Wavestone and why innovation! open a new growth chapter in Asia

Yann Hamon


Joy Wang


Yann Hamon and Joy Wang, co-founders of why innovation! talk about their merger with Wavestone and their joint growth prospects in Asia. 

Wavestone and why innovation! joined forces in October 2021. To refresh our memory, can you introduce why innovation! again?

Yann:  Founded in 2011, why innovation! is a digital consulting firm based in Singapore and Hong Kong, specializing in agile transformation and digital innovation. Over the past years, why innovation! has helped major clients in Finance, Transport, Retail and Healthcare industries in Asia. We have been delivering sustainable and practical outcomes through consulting, coaching, and training.

And why joining Wavestone?

Yann:We came to know Wavestone back in 2015 when one of Wavestone’s partners visited Singapore, exploring new territories for the company in Asia. We started partnering on cybersecurity projects. The trust-based relationship between both firms since the signing of our partnership in 2015, and why innovation!’s footprint, clientele and market positioning created a fantastic environment to pursue a joint entrepreneurial project in the Asia-Pacific region.

By combining our strengths and diversifying our skill set and profiles, we have the potential to address bigger transformation programs for our clients, and we are building a solid value proposition in the Asia-Pacific region. It is fully in line with Impact, as one of Wavestone’s priority is to accelerate the growth of its international activities and to capture new large international clients.

Wavestone’s expertise (IT transformation as well as technology innovation) and ours (most of our experts come with a strong IT background while others have a product management/business experience), allow us to offer holistic support to the digital transformation programs of our clients. We are creating conditions to start a new growth chapter in Asia!

Joy: Also, our relationship has been strengthened based on the feeling that we do share common values. For example, what unites us is a very Asian value: Care. We care for our customers and always put them at the center of what we do. We care for the quality of our delivery and strive for excellence in our practice. And we care for each other! It allowed us to start working together immediately.

Can you tell us about the common ambitions of why innovation! and Wavestone?

Joy:Our common ambition is to go to market with a wide portfolio of services to support the whole Digital Transformation Programs of our clients in the region. We have quite a few common clients in the region where we wish to cross-sell our respective services while targeting new clients with a joint, unified offer. And there are so many new players in the market!

Today, the priority for our clients is to create a new digital business model and to reinvent the way they engage with their customers and automatize their backend processes. It is a booming market that embraces digitalization at an unprecedented pace! One other huge shift is regarding management styles, the way companies are going to operate and organize. We are shifting from a control management to much more empowering self-organization.

Yann:  Our common goal is to consolidate our respective positions in Singapore and Hong Kong to develop in each of these markets: resilient, growing, and profitable footprints.

We also plan to leverage the Wavestone client portfolio to start developing a sustainable business with a trial-and-error approach in Shanghai and gathering knowledge regarding opportunities of development in mainland China.