{"id":772,"date":"2019-04-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-30T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/can-big-corporations-can-innovate-better-than-startups-64a6c9f9d3a2\/"},"modified":"2020-04-20T21:29:56","modified_gmt":"2020-04-20T21:29:56","slug":"big-corporations-innovation-better-startups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/big-corporations-innovation-better-startups\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Big Corporations innovate better than Startups?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"c939\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--h3\">Increasingly, Startups are disrupting established companies that are wealthy with resources and most importantly with customers. On February 2019, two founders of modern entrepreneurship\u200a\u2014\u200a<strong class=\"markup--strong markup--p-strong\">Steve Blank<\/strong>, creator of the Lean Startup movement and <strong class=\"markup--strong markup--p-strong\">Alex Osterwalder<\/strong>, inventor of the Business Model Canvas and co-founder of Strategyzer\u200a\u2014\u200adiscussed what it takes for big corporations to innovate better than Startups.<\/p>\n<p id=\"0eb2\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">The <a class=\"markup--anchor markup--p-anchor\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=peCDi1fOfFE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=peCDi1fOfFE\">insightful hour of conversation is available on the Strategyzer youtube channel<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"c8cd\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">Here is the transcript of some extract of the interview.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"fdb3\" class=\"graf graf--h3 graf-after--p\">Today startups are pure competitors<\/h2>\n<p id=\"a582\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--h3\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\"><strong>Alex Osterwalder<\/strong>: <\/em>What makes startups more inclined to innovation and to disrupt industries?<\/p>\n<p id=\"0cd3\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\"><strong>Steve Blank<\/strong>: <\/em>It is worth visualizing startups, companies and government agencies and the percentage of these organizations focused on innovation: 100% for startups, between 0 and 10% focused on innovation for companies and the rest on execution and that\u2019s normal because they already found the product\/market fit, close to 0% for government agencies.<\/p>\n<p id=\"1a65\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">The whole idea of Lean Startup started when we realized that startups are not smaller versions of big companies. Vice versa, a large company is not a larger version of a startup because it\u2019s bound by different constraints than early-stage ventures.<\/p>\n<p id=\"8907\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">In the 20th century, startups were bound by capital, they had a couple of million dollars, today startups have more capital in large rounds than corporations have for their entire yearly budget.<\/p>\n<p id=\"4a98\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">Startups were seen as incubators for large corporations and today they are pure competitors.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"4302\" class=\"graf graf--h3 graf-after--p\">What big corporations can do to respond to&nbsp;startups<\/h2>\n<p id=\"e0e1\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--h3\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\"><strong>Alex Osterwalder<\/strong>:<\/em> A lot of things are working against large corporations. Startups are focused on creating a new growth engine and often it is disrupting the established players and they are extremely well funded now so they go faster.<\/p>\n<p id=\"128a\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">Is there anything that large corporations can do? or is it like a life cycle? Is the fall inevitable?<\/p>\n<p id=\"03af\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\"><strong>Steve Blank<\/strong>: <\/em>You\u2019ve implied there is a natural life cycle to a company. In the 20th century, Deloitte and McKinsey have looked at this and said the average life cycle is about 50 years. Nowadays it\u2019s closer to 15 for a public company. This means something is happening to them, not that CEOs have gone stupider, it\u2019s just that the environment has changed. Yet companies don\u2019t have the tools, methodologies and skill sets to respond. However, there is a cookbook&nbsp;:<\/p>\n<ol class=\"postList\">\n<li id=\"9e6e\" class=\"graf graf--li graf-after--p\">Companies can actually figure out how to incentivize external resources to focus on disruption. For example, Apple on the app store or the Nasa gave money to Space X.<\/li>\n<li id=\"6215\" class=\"graf graf--li graf-after--li\">They can acquire external innovators. For example, Google buying Android. Beware of the risk of mismatched cultures, processes, and incentives. Companies almost always strangle the newly acquired innovation culture unless they are really careful at how they manage disruptive acquisition.<\/li>\n<li id=\"a44b\" class=\"graf graf--li graf-after--li\">The third way is to rapidly copy your innovators but use your business model to dominate. For example, Microsoft copied Netscape web browsers, Google didn\u2019t come up with pay-per-click, it copied Overture\u2019s to sell ads. The risk for large companies is that if you copy without understanding deeply the customer problem, you could end up with solutions that miss the point and might be a failure.<\/li>\n<li id=\"8d54\" class=\"graf graf--li graf-after--li\">The fourth way: innovate better than existing disruptors. It is extremely difficult for companies because it\u2019s more about a culture process problem than a tech problem. Startups are born betting it all but large companies are executing and protecting legacies.