EY’s Ian Spearing Hones Process to Implement Startups

Ian Spearing

Global Innovation and Technology Lead

EY

Startup technology companies can hold the key to unlocking savings and efficiency or solving specific problems in a corporate travel program, but simply keeping abreast of all the various companies that arise can be challenging enough—not to mention the task of actually implementing any new technology into a program.

Ian Spearing, EY’s global innovation and technology lead, has refined that whole process into a science, with 66 disruptors or startups implemented across the company’s travel program globally in the past six years. That has included the review of about 200 startup technologies in total, said Spearing, who stressed that all his comments represent his own opinion and not necessarily that of EY or its member firms.

Travel at EY has “always been quite a progressive program,” with Airbnb being implemented as Spearing was first joining the company, and Spearing knew that could be just the beginning. 

“We saw a massive opportunity with how startups could help push our program forward, fill gaps that weren’t able to be filled by incumbent suppliers and bring in new, fresh thinking and solve problems that we had,” Spearing said. “The challenge was, it was a time when lots of startups were coming up with product ideas, and it was quite overwhelming on how we would review a startup.”

Rather than entertain hosts of sales pitches, Spearing decided to put in a more formal process to review startups. That began with sessions in a similar format to the reality shows “Shark Tank” and “Dragons’ Den” alongside EY’s travel management company, which aided with the implementation of startups on the meetings and events side. From there, Spearing looked at how to manage it internally, with the aim of being efficient with time and being transparent with startups as to the requirements of being in the program.

That led to EY running its own “Shark Tank”-style innovation sessions.

“We went out and scoured the market with our problem statements internally—what we were trying to solve and add to our program,” Spearing said. “We’d invite in these startups to pitch live—we did a couple in New York, in London and some virtually in Asia—and from that we drove a shortlist.”

Those were more than just information-gathering sessions. Because Spearing and his team already had vetted the startups to determine whether they could work with them, they went into those sessions with the idea that they would leave working with at least one of them.

“From a total program perspective, we’ve been able to solve for a number of problems that we haven’t been able to solve before,” he said. “Bringing more into our ecosystem has made our team and EY think differently about startups and the value they bring to core services.”

Today, the volume of new startups has slowed a bit, and Spearing and his team have pivoted the process to concentrate on incumbent suppliers and mature startups and what new products they are bringing to market. “It’s how we can have sessions with them to help try to influence and solve problems they could probably solve quicker for us than some of the other technology providers,” Spearing said.

Of course, not all companies have the resources of an EY—which has someone whose role is specifically to look at startups—to keep up with and vet potential startup partners. That doesn’t mean they can’t use a similar process, however, according to Spearing.

“Start small,” he said. “Maybe do one a year or two a year, where you choose three to five startups you’re interested in and plan a day where they present virtually and in person, and you ask the for the latest product set and how it can work with your business.”

Spearing suggests attendees to those presentations use a simple scorecard as a non-biased way to review and critique startups and how they would fit within a program.

Implementing the startup, of course, will take collaboration across multiple teams such as IT, security and procurement. Picking out a potential partner, however, does not need to be a massive group effort, he said.

“If you have a good relationship with IT, you can bring them along, but this is more about the intent of bringing them in,” Spearing said. “Keeping it a small group to review how you can use it and find reasons why you should use it, not reasons why you shouldn’t, is the best approach.”