Telefónica’s Lean Elephant Model: How A 100,000-Person Telco Is Built Like A Startup

Most innovation dies because it tries to grow in the wrong environment.

• Too many approvals

• Too much politics

• Too much fear of rocking the boat

Even Telefónica (a £50B, 100,000-person Spanish telco) saw it happening inside their own walls.

So in 2012, they built a system called Lean Elephants.

It’s one of the most influential intrapreneurship frameworks in the world today.

And there’s a lot in here worth stealing, whether you’re a 10-person agency or a 1,000-person scale-up.

This week I’ll dive into how it works and how you can apply it inside your company to find new growth 🚀

From Slow Dinosaur to Fast Elephant

Back in 2012, Telefónica had two things:

1. Lean Startup methodology on the rise

2. Lots of internal talent with ideas… that kept going nowhere

So they launched Innovation Calls:

That was the birth of Lean Elephants:

A system where internal ideas could be incubated like startups, with VC-style stage gates, mentorship, and the power of Telefónica’s network behind them.

Here are The 5 Foundations of Lean Elephants

Here’s what makes it work and what you can steal too:

1. Lean startup principles baked in

Every idea is validated in the market from Day 1.

• Real users

• Real evidence

• Real experiments

No “PowerPoint MVPs”.

2. Stage-gate funding like a VC

Each idea moves through 5 stages:

Each gate has a decision committee and clear evidence requirements.

They only get more budget after hitting specific milestones.

3. Full-time intrapreneurs

Winners of “Innovation Calls” leave their normal roles and focus fully on their venture.

They’re trained, mentored, and coached so there’s no solo flights.

4. Corporate assets as unfair advantage

They don’t start from scratch.

They use Telefónica’s data, customer base, tech infrastructure, and brand trust to move faster.

5. Talent and culture transformation

The program doesn’t just launch products.

It upskills employees, builds resilience, and creates intrapreneurs with startup mindset inside the corporate machine.

What it’s delivered

Over 800 startups accelerated.

55% of them now commercialised with Telefónica.

They have created internal ventures like:

• Wayra: Their innovation hub, now global

• ElevenPaths: A cybersecurity unit that spun out, scaled up, and re-integrated into Telefónica Tech

• Tootle: A used car marketplace born in Chile

• Geographica: Acquired for AI + geospatial tech

Hundreds of millions in funding and returns, not just innovation theatre.

The ROI hasn’t just been financial, it’s also cultural.

They now have a repeatable system to find, test, and scale ideas, without draining the core business.

Concepts You Can Apply Today

Whether you’re running an agency, SaaS business, or ops-heavy scale-up, this is how you build new growth engines without derailing the core:

1. Create a “10 Fridays” initiative

• Let your team pitch ideas and work on them 1 day/week for 10 weeks

• It’s just enough time and permission to see if there’s something there

2. Use VC-style stage gates

• Set clear milestones for every new idea (customer interviews, NPS, revenue trials, etc.)

• Only unlock more time/budget if those metrics are hit

3. Separate “Explore” from “Exploit”

• Don’t try to run innovation through BAU processes

• Create a sandbox, an internal incubator, or even a skunkworks team

4. Train your team in startup thinking

• Telefónica doesn’t assume intrapreneurs are born ready

• They train people in customer dev, analytics, storytelling, and growth loops

5. Make it matter to the mothership

• From Day 1, teams must align to core strategy so that if they succeed, it’s easy to absorb and scale them

Inside ScaleOS: Applying This Concept In Practise

Most CEOs and founders don’t fail because they don’t have enough ideas.

They fail because they can’t find the time, team, or system to bring those ideas to life without nuking the day-to-day.

That’s why Telefónica (yes, the 100,000-person telco) launched their Lean Elephants model.

So they could test and scale big ideas without suffocating them in process.

If a Spanish telecom giant can do it… you’ve got no excuse.

And if you’re short on 100,000 employees, I’ve got frameworks for that too…

ScaleOS launched this week and will help you build systems like this one from Telefónica but 10x faster and with:

• Daily accountability

• Weekly frameworks

• Team clarity

• No wasted energy

If you want to test your own Lean Elephant approach in your business and build the foundations to scale, the accelerator is open now 👇

👉 There are 2 spots left in the September cohort.

DM me “ScaleOS” or hit reply and I’ll send you more information.

Big businesses protect the past.

Smart founders invest in the future.

Let’s get building.

— Alex 👋

MY TOP FINDS OF THE WEEK 🏆

For Your Performance

• Obama dropping insight on how to become the best in your field (Link)

For Your Team

• British & Irish Lions team talk motivation from a surprise guest… 👀 (Link)

For Your Health

• Cristiano’s Ronaldo’s exact sleep routine when speaking to the Whoop founder (Link)