The three leaders of the Innovation Laboratory have been identified — a joint project of the Graduate School of Management of St. Petersburg University (GSOM SPbU) and VTB for the development of business ideas of the Bank's employees by students of the Business School. The first place was taken by the SEMYONLESS team, the second was divided between two teams 1:1 and CoWo. Two projects has ecological focus, the third one offers a new perspective on office space rental.

The winners of the "gold" in the team competition of the SEMYONLESS Innovation Laboratory presented their project. It is proposed to implement the idea in Izhevsk. The team found that residents of the city are well aware of local environmental issues and are eager to participate in solving them. However, Izhevsk residents often simply do not know how to do it. SEMYONLESS suggested starting with the installation of containers for collecting waste paper in the VTB department, as well as in the lobby of the Udmurt State University. Next to the containers there will be a QR code to go to an educational chatbot in Telegram with articles and podcasts on ecology. In addition, it is planned to hold an eco-festival with cleaning the banks of the Izhevsk pond in the historic center of the city.

The winners of the second place received an equal number of votes, which testifies to the high quality of project development and fierce competition among the contenders for victory.

So, the 1:1 team had the case — developement a partner environmental-charity project that develops the idea of ​​abandoning plastic and consuming environmentally friendly water in Izhevsk. It can be poured from the source into the bottle directly at the VTB Bank branch (in partnership with Tvoya Voda Refill). The authors of the project conducted a study, in the course of which it was found out: 40% of the interviewed respondents are more likely to go to the Bank's branch, knowing that there it is possible to take advantage of such an opportunity. The pilot is planned to be implemented in Izhevsk, and then to scale the activity to other regions of the country.

The CoWo team presented a service of the same name for booking meeting rooms, coworking spaces, conference rooms and other office premises - by analogy with calling a taxi. Its clients will be self-employed, hired employees, and owners of small and medium-sized businesses. Access to the service will be open, however, special favorable conditions will be provided for VTB Bank clients. The main income is planned to be received from the commission, which will be paid by the owners of coworking spaces for entering the service and promoting on it.

In addition to the certificate of participation in the laboratory, the winners received individual recommendations from VTB, which will form the basis of their resume. One of the participants became the owner of a certificate for a personal coaching session with Zhanna Khomyakova, Managing Director of the VTB Innovation Center.

The Innovation Laboratory is a collaboration between GSOM SPbU and  key The Advisory Board member VTB Bank. As part of the laboratory, business cases proposed by the Bank's employees were worked out by student teams. The authors of the ideas acted as mentors.

At the start of the project, 38 cases were received from VTB employees. The selection of the top ideas was attended not only by experts from GSOM SPbU and the Bank, but also by the students. It was they who identified the priority cases, which went into development. Following the results of 5 weeks of work of the distributed teams, the final pitching of the projects took place with the determination of the winners. The participants demonstrated a deep study of cases, high quality materials and prepared speakers. The winners of the Laboratory were determined by experts from GSOM SPbU, VTB Bank Innovation Center and team mentors.

The Innovation Laboratory is the first experience for the Business School and VTB to work together in a format that involves GSOM SPbU students working on real banking cases in the format of a remote training practice.

The laboratory showed high efficiency of the proposed format of joint creativity of the Bank employees and students of the Business School and received high marks from the participants from both sides. The GSOM SPbU team and the VTB Innovation Center plan to make the Laboratory a regular project.