The Embiggen Innovation Institute and the Global Innovation Management Institute (GIMI) hosted the launch of the GIMI community of innovators in the Philippines at the Meridian Innovation Center last July 6, 2023.
GIMI Executive Director Hitendra Patel, Director of Strategic Partnerships Erila Haska, and Country Managing Director Asia & Mauritius Rohan Sakpal flew to Manila from GIMI’s headquarters in Massachusetts, USA last July 2-7, 2023.
Embiggen Founding CEO and Managing Partner Rolan Marco Garcia and Embiggen Innovation Institute Managing Director Masaki Mitsuhashi joined GIMI’s executives at the launch. EII is the exclusive certified training partner of GIMI in the Philippines.
“I would like to thank GIMI — Hitendra, Erila, Rohan, Vince, and Amb. Yujuico for having us here” said Garcia.
“We planned this event to highlight our strong partnership with GIMI as well as celebrate our tight-knit community of innovators here in the Philippines. As we all work together to stimulate new growth through innovation, we are optimistic that our community will be the main driver of change and success in Filipino businesses in the years to come. GIMI, together with Embiggen and our partners and clients, will all make this possible as we democratize innovation training and certification programs in the country,” added Garcia in a separate interview.
Meridian Innovation Center Chairman and former Philippines trade ambassador Benedicto Yujuico gave the opening keynote address at the event – highlighting the great potential of innovation as an economic growth stimulant in the Philippines.
“It is a pleasure for me to welcome all of you to our simple celebration tonight — Embiggen’s launch of the Global Innovation Management Institute Community in the Philippines. Innovation has always been a desired engine of growth for the Philippines given its bountiful resources and talented people but has always seemed to elude us,” said Yujuico.
“The potential that our country has to grow and become great again is far from being realized. And it has been one of my goals to help our country be great again,” added Yujuico.
“If you wanna become great again, you guys have to think bigger and bolder. Very simple to say, but hard to do. You have to aim higher and you have to aim 10 times. The other part of innovation of course is the importance of collaboration and getting together; teams and community… And inside here, whenever you see what’s next and what else, when you come up with great ideas, you have to seize the moment. You can’t let other people seize it; you have to be the first to seize it,” said Patel.
Top business and government executives from various industries joined the event including the Ayala Corporation’s Head of Innovation Vincent Tobias. The Ayala Corporation has been a long-time client of GIMI, innovating together for more than 8 years.
“A few of the reasons we’ve stuck with GIMI is because the frameworks are very simple. It’s simple not because it’s simplistic, but because it allows us to really go out and get as many dots as possible. Having as many dots as possible and having a way to systematically arrange them so they’re intelligent and it’s easy to see where the connections might be, looking at fields of play and possible connections that might make sense in a way that other people may not see it — those have been very powerful,” said Tobias.
Other executives who attended the event included Former Kantar Philippines President Gary de Ocampo, Philippine Innovation Hub Chief Innovation Officer Jerahmeel Chen, PLDT AVP for Customer Experience Adrian Ignacio, and In1go Technologies President Ramon Garcia.
FAST Group CEO Manuel Onrejas, Independent Investor Managing Editor in Chief Ron Castro, Lufthansa Technik Philippines Vice President for Finance & Business Development Stefan Yordanov, and Department of Foreign Affairs Manila Economic Research Unit Acting Director Andrea Caymo also joined the event.
The community launch event brought together Philippine-based innovators from conglomerates, universities, and organizations, where they were able to network with their fellow GIMI-certified colleagues, GIMI’s executives, and Embiggen’s innovation experts.
At the event, Embiggen and GIMI executives recognized the winners of the IXL Innovation Olympics over the years. Most recently, Asian Institute of Management MIB 2023 students Brean Abrea, Rovy Caoile, Valerie Hibe, Dianne Olivan, and Bam Salvador won first place at the Innovation Olympics, besting 14 student teams from over 15 countries.
The executives also recognized the recent Embiggen-trained graduates of GIMI’s Level 1, 2, and 3 innovation certification programs.
“We really hope that the folks who are in the GIMI Community will eventually become part of our movement in helping corporates implement the frameworks and learnings. What we also provide as a value add in Embiggen is we really bridge the knowing and doing gap. The real challenge for innovators is making sure that systems are in place in our workplace, otherwise, the efforts to innovate fall flat,” said Jimbo Reverente, Embiggen Partner and Head of Innovation Consulting.
About Embiggen and the Embiggen Innovation Institute (EII)
Embiggen is a multi-awarded corporate venturing and innovation group that builds, scales, and invests in new digital ventures with forward-thinking and entrepreneurial organizations. By leveraging corporates’ expertise, insights, and resources, it provides end-to-end solutions that take your teams from learning to executing innovation at startup speed.
The Embiggen Innovation Institute (EII) is the Embiggen Group’s innovation learning arm that is making world-class innovation training and education more accessible to Filipinos.
It is the go-to firm for corporate innovation strategy and tactics learning and development firm for top companies in the country and has trained over 1,000 innovators in innovation and innovation management.
EII is the exclusive certified training partner in the Philippines of the Global Innovation Management Institute (GIMI). It offers the GIMI Level 1: Associate, and Level 2: Master innovation programs for Philippine-based innovators.
Learn more about the work EII does here.
About the Global Innovation Management Institute (GIMI)
The Global Innovation Management Institute (GIMI) is the worldwide innovation and innovation management standard certification board based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
It offers globally-recognized innovation certification programs for both individuals and organizations. GIMI has trained and certified over 10,000 innovators including those from Fortune 500 companies like H&M, Pfizer, and HSBC.
Learn more about the work GIMI does here.