Building Digital Growth from Within for Aptar Pharma
We partnered with Aptar Pharma to design and run a remote intrapreneurship programme, realising digital growth opportunities and building internal innovation capabilities across regions.
Context
Manufacturing Disruption in a Shifting Global Landscape
Aptar is a global leader in drug delivery systems, consumer product dispensing, and active material science solutions — serving industries from pharmaceuticals to food and beauty. With over 13,000 employees across 20 countries, the company operates at scale and at the forefront of manufacturing innovation.
But like many in the sector, Aptar faces mounting change: evolving consumer value chains, increased sustainability expectations, and regulatory shifts. The digital landscape offers new possibilities — enabling collaboration, optimisation, and innovation at the systems level.
Aptar recognised that digital transformation wouldn’t come from technology alone — but from empowering its people. They asked Studio Zao to help shape a regional intrapreneurship programme that could uncover new digital opportunities while cultivating innovation capabilities from within.
“Working with Studio Zao has been innovative and refreshing. Their methodology has shaped our Digital and AI strategy, helping us navigate VUCA challenges with agility. We’ve developed real digital innovation use cases across Pharma, Beauty, and LATAM teams, incorporating their lean methodology to minimise risk and boost business success.”
Approach
A Structured Journey from Alignment to Activation
We worked with Aptar to develop a tailored, intrapreneurship programme — starting with the Latin America region. The objectives were twofold:
Launch a digital innovation pipeline by generating high-potential digital propositions with short- and long-term business value
Develop internal innovation capability by equipping teams with entrepreneurial tools and mindsets to drive sustainable innovation over time
The four-month programme covered the full innovation cycle, from strategic alignment to pitching, delivered entirely remotely across geographies.
Intrapreneurship
The programme was built around a clear innovation flow:
Strategic alignment with senior leaders to define ambition and parameters
Innovation brief refinement to ensure clarity and relevance of problem areas
Customer discovery and validation to ground ideas in real needs
Ideation and prototyping to explore and test viable solutions
Business case development and pitching to build buy-in and move ideas forward
Participants worked in cross-functional teams, supported by expert coaching and collaborative tools, to take ideas from concept to pitch.
Impact
Embedding Capability, Delivering Impact
The programme delivered a portfolio of new digital initiatives, with propositions mapped to Aptar’s strategic priorities. More importantly, it established a repeatable model for intrapreneurship — one that will continue to cultivate innovation culture and unlock regional opportunities.
By enabling internal teams to act as entrepreneurs within the organisation, Aptar is laying the foundation for sustained, people-led digital transformation.