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2 id=\"e1b0\" class=\"graf graf--h3 graf-after--li\">Disrupters with off the shelf components!<\/h2>\n<p id=\"a9be\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--h3\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\"><strong>Alex Osterwalder<\/strong>:<\/em> Big corporations say they can collaborate with startups. Can something come out of that? What are the guidelines to make something work?<\/p>\n<p id=\"50b2\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\"><strong>Steve Blank<\/strong>:<\/em> It goes back to culture and leadership in large corporations. I remind people that large companies have handbooks of processes, financial metrics, culture, all built in and focused on execution. They recognized that the bills are being paid by people who are just turning the crank.<\/p>\n<p id=\"5e53\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">But companies need to become ambidextrous: chew gum and walk at the same time! They need to be able to execute and have an innovation culture in parallel. In the 20th century, it was a \u201cnice to have\u201d, in the 21st century it is a requirement. However, the problems still remain.<\/p>\n<p id=\"c9d6\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">Companies are almost always run by horizon 1 executors. CEOs who are great at playing golf, understanding sales, numbers, managing process and all. The innovation stuff they know the words but never came up with that culture.<\/p>\n<p id=\"fa1f\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">Now they are dealing with disruptors who in the old days would have required years to come up with some tech disruption. Now disruptors can get off the shelf components and commodity components and come up with the disruption of business models, that\u2019s what\u2019s scary.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"6e5c\" class=\"graf graf--h3 graf-after--p\">Get disruption out of execution organizations<\/h2>\n<p id=\"4094\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--h3\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\"><strong>Alex Osterwalder<\/strong>:<\/em> In terms of metrics, ambidextrous organizations, cultural space, innovation, what can large organizations learn from startups that they don\u2019t have today?<\/p>\n<p id=\"e04b\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\"><strong>Steve Blank<\/strong>: <\/em>If you wanna do something disruptive, it cannot sit inside an operating division of a functional organization. It is important to distinguish between incremental innovation and adjacent innovation (level 2).<\/p>\n<p id=\"c762\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">If you truly want the disruptive stuff, it cannot start inside. Why? Because we\u2019ve seen this all the time: no budget, not possible to hire the best assets, resource allocation doesn\u2019t allow it. If you\u2019re not committed, don\u2019t do this.<\/p>\n<p id=\"4bce\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">If we just put these people in an internal incubator or accelerator, we\u2019re also going to fail. We have created an innovation theatre and not an innovation pipeline (an end to end process). That is the ambidextrous part.<\/p>\n<p id=\"c3a5\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">What\u2019s the equivalent to a process driven, stage gate driven engineering process that takes a year to get a product out versus a fast track operated speed emergency and deliver MVPs that are just good enough process that actually gets things out of the door?<\/p>\n<p id=\"76bf\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">Right now we seem to confuse innovation with what needs a demo, like a startup but forget we need to connect it to delivery. How does this get to a customer? Typically innovation teams don\u2019t want to have those political battles on day one. However, if you\u2019re not having those conversations about what an end-to-end pipeline looks like for innovation delivery then welcome to t-shirts and cool coffee cups but you\u2019re ain\u2019t going to deliver anything.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"5402\" class=\"graf graf--h3 graf-after--p\">Failure in large corporations is not the same thing as in&nbsp;startups<\/h2>\n<p id=\"3e6f\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--h3\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\"><strong>Alex Osterwalder<\/strong>: <\/em>Organisations often copy the part of startups that is the least impactful. How to copy the attitude to failure embraced by the startup world?<\/p>\n<p id=\"655f\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\"><strong>Steve Blank<\/strong>:<\/em> Another reason why you want to pull innovation groups out of execution groups is that in a large corporation, we have job specifications and descriptions. Title on a business line, detailed job specs. In a large corporation, it comes from HR. This job has been done before, we know what the requirements are, what you need to do day-to-day and we know how to measure you. Failure in a large corporation for the execution part is a real failure.<\/p>\n<p id=\"9122\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">In a startup, there is no job specification. On day one, we\u2019re just guessing, that\u2019s why failure is not a failure in a startup. Failure is actually learning and discovery, we\u2019re doing hypothesis testing. We\u2019re taking every part of the business model canvas that we built and say let\u2019s run experiments here and we\u2019re gonna get data, derive some insights and invalidate our hypothesis based on the data.<\/p>\n<p id=\"40d8\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">It is not the same mindset compared to execution.<\/p>\n<p id=\"8e6b\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">You need a different set of measurement tools and a different culture. One group is doing execution of the business model and the other one is searching for a business model.