanced venture design at Creative Dock.

Fintech is no longer limited to the finance industry. On the contrary, companies in other industries can leverage their “unfair advantage” to hop on the fintech train. Case in point: our exciting cooperation with Ooredoo Fintech, a scale-up operating in the MENA region as part of telecom giant Ooredoo. We asked Creative Dock’s CEO Gabi Teissing and Ooredoo Fintech’s CEO Mirko Giacco about their biggest challenges––and learnings––so far.

At Creative Dock, our commitment to sustainability is at the core of our operations, as reflected in our 2023 Annual Sustainability Report.

Corporates often face hurdles such as legal compliance, IP management, and financial structuring when making the transition from generating brilliant business ideas to value-creating ventures. Our proven processes excel in these areas, ensuring a smooth transition from concept to market.

At the beginning of this year, at the Mobile World Congress in February, we witnessed over 100,000 “AI experts” and the corresponding accompanying euphoria. Comparing that with the “transformation business at the grassroots level” over the past months, one thing is clear: the artificial intelligence landscape is in a state of highly hyped expectations. A year ago, AI was still a marginal topic in the same place, but in 2024, you could hardly find an organisation that did not deal with AI. This is a clear sign of a “bubble” in which some of the inflated expectations are bound to be disappointed. Let's examine the substance of artificial intelligence's short- and medium-term impact on business practice.

Developing concrete decarbonisation roadmaps is a strategic imperative for any business that aims to stay competitive over the coming years. Today, it is not only for attaining its sustainability commitments but also about building resilience to thrive in (an) unknown future(s). Join us as we delve into the top trends shaping the Future of Green Manufacturing and help the industry prepare for changes ahead.

When Gabriela Teissing took over as CEO of corporate venture builder Creative Dock a little over a year ago, she emphasised the need to become AI-obsessed, as AI is the most crucial challenge and opportunity, at the same time, that tech companies will face in the coming years. A year and a few months later, Creative Dock transformed into an AI-driven company and became a recognised authority in using GenAI for business and internal processes. A complex AI transformation and a targeted AI optimisation have even become new products. How did we get here? Let's ask the CEO herself.

Adopting AI into business and daily life is essentially another industrial revolution. "Tech companies can no longer decide whether to implement AI or not. Adopting and maximising the use of AI is a matter of survival. At the very least, AI optimises business operations significantly," says Martin Pejsa, Executive Chairman of Creative Dock. How does Hackathon #3, recently held at Creative Dock, help with AI adoption in the company, which has already undergone extensive AI transformation?

Explore the transformative journey towards a sustainable energy future with strategic insights and deeper discussions that redefine energy practices for a rapidly evolving world.

The era of continuous growth and innovation continues as Creative Dock Group proudly presents its latest strategic move—the acquisition of Mantro Product Studio from Mantro Group. This takeover marks a significant milestone in the company's journey to expand its presence in the DACH region and strengthen the customer portfolio, with a particular focus on the sector's manufacturing and energy industries.

At CreativeDock, our journey with AI in product development has been transformative. While GenAI can help with small tasks in product development, e.g. crafting epics and tasks for developers or drafting scrum processes, the real game changer comes when we zoom out and look at the big picture of product development optimisation.

Foresight is a bit like time travel. This time, it took us to 2030. The good news? Much positive environmental progress has been made—let us tell you about it and how we got there.

Explore a visionary journey into the future of decarbonisation, revealing strategic insights and transformative scenarios that redefine sustainability in a rapidly changing world.

Have you ever wondered what makes a successful GenAI project? Is it the model, the data, the tech stack, or something else? At Creative Dock, we have been working on various GenAI projects internally and helping other companies use GenAI to optimise their businesses or launch innovative solutions. Along this journey, we have discovered that the most crucial factor for GenAI's success is often overlooked – the team crafting the solutions.‍

Pioneering AI tools usage in venture building for years grants an incredible headstart. Creative Dock has been utilising AI, particularly machine learning tools, for solutions developed in ventures for clients across various industries for many years. This included venture building within e-health, the construction industry, retail, fintech, and insurtech.‍

“The Davos forum highlighted the transformative power of AI in the business landscape. It's clear that integrating AI into company strategy and daily operations is no longer optional but a necessity for companies to stay competitive and innovative. This transformation goes beyond mere technology adoption; it requires a shift in mindset and culture within organisations,” Martin Pejsa, Founder and Executive Chairman of Creative Dock, stated at an executive dinner, which his company, together with the strategy consulting firm Roland Berger, hosted for 80 top-tier C-suite executives, at the margins of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2024. Indeed, the AI transformation of big brands has been a significant topic for Creative Dock in the past year.

