Innovation and Talent, Industry and University — The Approach of a Large Company
Flex, FIT — Instituto de Tecnologia, and Sinctronics: three companies with complementary purposes that form together with their partners one of the most complete innovation ecosystems in Brazil. If the basis of a good idea is necessity, then people are at the center of innovation. Innovation comes from and goes to people, consciously or unconsciously — and the unconscious part needs innovation and proves innovation.
People in Focus
If people are at the center of innovation, the Desafio Flex Inovação approach addresses this directly. Instead of focusing on technological solutions for Flex, somewhat outsourcing work with specific challenges, we focused on people who already have a predisposition to innovate, giving them the freedom to create something they understand and are passionate about.
Thanks to Flex's strategic vision, the Desafio Flex is not tied to the immediacy of results. In this context, Flex seeks people who feel comfortable innovating and who want to build a career at Flex or in partnership with it.
Talents from Inside and Outside the Company
With the high demand for IT professionals, Flex searches for new talent primarily internally and then in universities. So we created 2 Desafios Flex de Inovação — one exclusively for employees and another for university students from across Brazil.
The Desafio Flex Inovação for Collaborators allows people from different areas not always related to technology to stand out, while simultaneously installing a culture of innovation focused on productivity increase, making the company more competitive.
The Desafio Flex Inovação Universidades is the manifestation of the approximation between Industry and University. Good for both sides: Flex provides the necessary structure and support so that university students can develop their projects.
Over the last editions, we have developed partnerships with 25 universities from different states in Brazil. In total, combining both Challenges, Flex has already held 7 events in 4 years with 500 projects involved.
From "Magic" to Conscious Process — 3 Transformation Events
With people who registered demonstrating they already have traces of innovation skills, we created a training stage that transforms innovation that many times has a "chicken flight" into a conscious and disciplined process generating impact day to day in the company.
This training stage is complete, at different levels of depth. Lectures that introduce basic concepts of different technological and business topics. Workshops that generate practical and deliverable learning for the teams. Free Courses of longer duration, online live with professionals from the market.
Bootcamp: Lectures and technical workshops with an entrepreneurship and innovation perspective, online. Rocket Week: 4-day hackathon with mentors, hands-on, access to labs. AtmosFeras (Demo Day): Demoday with participants, investors, and judges, in-person.
Why Is This the Most Complete Innovation Challenge in Brazil?
I don't know another Innovation Challenge that delivers as much as this one. There is a company commitment to engage with those who are engaging — that is, for those students and collaborators who demonstrate real engagement in the Challenge, they become finalists and Flex goes further to make the project concrete.
Beyond completing the full training stage, once a finalist, the team already receives a prize of R$1,000 to participate in the in-person events, which last one week: a 4-day Hackathon and the Demoday.
Rocket Week is the name of the Hackathon. It lasts 4 days, is not a common hackathon — before the teams start, Flex talks with each team understanding the nature of the project in depth and mapping what is necessary to create a prototype. If a team needs specialists, developers, engineers, then Flex separates professionals not just to guide the way, but they get their hands dirty writing code and building the project together with the students/collaborators.
The event takes place inside the PIC (Product Innovation Center) which has 3D printing equipment at an industrial level, IoT labs, communication, automation, and certification.
AtmosFeras is the name of the Demoday: Flex invites partner investors and CEOs of technology companies to be judges. They define the ranking involving 15 finalists. This way Flex awards the total of R$50,000 distributed among the finalists.