<\/p>\n<p id=\"3a68\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">The incubator is part of the innovation pipeline but if you don\u2019t have the connecting tissues from sourcing innovation to delivering the product, you haven\u2019t build anything productive.<\/p>\n<p id=\"0e2e\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\"><strong class=\"markup--strong markup--p-strong\">Don\u2019t confuse motion with action.<\/strong> The goal is not for you to demo cool stuff. A chunk of big corporations are having fun incorporating what they think is innovation. The actual goal is to deliver on time stuff with speed emergency that people need.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"5ac6\" class=\"graf graf--h3 graf-after--p\">Entrepreneurship is a&nbsp;calling<\/h2>\n<p id=\"68ef\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--h3\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\"><strong>Alex Osterwalder<\/strong>:<\/em> Many of the entrepreneurs who succeed don\u2019t succeed on the first time. They understand the innovation pipeline because they\u2019ve done it from end to end several times. Can entrepreneurship be learned? Is it a profession that can be learned over time?<\/p>\n<p id=\"c590\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\"><strong>Steve Blank<\/strong>:<\/em> I was a practitioner and now I\u2019m an educator. For founders, entrepreneurship and startups are a calling, not a job. If you\u2019re not called, you shouldn\u2019t be anywhere near a startup. Entrepreneurship is a miserable job. It\u2019s much like being an artist. Most of the time, it\u2019s not fun, you\u2019re doing it because this a calling, passion, you\u2019re driven to do this. We\u2019re having fun because we are engaged with our passion, not by a job specification.<\/p>\n<p id=\"352d\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">We should separate the early stage team from the later stage team. Almost every successful startup has at least two people, that\u2019s the entrepreneur paired with the innovator. It\u2019s very rarely embodied in a single person. The innovator might be the Steve Wozniak who came up with the Apple 2 but there would not have an Apple without the entrepreneur who is Steve Job who could create a reality distortion field and remove money from people\u2019s wallet before he had anything and convince investors he was going to change the world.<\/p>\n<p id=\"7623\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">Or Bill Gates versus Paul Allen. Paul Allen innovated and Bill Gates was the business strategist, he built the distribution channel and was the one to turn Microsoft into the company it became. Elon Musk doesn\u2019t build rockets engines or cars, it\u2019s JB Straubel who you never hear about who came up with the entire battery architecture used in Tesla cars. For every startup, you see that pairing almost from the beginning.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"38b1\" class=\"graf graf--h3 graf-after--p\">Why an Innovation pipeline?<\/h2>\n<p id=\"9064\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--h3\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\"><strong>Steve Blank<\/strong>: <\/em>In a large corporation, the entrepreneur is someone who knows how to push products unto the finish line. But in the past, we kept telling these stories of heroic innovation without realizing that maybe we should build a repeatable process internal to companies rather than making those stories a one-off. That\u2019s why we came up with an innovation pipeline which says let\u2019s start with sourcing and get a whole lot of internal and external ideas into the company and then let\u2019s do problem curation (figuring out the solution sourced match any problem that potential customers might have), then let\u2019s prioritize the things we have in our pipeline either by product line or by horizon 1, 2 and 3 and then let\u2019s do hypotheses testing and solution interviews. Finally, some of it might actually require integration.<\/p>\n<p id=\"5a64\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">The last part about pipeline which most people ignore (and that\u2019s why the stuff die) is how we integrate this into our existing channels or engineering organizations or functional units to get it out of the door or if it\u2019s unique enough we get internal funding to stand it up as unique division or sales channel. That\u2019s a good internal process.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"1586\" class=\"graf graf--h3 graf-after--p\">The Innovator versus the Entrepreneur<\/h2>\n<p id=\"6389\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--h3\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\"><strong>Steve Blank<\/strong>: <\/em>You must be passionately committed to get stuff out of the building and see your idea turn into something used by thousands of people, then you are at the right place.<\/p>\n<p id=\"8b9a\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">I\u2019ve seen people get confused because entrepreneurship is trendy and is the thing to do.<\/p>\n<p id=\"a654\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">To me, an innovator is someone who has an insight about creating something that never existed before or making something that exists much better. In Silicon Valley, we tend to think of technology innovation but it could be an innovation about a channel opportunity or pricing or something that is unique. Most innovators are not the same people who would go out and raise a million dollar for that idea or even, within a company, figure out how to convince your sales channel to do something different or convince your CEO or your board to invest in a new factory. It takes a different character. Those are entrepreneurs, people who know how to make something happen against all odds. It\u2019s not the same as an innovator. The combination is very rare.