The European Union's Act on Artificial Intelligence (EU AI Act) has reached the final stretch of the legislative process after a three-day negotiation marathon. Representing the world's first set of rules for regulating artificial intelligence, it evaluates AI based on risk assessment, emphasising security and transparency. While the final compromise version of the regulation has not yet been disclosed, we can still draw some initial insights.

“We needed to accelerate our growth and impact to increase our expertise and service portfolio. Rapidly. Such a thing is only possible with well-selected acquisitions,” said Martin Pejsa, Executive Chairman of Creative Dock, about a year ago. And the strategy worked: At the end of 2023, Creative Dock, the largest independent corporate venture builder in Europe and MENA, reached a year-to-year revenue increase of 70%.

Large language models (LLMs) have emerged as the foremost technical innovation of the year, and all indicators point to their anticipated growth in the future. For models that engage in natural human language communication, the entities responsible for their creation and control wield pivotal importance. These strategic considerations significantly impact the sovereignty and future of the Czech Republic and even European prosperity.

Creative Dock has been leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) technology for several years, utilising machine-learning-based software in banking, insurance, FMCG, travel, and other industries since 2015. However, 2023 marks a turning point, as Creative Dock has undergone an AI adaptation. It has led to increased efficiency, with the company successfully enhancing its IT team's productivity by one third, in addition to other advancements. Use our know-how to achieve similar success.

When one company acquires another, the leaders face a crucial strategic decision – merge the acquired entity or retain it as a separate unit. Both pathways present pros and cons, and several factors must be considered. Not to mention the situation when a bigger company acquires several smaller companies over the course of months. This is the case with Swiss independent corporate venture builder, Creative Dock, which bought four companies from different countries in just twelve months.

Rapid technological advancements, multiple crises, and continuous market disruption have left organisations facing a highly volatile, complex, and uncertain environment. Under such conditions, traditional strategy formation methods that assume a single future direction are no longer suitable to produce high-quality strategic decisions. More than ever, strategizing needs to embrace uncertainty and must consider multiple plausible futures, translating this into clear strategic actions. Over decades, researchers and practitioners have advocated the scenario-based technique as a key method for strategy development in both complex and uncertain environments.

In recent years, Saudi Arabia has made remarkable strides in embracing technology and digital transformation across various sectors. The Kingdom's vision for a modern and innovative nation has propelled its government to invest heavily in advanced digital infrastructure. This article explores the significant progress made by Saudi Arabia in establishing an advanced digital government while also exploring the transformative potential of AI in revolutionising public services.

This cross-industry analysis applies strategic foresight methodology to one of the most complex and uncertain topics facing strategy and innovation professionals today: Generative AI.

We caught up again with Michael, who spoke at Creative Dock's Executive Dinner at World Economic Forum in Davos, to talk about why he thinks Europe is the best place to live, what he would recommend for companies looking to become future-proof, why and how the impact of AI on the developed and developing countries is different, or what books are on his desk these days. Read on to find out.

In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, a multi-billion dollar industry is quietly gaining momentum: Corporate Venture Building. This innovative approach allows entrepreneurs to unlock the hidden potential of corporate assets, creating game-changing digital businesses with a real market advantage. With a total addressable worldwide market of over $20 billion annually*, Corporate Venture Building has become a powerful asset class, experiencing exponential growth in recent years.

As businesses face continuous disruption and economic challenges, they're seeking new ways to create lasting value. A category that has gained a lot of popularity in the field of corporate growth and brand valuation in recent times is corporate venture building. It offers several advantages over traditional venture capital, corporate venture capital, or mergers and acquisitions. And it is extremely effective. Here we will explore the concept of corporate venture building, compare it to alternative methods of value creation, and discuss why more companies are choosing this approach.

According to a BCG survey, an incredible 70% of digital transformation projects fall short of their goals. Expectations are high, but is it enough to flip your business to digital and keep going as usual? Read on for 5 tips on what to look out for.

The future of work can only be anticipated. By the year 2030, working habits will have radically evolved due to trends such as artificial intelligence (AI), automation, demographic changes and globalisation. With this in mind, employees face several questions. What will happen to our job? Will our skills be needed in the future or will robots be able to take over our work through automation?

An Interview with Stanford Professor Yossi Feinberg by Sven Jungmann.

Her professional sports background taught her many lessons. “I always had to be sure that I had done everything in training. That gave me confidence for the tournament,” says Gabriela Teissing. With the same determination, she took on the role of CEO of corporate venture builder Creative Dock, in which she succeeded company founder Martin Pejsa. If you go through her CV, you can definitely tell that she always chooses the more challenging path. But if you ask, Gabi will probably tell you that she doesn't see it that way. And that she definitely believes in dreams. Only she's also convinced that you must work hard to achieve them.

Human creativity has always fascinated me. And also the mystery that comes with it. Why does it work sometimes—but other times it just doesn't? Is creativity a limited resource? Do people, at one point or another, just get exhausted from thinking and aren’t motivated to think outside the box anymore? Or do we simply need some extra help to kick-start creative thinking? Let's see what psychology would have to say on the topic. What creativity is, how it works, and how you can make it work for you.

