https://youtu.be/PNmP6s1T_c4
Excubation is emerging as a strategic pathway for large corporations seeking to reinvent their business models and accelerate their capacity for deep transformation. During this Vianeo webinar, five speakers shared their perspectives: Séverine Herlin (CEO, Vianeo), Christophe Knecht (Quest for Change), Jacques Kraemer (Electric Oasis), and Stéphanie & Philippe Roser (Instant Book / R&D Technology).
Together, they shed light on the structural challenges, conditions for success, and transformative potential of excubation.
Exploration vs. exploitation: a strategic dilemma for executive committees
Opening the session, Séverine Herlin highlighted a central reality:
every company questions the durability of its current business model.
Executive committees must constantly juggle two competing logics:
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exploitation (optimizing, securing, and scaling existing business),
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exploration (shaping new growth levers, anticipating market shifts, enabling radical innovation).
This tension often prevents breakthrough innovation unless the company creates a protected space where exploration can occur without being crushed by operational demands.
For Séverine Herlin, excubation offers exactly that:
a way to take a project outside the corporate environment while preserving strategic alignment with the company.
She stresses the need for:
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a structured method that supports exploration without constraining it,
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early validation of market need,
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and a balanced interaction between governance, experts, and project teams.
Lessons from 30 excubation projects
Drawing on years of experience and more than 30 excubation projects, Christophe Knecht identifies recurring patterns:
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excubated projects often stem from strong ambitions but face constraints impossible to overcome inside the corporate perimeter,
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they frequently involve environmental or societal impact, or organizational disruptions,
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success depends on engaged founders, clear sponsorship, market accessibility, and operational autonomy.
A key insight emerges:
“Excubation works when the company truly accepts the principle of autonomy while maintaining strategic clarity.”
The pace is also crucial: excubated projects must move fast, while corporates naturally operate more slowly — a fundamental gap to anticipate.
Electric Oasis: from employee to entrepreneur
Jacques Kraemer (CEO, Electric Oasis), excubated from Hager Group and supported by SEMIA, illustrates the human dimension of excubation.
His transition from employee to entrepreneur involved fear, excitement, and a need to reinvent himself.
But excubation offered:
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access to a new market,
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a dedicated structure capable of moving faster,
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and a continued strategic link to the parent company.
His story demonstrates how excubation transforms both individuals and organizations.
Instant Book: using excubation to decarbonize a traditional industry
The case of Instant Book, presented by Stéphanie and Philippe Roser, shows excubation as a lever for sustainable transformation within the publishing industry.
The initial observation is alarming:
one in three books is destroyed before ever being read, and 70% are printed in Eastern Europe.
Instant Book provides a breakthrough alternative:
print a book in five minutes directly in the bookstore, only after purchase — eliminating overproduction, drastically reducing carbon emissions, improving remuneration for authors/editors/booksellers, and revitalizing bookstores through a new in-store experience.
The project originated within R&D Technology.
When the initial startup failed during COVID, R&D Technology faced a choice: abandon the project or excubate it.
Excubation became the only viable path to:
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give the project autonomy,
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attract investors,
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enable Stéphanie Roser (original project manager) to become CEO,
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and keep a strong industrial partnership.
Her testimony reveals the emotional journey of shifting from employee to entrepreneur: fear, self-doubt, legitimacy questions — and ultimately enthusiasm and confidence.
Key takeaways for innovation leaders
Three strong messages emerge:
1. Excubation helps executive committees manage the exploration–exploitation tension
It protects strategic exploration while preserving alignment with core business.
2. It accelerates high-potential innovation
Autonomy, speed, market proximity, fundraising capability, and freedom from internal constraints.
3. It transforms organizations and people
Excubation develops new leaders and entrepreneurial mindsets while renewing corporate innovation culture.
Conclusion
For large companies seeking transformation, excubation stands out as a powerful strategic mechanism.
It bridges strategic exploration, operational execution, and human development — the three conditions required for transformative innovation to thrive.