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"f8c4\" class=\"graf graf--h3 graf-after--p\"><strong class=\"markup--strong markup--h3-strong\">Using internal resources to pivot to an adjacent&nbsp;market<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p id=\"8456\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--h3\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\"><strong>Alex Osterwalder<\/strong>:<\/em> Is it imaginable to have inside companies corporate entrepreneurs on a salary that get the same kind of results that entrepreneurs get? Take action on venture money or on a salary is very different. Can those two exist or can it only happen outside of the corporate world?<\/p>\n<p id=\"52fe\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\"><strong>Steve Blank<\/strong>:<\/em> It can happen in large companies but in a different way. Companies are at a huge advantage when they figure out how to embrace innovation in both strategy and tactical operations getting an innovation pipeline.<\/p>\n<p id=\"98cf\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">For example, Spotify decided that they\u2019ve been looking at the world incorrectly, they shouldn\u2019t just aggregate music, their additional business model should be monetizing podcasts. Both of them are audio and nowadays people listen to music as much as they do podcasts on their mobile devices. It\u2019s just bits. Except that one doesn\u2019t have a gatekeeper (like the music industry). Spotify said why don\u2019t we try to become the dominant player in monetizing podcasts and use the same tools and technology to do that. That\u2019s an amazing example of a company using its internal resources to pivot to an adjacent market and say \u201cwe already own 10 of millions of users who are paying us for music, why don\u2019t we just get them over to podcasts\u201d. Just like Apple turned to phones from computers. It was a major pivot for a company but they used what they had: massive brand loyalty, manufacturing resources, supply chain resources.<\/p>\n<p id=\"d93b\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">I see a lot of large companies having a lot of resources but they need to take advantage of these resources. This goes back to leadership. If leadership is just interested in fending off investors, spending money buying their shares back, they don\u2019t give enough time to pivoting.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"1cf0\" class=\"graf graf--h3 graf-after--p\">An innovator, an entrepreneur, a delivering process?<\/h2>\n<p id=\"f4b6\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--h3\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\"><strong>Alex Osterwalder<\/strong>: <\/em>How realistic is it to create the role of the entrepreneur inside of a large company to boost innovation culture?<\/p>\n<p id=\"8f80\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\"><strong>Steve Blank<\/strong>: <\/em>The difference between giving labels and creating teams. Almost every great product or service begins with this question: Step 1, is there an innovator? Step 2, is there an entrepreneur paired with this innovator who wants to take that idea and expose it to the world? Step 3, is there a process built end to end that helps this team deliver that product or service?<\/p>\n<p id=\"bac3\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">What we need to do first is to develop this process and have a pipeline. If you don\u2019t agree with what the process is, starting with job titles and specifications seems backward. You just want the most passionate people into this.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"40e5\" class=\"graf graf--h3 graf-after--p\">Companies whose culture is already innovative<\/h2>\n<p id=\"8a45\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--h3\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\"><strong>Alex Osterwalder<\/strong>: <\/em>Do you think that the large companies, historic companies of the past never really laid down this process to be adaptable?<\/p>\n<p id=\"cbf8\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">Some of the most innovative companies are still being led by their founders: SpaceX, Apple when Jobs was alive, Netflix, Tesla, Amazon.<\/p>\n<p id=\"a44d\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">You must build innovation in your culture and then the process flows down. Life cycles in most industries are compressing.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"c0dc\" class=\"graf graf--h3 graf-after--p\">Large corporations have natural corporate innovators. Do they know where they&nbsp;are?<\/h2>\n<p id=\"d94d\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--h3\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\"><strong>Alex Osterwalder<\/strong>: <\/em>What I observe is that it\u2019s not a people problem. Do you think that companies have to work more on their talent recruitment?<\/p>\n<p id=\"f0cf\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\"><strong>Steve Blank<\/strong>:<\/em> There are more innovators and entrepreneurs in large companies than in the startup world, They just made different career choices but they are there. What they lack is a process that allows them to innovate and execute at the same time. Companies beat out of these people the experimentation and risk-taking mindset.<\/p>\n<p id=\"6d41\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">Where do these creative people go inside your company to pull this off? What\u2019s their goal for delivering stuff and how is it resourced? If you can\u2019t find a space for them in your company, you are going to have a bunch of frustrated people in your company who might leave or might not be contributing up to their potential.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"7ff0\" class=\"graf graf--h3 graf-after--p\">For innovations to&nbsp;emerge<\/h2>\n<p id=\"211d\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--h3\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\"><strong>Alex Osterwalder<\/strong>:<\/em> So it leads us back to these ambidextrous organization. We need to create this physical space, mental space, and incentive program so that entrepreneurs can emerge.