Enel X: Driving Digital Transformation in the Energy Sector

Henry W. Chesbrough

Enel is one of the world's largest electric utilities, based in Italy but operating in dozens of countries around the world. This case discusses the process of establishing a new subsidiary company inside Enel to lead the company towards digital transformation in eMobility. The new entity must manage a number of legacy businesses, and also foster a new and different culture in an environment where no one is easily fired. It also must self-finance the transformation, without much upfront investment from the parent organization. In the case, the CEO takes stock of his actions so far, and seeks to chart a course for the future.

Learning Objective

1. Examine the process to create a new, separate organization to generate innovation; 2. Consider the tensions between the existing legacy business and the new digital business; 3. Present the business model experiments being conducted in the electric utility segment; 4. Show different models of managing change inside a large legacy organization.

Details

Pub Date: Aug 1, 2020

Discipline: Information Technology

Subjects: Energy, Information technology, Innovation, Organizational change, R&D, Sustainability, Technological change

Source: UC Berkeley - Haas School of Business

Product #: B5957-PDF-ENG

Industry: Electric power distribution, Electric power generation, Information systems, Solar power generation

Geography: Europe; Italy; Latin America

Length: 16 page(s)