What is Corporate Accelerator Program in Japan
01booster is defined as one of the leading accelerators in Japan.We have experienced to empower more than 40 acceleration programs up to today.
The Corporate Accelerator Program is a program sponsored by a major enterprise or other organization that aims to increase the value of a startup while at the same time creating innovation for the company through a process of supporting external startups. Large companies invest in startups, introduce networks, and provide internal know-how and resources, while startups provide novel ideas and risk-taking execution and agility. Through the Corporate Accelerator Program, leading companies aim to increase the possibility of creating innovations that they cannot achieve on their own, as well as to develop innovative human resources within the company and foster an innovative environment.
A corporate accelerator for a major enterprise leverages the six characteristics to create a business that could not be created by the company alone.
[1] An environmental innovation-focused guerrilla force separate from the main business
New businesses are not created under traditional value standards or decision-making processes. This is because it creates self-denial and conflicts with existing businesses. Therefore, it is necessary to move away from mainstream value standards and decision-making processes. It doesn’t make sense to involve the venture in mainstream values, decision-making processes and internal strictures while hosting an accelerator. That adjustment valve is the accelerator as a player like us.
[2]Leverage the novelty, execution, and commitment of the venture company
What is the most necessary resource to create a new business?
They have the ability to take action, and they are people who will take action with determination and persistence.
Now, it is highly difficult to create, train, and retain such tenacious and determined human resources within existing companies. This is not a question of individual competence, it is a structural issue. That’s why we use external ventures with strong business ownership and a tenacity for business success as the main drivers.
[3] Limit the cost of failure through minority investment
Corporate accelerators are not a “match”.
It’s a tool to create deviant innovation that you can’t generate within your company, even if it sometimes negates your core business and causes conflicts with your business unit.
If you are looking for a subcontractor, you can do the “subcontractor matchmaking” that many major Japanese enterprises have been doing so poorly.
It’s not an “accelerator program,” so let’s just say it’s a “business matching session. In order to plant a number of seeds outside the company, you need to make a number of minor contributions. If you don’t assume an investment, you tend to be “looking for a subcontract”.
[4] Externalize the risk, with the main objective of venture companies
If you want to bring out the resolve and persistence of the above ventures, you have to put the venture in the lead role. On the other hand, as the host company, it is effective to sow as many small seeds as possible when creating high-risk innovations. In order to do so, corporate accelerators need to make a “presumption” that they will take a stake in the company, even if it is a minor one.
[5] Having a sense of speed
The new business validation cycle needs to be rotated fast. It’s hard to turn this fast in today’s major enterprise. That’s why we verify it at the speed of external ventures. If a large company moves in and tries to manage everything or keep up with the slow speed of a large company, the verification speed will decrease.
[6] Challenge many times.
The probability of success of a new business is low; it would be better to try 20 projects and get one successful project. Hence the need for numerous challenges.
On average, about 10 companies are selected for the corporate accelerator, but this is for the purpose of implementing a large number of them. Therefore, we are not looking for a small number of efforts to match and target two or three business cooperation projects. It is nothing less than a search for subcontractors.
The corporate accelerator program is just a tool
In the end, many of the so-called “major enterprise-sponsored accelerator” activities in Japan today tend to take place within the traditional paradigm of major enterprise, and thus do not lead to the creation of deviant innovations that cannot be created within the company, which is the original goal.
Of course, there must have been a lot of learning for the major enterprise that implemented the accelerator program as a methodology for open innovation between the major enterprise and the venture companies. It’s been a very meaningful process and we’ve gained a lot of advantages.
If you don’t essentially work on things that really lead to business creation, you won’t get results.
We are not only a “corporate accelerator” but also a “company that supports open innovation” with the mission of “ creating businesses on a routine basis”.