<\/p>\n<p id=\"2165\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">That\u2019s when the horizon model can arise. How does this horizon model H1, H2, H3 from McKinsey apply? Can you elaborate on that because it is very much related to this topic of disruption?<\/p>\n<p id=\"daf8\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\"><strong>Steve Blank<\/strong>:<\/em> There are still disruptive ideas which require years to build. A lot of physics and construction experts say it is going to take a couple of years. A lot of things require time but the key idea is that startups and you have realized you could build disruptive ideas with existing components of just reconfiguring the business model. Uber did not require a ton of new technology. They realized they had internet, drivers, here you have a new business model. Airbnb certainly did not require a new set of inventions. They needed software to manage their service but it was a business model innovation. Those type of H3 innovations looked like minimum viable products to large companies, they start the business without all the features\u2026 but it\u2019s very disruptive. Or the scooters out there are now billion dollars market cap opportunities. Good enough and disruptive is very different from \u201cI\u2019ve got a 100 000 customers I can\u2019t ship this thing, it didn\u2019t pass the QA and the policy meeting and the strategy committee\u201d. Meanwhile, other people are throwing stuff out and refactoring it and working on their product\/market fit in the field. <strong class=\"markup--strong markup--p-strong\">It makes companies incredibly nervous.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p id=\"47c7\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">The problem is the people who are implementing those disruptive strategies building disruption out of H1 existing tools are not the incumbent, they\u2019re the attackers. They have nothing to lose, no legacy to support, no infrastructure to support and no customers and brand to worry about.<\/p>\n<p id=\"8e0a\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">The minute where you hear your legal team who says \u201cyou can\u2019t do that\u201d you realize you don\u2019t have the fast track innovation pipeline where the focus is speed, emergency, and product delivery.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"33e8\" class=\"graf graf--h3 graf-after--p\">From business model writing class to experiential class<\/h2>\n<p id=\"fec8\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--h3\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\"><strong>Alex Osterwalder<\/strong>:<\/em> What are the most important things we need to teach entrepreneurs or corporate entrepreneurs?<\/p>\n<p id=\"2dac\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\"><strong>Steve Blank<\/strong>: <\/em>The capstone class in big universities often was \u201chow to write a business model with a 5-year forecast\u201d but we know that <strong class=\"markup--strong markup--p-strong\">no business model survives first contact with customers<\/strong>. That\u2019s not how the world worked. Of course, you need an operating plan. There is no way that sitting in your office you could pre-compute customer needs and desires. So I came up with this line \u201c<strong class=\"markup--strong markup--p-strong\">there are no facts in the building so get outside!<\/strong>\u201d and that became the heart of customer discovery and customer development. The classes have now been adapted. They are team-based, they are experiential, students go talking to customers, and built around hypotheses testing of your business model canvas. You think that\u2019s your customers, run tests and find out. You think that\u2019s the 10 features they\u2019re gonna want? Let\u2019s build an MVP. In the classes I teach, these <strong class=\"markup--strong markup--p-strong\">teams talked to 150 clients in 10 weeks and build an MVP every week!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p id=\"231d\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">I figured if students could do that, this could be the core of what could be the innovation pipeline inside a company. Surround that with innovation sourcing, prioritization, problem curation and then figuring how you can integrate this stuff with the rest of your organization, you\u2019ve got a plan.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"eb7a\" class=\"graf graf--h3 graf-after--p\">Investing in skills training to transform an organization<\/h2>\n<p id=\"b588\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--h3\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\"><strong>Alex Osterwalder<\/strong>: <\/em>Experiential is important. When we work with teams, we train them and then they go back to the execution engine and we get a new team so they don\u2019t accumulate enough experience with this process to really stick to it and they go back to the execution process.<\/p>\n<p id=\"5574\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\"><strong>Steve Blank<\/strong>:<\/em> Seniors don\u2019t realize how much you must invest on corporate entrepreneurs\/innovators for them to really become professional.<\/p>\n<p id=\"5b43\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">We want to build successful entrepreneurs and innovators inside companies that are not afraid to experiment and learn and discover. This goes back to this culture of failure. In Silicon Valley, if you have an honest failure, we call that experience.<\/p>\n<p id=\"2248\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">Make sure that you have a culture that supports successful innovation and entrepreneurship, not just that you deliver something at speed emergency, it\u2019s about that \u201cdid you rapidly gather enough insights to kill your project\u201d?