Making an impact through UNLEASH 2019

Deloitte’s global WorldClass societal impact initiative seeks to empower 50 million people to succeed in the rapidly changing global economy. Through our WorldClass efforts, we are using our core expertise to develop job skills, improve educational outcomes, and create opportunities for those left behind in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

To accelerate our impact, we are collaborating with others to find the most innovative solutions to some of the most complex global challenges. For the third year in a row, we teamed up with UNLEASH to bring together the brightest minds from different sectors and backgrounds to develop new solutions for the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

2019 UNLEASH Innovation Lab

UNLEASH was created in 2017 to inspire innovation by connecting talented people with an eco-system of corporate and institutional partners. The ultimate goal of UNLEASH is to develop solutions for the SDGs by taking Talents – the name used for UNLEASH Innovation Lab participants – through business-led Innovation Labs.

The 2019 UNLEASH Innovation Lab took place from 6-13 November in Shenzhen, China. Throughout the five day UNLEASH process, the Talent were guided through a series of lessons, simulations, and tests designed to provide the foundation for truly actionable solutions.

In 2019, Deloitte and UNLEASH also collaborated on UNLEASH+, which is a pre-accelerator program to help ready solutions to go to market. Teams of former UNLEASH participants were invited to join the UNLEASH+ track this year. These teams worked on innovations such as HIV detection via chewing gum, education through Virtual Reality, and using by-catch fish to create new nutritious products.

Applying innovation expertise to accelerate solutions

As Lead Innovation Partner for UNLEASH, Deloitte supported the design, delivery and facilitation of the innovation labs that are at the heart of the UNLEASH process. Over the past three years, Deloitte has co-developed a lab curriculum that utilizes Deloitte’s distinct innovation facilitation processes to support UNLEASH talents as they translate their ideas into actionable solutions.

UNLEASH was truly a global activation for Deloitte, with teams from around the world contributing to the success of the Innovation Labs. In 2019, 49 professionals from 18 countries traveled to China to facilitate these Labs during the Summit. A further 10 Deloitte professionals from 8 countries attended the Summit as Talents. Participation in the UNLEASH Lab provided a unique opportunity for these Deloitte professionals to enhance their ability to make a positive societal impact.