Beyond the Hashtag – Innovation Through Entrepreneurship

• Industry: Chemicals & Advanced Materials
• Global presence: 80+ countries
• Employees: ~111,000+ globally
• Americas footprint: Manufacturing, R&D, agricultural, and specialty business lines

BASF wanted to accelerate innovation from inside the organization, breaking traditional silos and empowering teams to take initiative on strategic opportunities. The challenge was to unlock entrepreneurship talent across regions and functions while supporting digital transformation and market responsiveness.

Hyper Island partnered with BASF to design and deliver Beyond the Hashtag, a 3-month intrapreneurship accelerator based on the 3U system: Uncover, Unlock, Unleash.
The experience included:

• Futures and trends exploration to identify opportunity spaces
• Creative problem-solving and prototyping sprints
• Coaching for internal teams to move ideas from insight to action
• A pan-Americas learning community to support peer exchange and momentum

The program was open to employees at all levels, reinforcing a culture of shared ownership and innovation confidence.

• Multiple prototypes entered BASF’s innovation pipeline, influencing both product and process innovation
• Strengthened digital and agile capabilities across the Americas organization
• Embedded intrapreneurship as a cultural norm, not a special project
• Developed a repeatable innovation methodology that continues to be used in new business areas