Great Acquisition, page-46

CalvinAyre.com also caught up with Roberto Coppola, Aristocrat’s VP of Advanced Products and champion behind the organization’s internal innovation accelerator, “ThinkBIGGER”.
“Its a global program and we basically encourage employees from around the world to submit innovative ideas that wouldn’t be business as usual”, shared Coppola.
“This year we had 500 employees submit ideas from 9 countries around the world- tremendous participation- we had shark tank-like pitch days in three different countries and of those 500 who submitted ideas, 70 were selected to pitch, of those 70 who pitched their ideas, 15 of them were fully funded to concept.  We’re showing three here at G2E, the remaining 12 will be done by the end of the year”, he added.
One of the greatest challenges with innovating in huge companies such as Aristocrat- or any company for that matter- is how to manage day-to-day responsibilities while trying to create something new.  Coppola explained how his thinkBIGGER program accounts for this issue and it all depends on who submits the idea, he said.
If its a game designer who comes up with a new game, for example, Aristocrat will back-fill their position so the employee can work on the new game full-time.  If its someone in HR who comes up with a new app, for example, Aristocrat will find someone who can bring the idea to life while the employee with the original idea is invited to oversee the project.
“The response from the operators who have been covering our booth and who have been checking out our games has been overwhelming.  We have a virtual reality product, we have an augmented reality product and they’re really receptive to that.  Not only the fact that we’re doing these types of concepts, but the fact that this program exists and is encouraging innovation throughout the company and the industry, there is a tremendous response to that as well”, Coppola shared.

Above was reported from the G2E conference in Las Vegas in Oct 2017.