<\/p>\n<p id=\"3cf3\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">I see a lot of Zombie projects that never die. Because there are no internal metrics and there are <strong class=\"markup--strong markup--p-strong\">no kudos to be able to shut down your own project<\/strong> because you\u2019re afraid you\u2019ll never get another chance at it. With ambidextrous organizations where the culture and pipeline process are very different from a stage gate and execution process, you will get ahead.<\/p>\n<p id=\"b5ba\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">This pipeline I describe for Horizon 3 companies can also be implemented inside Horizon 1 and Horizon 2 organizations. It just has a very different focus inside those organizations. In those organizations, these pipelines become very tactical and focused on incremental revenue gains for quarterly stuff but it\u2019s the same process, it just has a different focus and culture.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"4001\" class=\"graf graf--h3 graf-after--p\">A startup is a matter of survival\u200a\u2014\u200aLarge corp can never get&nbsp;there<\/h2>\n<p id=\"8fdb\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--h3\">Do entrepreneurs move from startups to large companies or are they not the same people?<\/p>\n<p id=\"8a29\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\"><strong>Steve Blank<\/strong>: <\/em>In a large company if you think you are doing a startup, you are wrong. You\u2019re innovating but you are still in a place where the lights won\u2019t go out if you don\u2019t succeed. You are still going to pay your mortgage and put your kids to school if your idea fails.<\/p>\n<p id=\"1e4e\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\"><strong class=\"markup--strong markup--p-strong\">A startup is a year and half of terror.<\/strong> If you don\u2019t find product\/market fit or you don\u2019t raise enough at the next round, you\u2019re out of business. In a company, that sword over your head doesn\u2019t exist so it <strong class=\"markup--strong markup--p-strong\">changes the nature and motivation and the amount of risk you\u2019re willing to take<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"6979\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p\">I\u2019m not suggesting that one is better than the other, but as much as you try to emulate a startup in a company, you just can\u2019t get there exactly.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"26a6\" class=\"graf graf--h3 graf-after--p\">And for small-size companies?<\/h2>\n<p id=\"f8e3\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--h3\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\"><strong>Alex Osterwalder<\/strong>:<\/em> How can small and medium-sized companies deal with this topic?<\/p>\n<p id=\"5911\" class=\"graf graf--p graf-after--p graf--trailing\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\"><strong>Steve Blank<\/strong>: <\/em>Whether you are large or small, you still have to think about your customers, the product-market fit and should be running these exercises continually. <strong class=\"markup--strong markup--p-strong\">Lean Startup is an invaluable toolset whatever your scale<\/strong>. However, you must be wary of what you read. When you get venture capital that allows different scales compared to small capital. If you are a small business, be careful not to compare apples and oranges.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>If you want to learn more about how to think and move like a startup, contact me on <a class=\"markup--anchor markup--blockquote-anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/tangostartcompany\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/tangostartcompany\">Tango<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Increasingly, Startups are disrupting established companies that are wealthy with resources and most importantly with customers. On February 2019, two founders of modern entrepreneurship\u200a\u2014\u200aSteve Blank, &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,10,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-corporate-entrepreneur","category-innovation","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Can Big Corporations innovate better than Startups? - Digital Evolution<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discussion with Steve Blank (the Lean Startup movement) and Alex Osterwalder (the Business Model Canvas) about what it takes for big corporations to innovate better than Startups.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/big-corporations-innovation-better-startups\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can Big Corporations innovate better than Startups? - Digital Evolution\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Discussion with Steve Blank (the Lean Startup movement) and Alex Osterwalder (the Business Model Canvas) about what it takes for big corporations to innovate better than Startups.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/big-corporations-innovation-better-startups\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Digital Evolution\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-04-30T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-04-20T21:29:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/wp-content\/uploads\/Big-corporation-and-innovation.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"525\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Franck\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Franck\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"19 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/big-corporations-innovation-better-startups\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/big-corporations-innovation-better-startups\/\",\"name\":\"Can Big Corporations innovate better than Startups? - Digital Evolution\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/big-corporations-innovation-better-startups\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/big-corporations-innovation-better-startups\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/wp-content\/uploads\/Big-corporation-and-innovation.