Creative Dock recently presented corporate venture building at its best in a project for Wienerberger. It is no coincidence that the introduction of the new head of the Manufacturing and Construction industrial vertical, Jiri Devat, accompanied it, as he was one of the main actors behind this innovation. During his long career before that, he headed one of Microsoft’s national offices for several years. During that time, Bill Gates made the nickname G9 popular, which became synonymous with his complex name. And what is this disruptive innovation in construction?

In recent years, the world has seen how the market evolved to be more fragmented, and any existing SME or striving business owner must be able to anticipate the best steps to stay ahead of the game. Using strategic foresight enables a company to strike the right balance between the need for short-term results and long-term competitiveness. They can prepare better for future uncertainties with robust strategies. Let’s see a summary of the experts’ from Rohrbeck Heger by Creative Dock expectations for 2023. Plus recommendations on which areas to pay more attention.

AI technologies are being used to improve efficiency, enhance the customer experience, and gain valuable insights. One of the most significant developments in recent years has been the creation of large language models (LLMs). One of the most advanced LLMs currently available is the conversational AI system ChatGPT, based on GPT-3.5 from research and deployment company Open AI. Despite the rather primitive use of machine learning and statistical models (suggesting the most likely continuation or the answer to the question statistically), ChatGPT gained almost divine status among Internet users within a few weeks.

Ron van Oijen studied actuarial science at the University of Amsterdam and worked in the insurance and finance industries across the US, Europe, and Asia. He is the former CEO of one of the largest Dutch insurance companies, VIVAT. As a long-time believer in innovations, he always pursued change even in big corporations. That meant close cooperation with startups, resetting the mindset of thousands of employees, and assigning real responsibility from the top down. Ron is now an advisor to Creative Dock.

About the shift of financial services from desktops to mobile applications or how different it is to build an international mobile bank when you have already built a P2P lending platform. This and much more in an interview with Stanislav Filipcik.

Retail chain apps are on the rise in Czechia. As the longtime charts leader, Lidl has now been replaced by Albert CZ’s mobile app, Muj Albert, made by Creative Dock.

Mutumutu, healthy life insurance, won the Zlata koruna award as the number one fintech project in the Czech Republic. But what exactly makes it the best? We asked the CEO, Jindrich Lenz.

Watch an interview with Edward Meegan, Creative Dock’s former Head of Innovation.

In the near future, both people and things will be tokenized, believes Creative Dock’s Innovation Lead, Petr Vaclavek.

Theoretical physicist Rudolf Krejcar now builds companies instead of particle accelerators. What’s so alluring about the startup life?

The Domy sobe project for Veolia has discovered a lot of things. Why is it that a carpet marketing blitz sometimes doesn’t work?

It might be the great chemistry among the Creative Dock team developing the Muj Albert app that contributed to its success. How to achieve over a million downloads and the perfect balance of work and play?

“Our heatmap shows that people tend to choose doctors based on their pictures.” Interview with Zoltan Kaprinay, co-founder of the Dokio project.

Where is Creative Dock headed and what does its latest acquisition mean for the clients? The companies’ respective CEOs, Martin Pejsa and Linda Armbruster answered our questions.

What do you do when your business is based on staffing restaurants and other gastro establishments? Would it still seem like a good idea to teach foreign tourists to seek out Prague’s best pubs and bars? And where can you find support if your therapist has barricaded himself at home and refuses to meet face to face for fear of contagion?

How to generate meaningful brand content and how to approach new trends? We asked Creative Dock’s Head of Content, Michal Schindler.

A look into the different concepts, criticism, hope, and despair. Will today’s dreams turn into reality? And are we talking sweet dreams or rather a huge nightmare?

“We are the gods of AI,” said economist Tomas Sedlacek in our talk show. But is the artificial intelligence going to make our lives truly divine in the near future? Watch the recording to find out what Swiss innovator Linda Armbruster, business foresight expert Tobias Heger, mathematician Karel Janecek, and AI expert Dita Maleckova think as well.

Fairo helps you manage all your financial transactions in one place. Send and personalize invoices, track payments and run tax reports, all in one app. How does gamification of accounting work?

Slammed with crisis after crisis, executives are tasked with building resilient organizations and sustainable business models. As part of the World Economic Forum 2022, we invited European digital disruption leaders to talk about uncertainty and share their key insights into managing the unmanageable.

Is energy self-sufficiency a responsibility of states, private investors or simply each and every one of us? At the June edition of Creative Talks, four speakers discussed social responsibility, the potential of green energy production and storage in Europe, and whether a future without nuclear power is even possible.

