Accenture Meaningful Innovation Youth Award

Signature Award European Enterprise Challenge 2018

How do you improve the way people live and work? We ask ourselves this question every day - to innovate not just for innovation’s sake, but to add real value to people’s lives. Accenture is helping the world’s biggest companies solve their most complex challenges.
Meaningful, disruptive and value-adding innovations have strong roots locally, having been tested in a specific market, and have built in the scalability necessary for global growth. They are based on creative, memorable ideas that generate real, tangible good for the broader society, not just direct client audience.

Criteria

Local market traction 25%

Taps into untapped local / niche market need
Team has market insider knowledge / experience
Current growth: in terms of clients, revenue, production, team size or other quantifiable KPIs

Global scalability 25%

Wider market research done & size, growth opportunities assessed
Lack of bottlenecks for expanding growth (or potential bottlenecks identified)
Market strategy: roadmap in place, milestones identified, can show opportunities to pivot

Value adding 25%

Clear USP
Product or service provides meaningful, measurable change
Positive externalities: contributes to society / audiences other than target market

Creative Communication: 25%

Clear, distinctive and creative positioning & USP
Buzz generated in media
Engaged & passionate team

Award Prize

The prize is aimed to help young entrepreneurs to take their business to the next level, with a cash prize of Euro 1000 to further their innovative idea.

The winners will also be given an opportunity to meet and engage with Accenture Senior Executives over a breakfast in Riga on the 27th of June.

Additionally, one to one mentoring for team members and coaching from Accenture executives and/or Liquid Studio Innovation team, as well as invitations to select Accenture activities and events will be offered to continue building skill set and experience.

Jury

The Award will be judged by a jury panel of Accenture senior leaders

Kristaps Banga, Accenture Innovation Lead in Latvia
	Kristaps holds responsibility for Accenture innovations. He is Accenture Innovation Lead and Riga Liquid Studio Lead. Last year, Accenture opened a Liquid Studio in Riga to help clients speed up innovation and software development cycles. At the Liquid Studio, clients work alongside Accenture engineers to quickly turn concepts into products, taking days to achieve what used to take months. Kristaps has more than 18 years of experience in business, innovations and corporate communications, branding and marketing. He is evangelist for extended reality across Europe. Experimenting with innovative technologies including extended reality, artificial intelligence and the internet of things helps organisations to rapidly evolve their operations and customer experiences. Before joining Accenture, he worked in different corporate innovator roles in business and startup field. He is open minded creative personality with very strong hands-on business thinking.

Antons Gandzjuks, Accenture CRM and Avanade group Lead in Latvia
	Accenture Latvia CRM and Avanade group Lead responsible for Talent grows and development, Sales support and Delivery. 18+ years of experience in IT, 15+ years of experience in CRM specifically. Broad level of experience starting from hands-on development to leading large transformational IT programs. Analytical, goal oriented personality. Truly human.

Edgars Lapins, Country Marketing & Communications Lead, Accenture Latvia
	Edgars leads Accenture Latvia Marketing & Communications team, focusing on marketing & employer branding, as well as Latvia ecosystem & stakeholder relations. Previously he lead the strategic planning team at brand consultancy DDB Latvia, where in partnership with Accenture Latvia he created the region’s first Startup Brand Ranking. In spare time Edgars engages in science communication & critical thinking advocacy and ultramarathon running.