Strategyzer: let ideas face their ultimate judge, the customer, as soon as they take shape. Two traps keep companies from testing early: the vision trap, where the vision is so strong that failure seems impossible, as with the Segway; and the business plan trap, where polished numbers hide untested ideas, as with Better Place, bankrupt in 2013 after losing some $850 million. Better to risk cheap failures to avoid a big one.
Franck Debane helps large companies build new ventures with Forward Partners: about a hundred programmes in more than 50 companies since 2012. He wrote Passez en mode startup (Eyrolles, 2021) and organises the Lead Innovation Day.
Short essays by email for people who launch new ventures inside large companies: testing ideas with customers, winning over leadership, using AI without the hype. Plus first invitations to Lead Innovation Day.