How Innovation Management Transformed Collaboration at La Poste

What does it take to drive innovation in an industry with a history spanning 4,000 years? Consider the evolution of the postal service—from couriers delivering messages for pharaohs in Ancient Egypt to modern logistics networks bringing e-commerce purchases to your doorstep. The Internet revolution of the 1990s disrupted traditional postal mail as the medium for personal correspondence and bill statements. Postal services worldwide were forced to adapt and diversify their offerings to stay relevant. France’s La Poste stands out as a success story, not only weathering this disruption but thriving, with €34.1 billion in revenue in 2023.

Parcels represent 53% of the La Poste group's revenue, while its subsidiaries include La Banque Postale (banking and insurance), DPDgroup (logistics), and La Poste Mobile (mobile network services). As a company deeply rooted in French heritage, La Poste faces the unique challenge of modernizing its services while adhering to its commitment to sustainability and social responsibility.

In 2020, La Poste integrated as a 100% subsidiary of Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC), the investment arm of the French state. The CDC’s purpose is to serve the public interest, protect the savings of French people, and support the economy through long-term investment. 

Since integrating with the CDC, La Poste’s 100% subsidiary of the Caisse des Dépôts (CDC), the need for pooling knowledge and cross-functional collaboration with other subsidiaries has increased. The challenges didn’t end there—La Poste also aimed to strengthen its position as a mission-driven company focused on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and climate initiatives, mandating training for 50,000 managers and executives. 

The company needed a platform that not only facilitated information sharing and startup engagement but also aligned with its CSR objectives.

Challenges with departmental silos

Before implementing an innovation management system, La Poste’s innovation efforts were fragmented across different sites and tools. The discontinuation of the previous startup tracking tool used by La Poste, Questel Group’s Yoomap, compounded this issue. This prompted Director of Innovation Carole Cuche to initiate a comprehensive solution. The goal was ambitious: unify more than 130 innovation leaders, multiple legal teams, and all of the organization’s intrapreneurial initiatives under a single, scalable platform that facilitated information sharing, startup management, and cross-functional collaboration.

Departments within La Poste, like IT and innovation teams, faced siloed operations that hindered real-time interaction and data-sharing capabilities. The lack of an integrated platform meant that even core functions like legal services suffered from inefficiencies, with lawyers reliant on restrictive, compartmentalized systems.

La Poste evaluated multiple alternatives but found most of them fell short on crucial factors like scalability, flexibility, and CSR alignment. Platforms like Discord were tested for legal teams but lacked a user-friendly experience suitable for their needs. They needed a customizable innovation platform that met their rigorous CSR, security, and operational standards.

La Poste implements an innovation management system

Implementation was swift, driven by clear deadlines. For example, the platform’s rollout for the legal department was completed within just two months. La Poste was able to customize the platform efficiently, allowing for a pilot test with 36 lawyers before a broader launch. This fast-tracked approach not only built confidence but also highlighted the innovation platform’s ability to support targeted communities like legal professionals, auditors, and IT specialists. The innovation management platform was also being adopted in the CDC, including legal teams and the IT department.

“It really made connections. Every month, we hold Governance Committees in different locations in Paris. The platform allows us to create a lot of links digitally and then meet at physical events. In terms of innovation, it’s resulted in exchanges and concrete actions between people. It enables participative innovation for departments that didn't do it before.” 

- Frédérique Retail, La Poste Group

Over time, La Poste expanded its use of the innovation management system to cover several strategic domains:

1. Data & AI Community: A continuously active group of 400 employees shares resources, case studies, and event notifications.
2. Intrapreneurship Program: A structured, time-boxed approach allows innovation leaders to track projects seamlessly.
3. Innovation Challenges: Frequent participatory challenges, such as Docaposte’s "InnoGame," significantly boosted platform engagement, drawing over 4,000 participants within a year.
4. Innovation Portfolio Management: Multiple project portfolios, tracking team members, project milestones, and key indicators such as risk levels, ensuring effective oversight. 

Internal communication for innovation change management

Effective communication was key to getting different teams on board. La Poste hosted an initial event for its legal professionals, then regularly added new content to sustain internal interest. When it came to innovation, employees were accustomed to using separate sites, so it was a bit disorientating for them to transition to a unified platform. 

Wider internal communication about the platform began with an emphasis on intrapreneurship. La Poste used round tables, conferences, and a showroom to showcase the "Place de l'Innovation" on the organization’s annual innovation day. Large-scale events like these proved to be highly effective for communication, and every time an article about the platform appeared in Forum, La Poste Group's internal newspaper, there was a noticeable spike in platform registrations. They got even more employees to participate when the La Poste Group's subsidiary Docaposte launched its "InnoGame" innovation challenge.

"We had a lot of new employees sign up. We're at over 4,000 in terms of innovation, which is not bad in less than a year, +2,000 in the last 6 months." 

- Frédérique Retail, La Poste Group

Over four years, these methods built a robust user base and community culture. Presenting the innovation management platform during bi-annual meetings with innovation directors ensures top-down support, while word-of-mouth from platform “champions” bolsters bottom-up engagement.

The positive impact of innovation management

The benefits of implementing a comprehensive innovation management system at La Poste are multifaceted:

• Enhanced Cross-Entity Collaboration: Legal and innovation teams report an unprecedented level of coordination, bridging previously isolated departments like La Banque Postale and the international arm, Geopost.
• Unified Startup Management: Centralized startup repositories allow teams to efficiently search, monitor, and share vital information.
• Participative Innovation: For entities without a history of collaborative innovation, the platform facilitates new initiatives, promoting an integrated culture across La Poste’s ecosystem.
• Revenue-Generating Projects: Certain cross-functional projects, which would not have been feasible without the platform’s collaborative capabilities, contribute significantly to La Poste’s revenue.
  
  

The platform’s customization capability is crucial, allowing 95% control over its appearance and functions. Teams appreciate the ability to mold the innovation management system to fit their specific workflows, from tracking startup partnerships to gamifying user engagement with challenges and point-based contests.

The future of innovation at La Poste

La Poste isn’t stopping here. Upcoming plans include expanding the innovation management system’s workflow functionality to gather key indicators across branches, allowing better alignment with Caisse des Depôts's strategic objectives. New use cases like managing confidential projects and creating centralized documentation spaces are also on the horizon. The goal is to extend these capabilities to international subsidiaries and additional sectors like CSR and compliance.

Environmental responsibility is central to La Poste's strategic plan. Its ambitious goal is to lead Europe in decarbonized delivery, reducing its CO2 emissions in France by 30% by 2025 and then reaching net-zero emissions by 2030. The company is also pushing for the recognition of postal activities as enablers for the circular economy due to their crucial role in the collection and distribution of recycled goods.

La Poste is leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance efficiency and quality. A recent example is the internal development of La Poste GPT, a generative AI tool developed by and for postal workers, trained on its own databases. The group is also tackling cybersecurity with a dedicated team of 300 experts and partnerships to develop solutions such as NumSpot, a 100% French sovereign cloud.

La Poste’s success story is a testament to how a comprehensive innovation management system can act as more than just a tool; it becomes a unifying innovation ecosystem that drives cross-functional collaboration. It demonstrates the major benefits of abandoning scattered tools and adopting an Innovation Operating System. 

At ITONICS, we believe in an end-to-end innovation approach that connects foresight (Where to Play), ideation (How to Win), and portfolio management (What to Execute) to your strategic goals in one collaborative system. The ITONICS Innovation OS breaks down information silos, aligning efforts and teams to amplify impact. If you want to see for yourself how ITONICS can help your company accelerate growth, book a demo with our experts.