Emprendimiento e innovación · Gestión de la innovación

The Innovation Bet — Cobalt Coatings' Renewal Portfolio

A four-round, advanced corporate-strategy and innovation-portfolio simulation set inside Cobalt Coatings NV, a Brussels specialty-coatings maker (€420M revenue, 16% EBITDA, 1,180 staff).

4 rondas Ejecutivo English, Español

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Sobre la simulación

A four-round, advanced corporate-strategy and innovation-portfolio simulation set inside Cobalt Coatings NV, a Brussels specialty-coatings maker (€420M revenue, 16% EBITDA, 1,180 staff).

78% of revenue (€328M) still comes from solvent-based chemistries declining 4–6% a year under REACH/VOC pressure, and the board has issued a strategic-renewal mandate: at least 25% of revenue from products or models that did not exist in 2025, by 2031.

As the new General Manager you have one annual planning cycle and a €21M innovation envelope to place the bets that decide whether Cobalt renews itself or manages a graceful decline. Round 1 — diagnose the Three-Horizons portfolio (11 projects, 92% incremental) and quantify the renewal gap.

Round 2 — choose build-vs-open-innovation for a bio-resin platform: build in-house (€9M/yr, 45–55% success, 4+ years), co-develop with the NovaResin spin-off (€6M/yr, TRL 6, ~2 years saved, cedes 40% of margin), or take a 30% equity option (€18M) — and set the governance and downside protection.

Round 3 — allocate the €21M envelope across sustaining commitments (€8M, partly cuttable), incremental water-based defence (€4M, 85% success, €14M NPV), the disruptive bet, and a discretionary reserve, deciding what to cut, whether to stage-gate the bet with kill points, and how it closes the renewal gap.

Round 4 — defend the portfolio to the board: justify the biggest bet and its kill criteria, model the cannibalisation of the solvent core, and commit to 12-month milestones.

The math applies Three Horizons, the Innovator's Dilemma, real-options/stage-gating, ambidexterity and open-innovation governance, and punishes the five classic errors: funding the wish list beyond €21M, hero-bet concentration that starves core defence, comfort-zone incrementalism that misses the mandate, an ungoverned NovaResin partnership exposed to a competitor acquisition, and ignoring the cannibalisation that erodes the cash engine funding the renewal.

Final KPIs track renewal coverage toward 2031, blended portfolio expected value (€M), core-business resilience and resource efficiency against the envelope.

Para quién es

Una simulación avanzada para participantes acostumbrados a trabajar con los principales marcos y dilemas de la materia, pensada para formación de directivos y profesionales con experiencia.

Cómo funciona una sesión

  1. El docente crea una sesión desde el panel de Eureka e invita a los participantes.
  2. Los participantes juegan 4 rondas. En cada una envían sus decisiones y la simulación calcula los resultados.
  3. La simulación se puede jugar en: English, Español.
  4. El docente sigue el progreso y los resultados de cada participante desde el panel, y usa los resultados de la clase para el debriefing.

Decisiones que toman los participantes

Las decisiones que toman los participantes durante la simulación:

  • How do you read the pipeline against the Three Horizons?
  • Quantify the renewal gap the board mandate creates.
  • Which of the €8M committed sustaining projects are genuinely strategic?
  • State the central tension in one sentence.
  • The bio-resin platform: build, partner, or hybrid?
  • Open-innovation governance — if you involve NovaResin, on what terms?
  • Stress-test: if NovaResin is acquired by a competitor or the platform fails technically, what protects you?
  • Allocate the €21M envelope. Sustaining and the disruptive bet share one pool — you cannot fund everything.
  • Sustaining commitments — €8M baseline, partly cuttable (€M)
  • Incremental water-based defence — 85% success, 18 months, €14M NPV (€M)

Qué siguen los participantes

Lo que los participantes siguen en pantalla a medida que avanzan las rondas:

  • Renewal Coverage, Portfolio Value & Core Resilience

Temas que cubre

Diseñada para asignaturas de Gestión de la innovación.

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