Before Juliette Cordillot (19) came to Prague for her internship, she knew almost nothing about the city. However, her three-month internship has placed Prague, and Creative Dock in particular, firmly in her heart. Maybe it’s because no two workdays are the same, the office is directly in one of Prague’s beautiful parks — and, as a bonus, we have packs of dogs running around.

“Corporate venture building is on the rise and it’s the new gold in times of inflation and uncertainty,” says Felix Staeritz, co-founder & CEO of FoundersLane and Creative Dock Group’s new board member.

“As an individual, you can probably survive if you decide to avoid digitalization. But not as a society,” claims Heinrich Arnold drawing upon his experiences as a lifelong innovator. He significantly contributed to turning Berlin and Israel into high-tech hot spots, received an honorary professorship at TU Berlin, and helped build over 70 businesses either as director of research and innovation at Deutsche Telekom AG or as a supervisor and investor.

Photovoltaics are on the rise — at Creative Dock, we know that firsthand. Learning to save energy and using alternative energy sources independent of the political situation are the main ways to reduce Europe’s dependence on fossil fuels. Are energy shortages a real threat? Experts certainly say so. “If gas imports from Russia are stopped, energy will be rationed,” Jiri Gavor, head of the ANDE (Czech Association of Independent Energy Suppliers), told the media.

It might not be surprising that a man who founded FastID, a service to manage your digital identity, would leave very little track online. Therefore, when doing research, you need to challenge your LinkedIn bubble and one of the suggestions you can get is something like “Don’t forget he has four children and he loves talking about them!” So, starting with a question about childhood and the internet seems just appropriate.

If you happened to come across Daniel’s resume with his name missing, you might think some parents had sketched a perfect career for their child. You can almost hear them advising: “Start from scratch, little boy, as an insurance salesman and credit analyst, and through tireless hard work, you’ll work your way up to board member and CEO of the strongest bank in the country.” Yet, Daniel’s resume isn’t a sketch; it’s a real career.

This should be taken for granted: “Sustainability is no longer a choice — it’s survival.” And far from regarding sustainability as a drain on resources globally recognized companies such as Booking.com, Uber, and Starbucks, have all seen exponential growth through putting sustainability models at the core of their business. And in so doing altering the landscape of their particular industry.

“If creativity is about inventing new things, then innovation is about making them real,” said the American economist, Theodore Levitt. Is that right and does Creative Dock's statement Creation by Doing correspond to reality? We sat down with Linda Armbruster, Director of Innovation at Creative Dock to get her perspective on innovation and impact.

Combine the vast resources of a corporate and the speedy and disruptive spirit of a startup and what do you get? Powerful, innovative solutions at scale to solve our most pressing problems. It’s really that simple, and it’s what corporate venture builder Creative Dock has set out to do.

“Only time will tell. We will see. Let’s hope.” Those are the words running through many a managers' head when deciding what innovations their company will invest in. But imagine having a tool that helps you choose which of your services are worth investing in, or which of your innovations are less likely to gain traction. Now imagine that such a thing exists. It’s called Ideapoly® and it is built and run by the European company IdeaSense, now part of Creative Dock Group.

Since the pandemic, we have observed a steady recovery and steep rise in corporate venture building, especially innovative ideas that are constantly responding to changes in technology, and filling in the market gaps. However, as the reality of growing a business is not a bed of roses, not all companies are successful in executing their plans. In this 3 min read, we explore the core factors that could make or break a company.

Companies from a wide variety of domains like insurance, real estate, or medical institutions are concerned with the complexity of retrieving specific information from documents. This has become a major problem in recent years with the digitalization of documents and the enormous amount of data exchanged between businesses.

Organic growth is great. But it’s time-consuming. And if you want to expand, you can’t invest years just to establish your business in each new market. “We needed to accelerate our growth and impact, to increase our expertise and service portfolio. Rapidly. Such a thing is only possible by well-selected acquisitions,” says Martin Pejsa, Creative Dock’s CEO. And it was actually these successful acquisitions that turned his European corporate venture builder into the largest independent player in its category — rivaling the venture-building activities of the “Big Four”.

“Societies and businesses around the globe are facing unprecedented challenges and the threat of prolonged difficulties — be they related to war, climate, energy, inflation, etc. But despite these gloomy perspectives, Davos turned into cautious optimism among executives leaders, as the global economic outlook for the year ahead looked better than feared. Large corporations can play a major role in overcoming these hurdles,” Martin Pejsa, founder and executive chairman of corporate venture builder Creative Dock, said at the event hosted by Creative Dock and Roland Berger at the margins of the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2023.

When you say you’re building fintech in the Middle East, Westerners usually think of the strict Sharia banking rules and think it must be terribly complicated. But when you build ventures for banks in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), you’re in for exactly the opposite type of culture shock. E-Government there has made such progress during Covid-19 that we can be envious. Even financial applications under the tightest security are simpler, more user-friendly, and faster.