The LHoFT Foundation, Deloitte Luxembourg and Silicon Valley based Upside Partners, sign agreement to deliver the Upside Academy innovation program to Luxembourg financial institutions
Paris, 30 January 2019
Today at the Paris Fintech Forum, the LHoFT Foundation, the Luxembourg Fintech Innovation Hub, Deloitte Luxembourg, one of Luxembourg’s largest professional services firms and Upside Partners, a leading innovation and digital transformation advisory firm, signed an agreement to deliver the exclusive Upside Academy Innovation program to Luxembourg financial institutions as part of the LHoFT’s (Fin)Tech Talent Month in March 2019.
The Upside Academy program aims to help teams from Luxembourg financial institutions build repeatable and scalable internal capabilities to drive digital transformation, cultural change and measurable returns on investments in innovation.
Many institutions around the world have been investing into their innovation, digital transformation, and startup-partnering capabilities. Yet the majority of these institutions experience common, persistent challenges such as a lack of alignment on digital transformation strategy, unstructured process to attract and select the right startups for partnership or investment, inefficient processes for onboarding and implementation, difficulty engaging lines of business or purchasing departments, and a general failure to drive meaningful new revenue, best practices or competitive positioning through their innovation strategy.
The Upside Academy program will be delivered exclusively to teams of up to five executives from each of ten Luxembourg financial institutions.
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“The Upside methodology has helped corporate teams around the world accelerate internal alignment, skills development, and cultural change necessary to drive lasting outcomes from innovation and transformation investments. We’re thrilled to partner with LHoFT and Deloitte to help accelerate the success of Luxembourg’s vibrant financial services ecosystem.” says Mike Sigal, co-founder of Upside Partners.
“The Upside Academy program is the next logical extension of our service offering helping our clients from the financial services industry to cope with innovation and digital transformation. Institutions that want to stay on top of competition need to be able to quickly and successfully integrate external innovative solutions.” says Patrick Laurent, Technology & Innovation Leader at Deloitte Luxembourg.
Nasir Zubairi, CEO of the LHoFT states: “Effective Innovation, transformation and procurement processes are key capabilities that increasingly drive competitive advantage in financial services. We have clearly identified a need from institutions to improve in all these areas. The Upside Academy program, delivered by experts with hands-on experience of operational implementation working with leading corporates around the world, is an excellent fit with several of our key initiatives such as Fin5Labs, and others related to procurement, talent and transformation. ”
About Upside Partners
Based in Silicon Valley, Upside Partners helps corporate teams accelerate cultural change and achieve operational excellence in innovation and digital transformation through the application of startup and venture investor best practices. Upside Partners’ co-founders, Mike Sigal and Jelena Ewart bring experience as corporate innovators, startup executives and venture capital investors, as well as a global network of entrepreneurs and venture investors to Upside Partners clients. Upside Partners provides training, coaching, advisory, tools and startup scouting services focused on helping our clients develop the internal innovation capacity and skills required for sustainable competitiveness and returns on innovation investments, even their markets are transformed daily by digital technologies.
About Deloitte
Deloitte is a leading global provider of audit and assurance, consulting, financial advisory, risk advisory, tax and related services. Our network of member firms in more than 150 countries and territories serves four out of five Fortune Global 500® companies. In Luxembourg, Deloitte consists of approximately 100 partners and over 2,300 employees and is among the leading professional service providers on the market. Deloitte Digital was launched in Luxembourg in 2016 and combines Deloitte’s globally recognized strength in business transformation and technology implementation with the capabilities of a world-class digital agency. Deloitte Digital supports multiple organizations across their digital lifecycle — from defining a bold digital strategy to designing and building their online and mobile presence — using agile methods that move quickly from digital concept to digital reality.
About The LHoFT Foundation
The LHoFT Foundation is a public – private sector initiative that drives technology innovation for Luxembourg’s financial services industry, connecting the domestic and international Fintech community to develop solutions that shape the world of tomorrow. Senior executives from 13 leading private sector institutions sit on our board as leadership circle partners alongside representative from the Luxembourg Government, such as our Chairman, Pierre Gramegna, Luxembourg Minister of Finance, as well as leaders of the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, Luxembourg for Finance and PROFIL, the Luxembourg Financial Industry Federation.
