From 'BIG' Ideas to Sustainable Impact at ICL Group (A)

In the summer of 2023, Eduard (“Eddie”) Croitoru, Vice President (VP) of ICL Group (“ICL”) Corporate Initiatives, was reflecting on ICL’s internal ideation program, the Business Innovation for Growth (BIG) Accelerator. When Raviv Zoller became the CEO of ICL in 2018, he recruited Croitoru, then his Chief of Staff, to help embed a culture of innovation throughout the company. He tasked Croitoru with addressing employee engagement and innovation challenges, which led to the creation of BIG. BIG enhanced ideation of employees (called “BIG Agents”), accelerated execution of ideas, and improved collaboration within the organization. Under Croitoru’s leadership, BIG had evolved into a process where ICL employees from around the world contributed ideas, many of which would go on to be realized and funded as projects by senior management.

Croitoru spent three years refining the program, expanding its reach from 3,500 to all 12,500 ICL employees in four new languages. To push the program forward, he anticipated two challenges ahead—continuing to scale BIG company-wide while combining technology with the human infrastructure needed to optimize the program’s success, and fostering more breakthrough, "extra-corerestrial" (beyond the core business) ideas within BIG.