The Airbus BizLab

The Airbus BizLab is a global aerospace accelerator with three locations to date. The first BizLab was opened in Toulouse, France in 2015, shortly followed by the second location in Hamburg, Germany by the end of 2015. The third location in Bangalore, India finally opened in 2016. The BizLabs were created by corporate employees in a bottom up approach, after Tom Enders started to search for tools for innovation and thus fell right into place (Airbus BizLab, 2017). Bruno Gutierres founded the first BizLab at the Airbus headquarter in Toulouse and now holds the position Global Head of (HO) BizLab. He states that the goal of the BizLab is “to achieve innovation as cheap and fast as possible’ with a focus on ‘delivery and value creation’ (Gutierres, Personal communication, January 24, 2017). Fabrice Brégier,

COO of Airbus, agreed to this: ‘the BizLab will give Airbus added business agility by helping us to harvest the best innovative ideas coming from different sectors and to bring them to market more quickly” (Jensen, 2015).

All BizLabs follow mutual goals and an overall strategy, but each location works independently with partners from their local ecosystem. Opposed to other corporate acceleration programs, the BizLab follows a hybrid model where start-ups and internal projects can participate (Airbus BizLab, 2017).

Another difference to the typical corporate accelerator is that Airbus does not give funding or takes shares of the participating start-ups. The exceptions are spin-outs for which a systematic procedure is yet to be developed. Internal projects might also be financed through the BizLab if they cannot acquire funds in other departments. The acceleration phase covers six months during which the teams are hosted in the respective BizLab. They receive office space and material, a personal mentor within the BizLab, and are invited to start-up and industry fairs and conventions. Furthermore, they receive trainings on topics like marketing, legal advice, funding possibilities, pitching and presentation skills (Airbus BizLab, 2017). Figure 11 presents the timeline and topics covered during the six months’ acceleration phase.

Figure 11 – BizLab timeline

Source: (Airbus, 2017)

The selection of the start-ups starts with the definition of general search fields like Big Data or the Internet of Things (IoT). The BizLab team collected these areas of interest from different stakeholders and divisions within Airbus. The official start of the scouting phase is

marked by an online call for projects via the website f6s. Interested start-ups must answer ten predefined questions via the online application. The BizLab team also reaches out to specific promising start-ups they met at events or screened in advance. Subsequently, the twenty most promising start-ups are selected to pitch their ideas in front of a decision committee. This committee consists of the BizLab Mentors, the Head of BizLab, the Program Director and Managers of different divisions to ensure technical feasibility of the ups. After the start-ups pitched their products and answered a question round, the five or six best teams are chosen for the program (Buckman, Personal communication, 2017; Hofmann, 2017).

Internal projects can apply at any time by contacting the local BizLab with a project proposal.

If the idea has the potential for the acceleration program, the team is invited to present it at the respective BizLab where the team decides if they can start the program. What the specific objective of the project is, how much funding they receive and the share of their working time dedicated to the project is then to be discussed with the project team managers program (Buckman, Personal communication, 2017)

The evaluation criteria are the same for the start-ups and internal projects. The teams need to demonstrate customer desirability, technical feasibility, business viability and team skills.

The specific selection process and requirements are showcased in Figure 12.

Figure 12 – Airbus BizLab selection

Source: (Airbus, 2017)

Each season starts out with a diagnosis session where the current status of the venture is determined and the goals for the six months’ acceleration phase are determined. At least three gate reviews follow up on the goals and keep track of the process during the running program. The diagnosis and gate reviews are held with the project team, the BizLab mentors

and the HO BizLab and program director. The general goal of all projects is to present a running prototype and use-case at the demo day. The demo day terminates each season with an audience of Airbus management and executives, partners and investors. Both start-ups and internal projects pitch their ventures and showcase their prototypes in a ‘Demozone’

afterwards. In a final gate review will then be jointly decided if the start-up or project starts into the post-acceleration phase. For internal projects this means that they will be continued while still receiving mentoring from their BizLab coach just usually without being hosted in the BizLab physically. If start-ups enter the post-acceleration phase they will still be hosted in the BizLab and work on an application within Airbus. They must pay a demonstrative amount for the office space however, which is comparable to the costs of a co-working space.

The big benefit for them is that they stay within Airbus’ and the BizLab’s ecosystem (Buckman, Personal communication, 2017; Hofmann, 2017).

As the research for this paper was conducted during the second season of the accelerator in Hamburg the following structures and characteristics are based on this location.

Employees who worked within Corporate Innovation until then established the BizLab in Hamburg (Buckman, Personal communication, 2017). They decided to build the BizLab next to the manufacturing site on the outskirts of Hamburg which hosts nearly 20,000 employees and suppliers. While Hamburg has a vibrant and growing start-up ecosystem in its city center (Tamayo, 2015), the direct vicinity to Germany’s headquarter was indispensable for the BizLab. The start-ups can reach out to experts and potential customers within Airbus at any time and there is a constant exchange with employees. To enforce an ongoing exchange the BizLab also organizes the ‘Leaders and Innovators’ bar once a month. On this occasion, Airbus Executives can get into an informal exchange with the start-ups. Other touch points are workshops the BizLab organizes for certain departments or conferences during which the BizLab or single start-ups can present themselves. Events regularly take place at one of the partner institutions as well (Buckman, Personal communication, 2017, Airbus BizLab, 2017).

A good example is the Center of Applied Aeronautical Research (ZAL), which is located just next to the BizLab. The consortium of Airbus, Lufthansa Technik, the city of Hamburg and some smaller shareholders offers regular industry conferences, workshops and even hosts some start-ups from the first season (ZAL, 2017). Other partners in Hamburg are the Betahaus, a co-working space with an extensive network of coaches, the Start-up Dock, an accelerator from the technical university and many more (Airbus BizLab, 2017).