Design Wealthsimple's Innovation Ecosystem Strategy
Overview
What this challenge is about.
Design Wealthsimple's Innovation Ecosystem Strategy. Intermediate challenge in strategy. Developing strategies for real business problems, earn a blockchain-...
The Brief
What you'll do, and what you'll demonstrate.
What innovation ecosystem strategy should Wealthsimple adopt to accelerate innovation and defend its competitive advantage within eighteen months and a 2.8 million Canadian dollar budget?
This is not a case study exercise. It is the work a consultant does when a client needs a recommendation backed by evidence. That distinction matters to every hiring manager who has seen candidates recite Porter's Five Forces and none who have built a recommendation a client would actually pay for.
When you finish, you will have something most graduates do not: a real-world deliverable, verified by Ewance, that you can show to a hiring manager and say "I did this. Here is the proof."
Earning criteria — what you'll demonstrate
- Diagnose an organization's innovation capabilities and governance gaps from a documented internal record
- Design an innovation ecosystem that balances corporate venturing, structured partnerships, and open innovation
- Apply explicit, weighted criteria to select partners under hard budget and headcount constraints
- Translate a strategic recommendation into a phased, costed roadmap with measurable ecosystem-health metrics
- Communicate a fundable strategy to a board-level audience
Program Fit
Where this fits in your program.
Sharpens the same skills your degree expects you to demonstrate.
Aligned coursework coming soon.
Skills
Skills you'll demonstrate.
Each one shows up on your verified credential.
- Ecosystem Mapping
Apply ecosystem mapping to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Open Innovation
Apply open innovation to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Corporate Venturing
Apply corporate venturing to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
- Competitive Analysis
Assess competitor strategies and positioning to inform business decisions.
- Partnership Strategy
Apply partnership strategy to solve real industry problems and demonstrate production-level capability.
Careers
Career paths this challenge builds toward
Completing this challenge demonstrates skills that transfer directly to these roles:
Innovation Strategy Analyst
This challenge mirrors the analyst's core job: diagnosing innovation gaps and proposing fundable ecosystem moves. You practice turning a messy internal record into a board-ready strategy under real budget and partnership limits, exactly as the role demands.
This challenge sharpens
- ecosystem-mapping
- open-innovation
- competitive-analysis
Corporate Development Associate
Corporate development teams decide whether to build, buy, partner, or invest. Selecting at most three partners from a roster under a hard budget builds the partner-evaluation and venturing judgment this role uses when sourcing and structuring deals.
This challenge sharpens
- corporate-venturing
- partnership-strategy
- competitive-analysis
Strategic Partnerships Manager
Partnership managers must justify which alliances to pursue and how they create value. Designing a co-innovation model and a phased partner roadmap develops the partner-selection and relationship-design skills central to landing and managing partnerships.
This challenge sharpens
- partnership-strategy
- ecosystem-mapping
- open-innovation