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-04-30T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-04-20T21:29:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/#\/schema\/person\/5a14cc5ea46a35beff4a3bc64068b791\"},\"description\":\"Discussion with Steve Blank (the Lean Startup movement) and Alex Osterwalder (the Business Model Canvas) about what it takes for big corporations to innovate better than Startups.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/big-corporations-innovation-better-startups\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/big-corporations-innovation-better-startups\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/big-corporations-innovation-better-startups\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/wp-content\/uploads\/Big-corporation-and-innovation.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/wp-content\/uploads\/Big-corporation-and-innovation.jpeg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":525,\"caption\":\"Big corporation and innovation\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/big-corporations-innovation-better-startups\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Can Big Corporations innovate better than Startups?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/\",\"name\":\"Digital Evolution\",\"description\":\"Notes from Franck Debane\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/#\/schema\/person\/5a14cc5ea46a35beff4a3bc64068b791\",\"name\":\"Franck\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c3c83110ba8806a2bdc3c2e42b7481a73540852cfe4417a873aed3470c7a9c87?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c3c83110ba8806a2bdc3c2e42b7481a73540852cfe4417a873aed3470c7a9c87?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Franck\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/author\/franck\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Can Big Corporations innovate better than Startups? - Digital Evolution","description":"Discussion with Steve Blank (the Lean Startup movement) and Alex Osterwalder (the Business Model Canvas) about what it takes for big corporations to innovate better than Startups.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/big-corporations-innovation-better-startups\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Can Big Corporations innovate better than Startups? - Digital Evolution","og_description":"Discussion with Steve Blank (the Lean Startup movement) and Alex Osterwalder (the Business Model Canvas) about what it takes for big corporations to innovate better than Startups.","og_url":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/big-corporations-innovation-better-startups\/","og_site_name":"Digital Evolution","article_published_time":"2019-04-30T00:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-04-20T21:29:56+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":525,"url":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/wp-content\/uploads\/Big-corporation-and-innovation.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Franck","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Franck","Est. reading time":"19 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/big-corporations-innovation-better-startups\/","url":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/big-corporations-innovation-better-startups\/","name":"Can Big Corporations innovate better than Startups? - Digital Evolution","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/big-corporations-innovation-better-startups\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/big-corporations-innovation-better-startups\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/wp-content\/uploads\/Big-corporation-and-innovation.jpeg","datePublished":"2019-04-30T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-04-20T21:29:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/#\/schema\/person\/5a14cc5ea46a35beff4a3bc64068b791"},"description":"Discussion with Steve Blank (the Lean Startup movement) and Alex Osterwalder (the Business Model Canvas) about what it takes for big corporations to innovate better than Startups.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/big-corporations-innovation-better-startups\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/big-corporations-innovation-better-startups\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/big-corporations-innovation-better-startups\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/wp-content\/uploads\/Big-corporation-and-innovation.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/wp-content\/uploads\/Big-corporation-and-innovation.jpeg","width":1024,"height":525,"caption":"Big corporation and innovation"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/big-corporations-innovation-better-startups\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Can Big Corporations innovate better than Startups?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/#website","url":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/","name":"Digital Evolution","description":"Notes from Franck Debane","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/#\/schema\/person\/5a14cc5ea46a35beff4a3bc64068b791","name":"Franck","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c3c83110ba8806a2bdc3c2e42b7481a73540852cfe4417a873aed3470c7a9c87?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c3c83110ba8806a2bdc3c2e42b7481a73540852cfe4417a873aed3470c7a9c87?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Franck"},"url":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/author\/franck\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=772"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":972,"href":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772\/revisions\/972"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debane.org\/franck\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}