The Power of the Beginner‘s Mind: How we Build New Ventures with Forward31
„Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one is thinking of changing himself“ — Leo Tolstoi
We at Porsche are the garage where it all started. A bold dream of a man who followed his heart – and nobody else. In 1931, Ferdinand Porsche decided to change himself after a renowned career with the most famous car companies in the world. He founded his engineering office and experimented with a variety of ideas and directions before deciding to develop the sports car as the core business of Porsche. He went ways no one has gone before, explored new perspectives. And he did kind of change the world.
Almost 90 years later, we start a new mission in the spirit of our founder – a mission to reinvent ourselves.
Reinventing ourselves with Forward31
Our mission is called Forward31: As the new company builder by Porsche Digital, we explore strategic opportunities beyond the core business. As the name already suggests, with Foward31, we want to move forward and tap into new business areas.
Located in Berlin, our team of experts builds new ventures together with keen entrepreneurs. Our unfair advantage is the combination of entrepreneurial speed and corporate assets such as funding, a strong network, and great distribution power. Our hands-on approach enables fast-track execution, while the link to the headquarter is crucial for creating a strategic impact.
Why do we do this?
Create new ventures for future business
Business building is no longer a choice, it is an essential discipline that lets incumbents counter disruptive challengers and sustain organic growth. Unlike stand-alone ventures, new ventures built by incumbents can gain decisive advantages from the parent company’s funding, customers, data, intellectual property, technology, and other assets.
„This is the incident, the catalyst. When everybody looks right, you go left. THIS is a Kansas City Shuffle“, Mr. Goodkat, Lucky Number Slevin
When new ventures are intermingled with the main business, projects usually end up fixing problems in the current business instead of finding new paths to growth. For these ventures to have a better chance at success they need room to take risks and try something different. Forward31 is this new home.
We approach this not by having ideas. We strongly believe in opportunity space that is hidden in plain sight. So we are keen to solve the toughest problems of customers in the mobility space. We look in directions in which no one has looked at before. These are on the one hand industry problems, where we find no startups in the current mainstream. On the other hand, we see new target groups who are beyond our core business. Our new ventures work always as platform business models that include competitors and new partners from different industries.
With the power of the beginner‘s mind
„The beginner‘s mind sees many possibilities, the expert’s mind sees only a few“, Shunryu Suzuki
In Japan, there is a phrase which is called „Shoshin“ (初心) – the beginner‘s mind. It refers to having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when approaching a subject, even when studying at an advanced level, just as a beginner would. When the mind is empty, it is always ready for anything, it is open for everything. So we let go of our preconceptions about „how things work“. We ask simple questions and eliminate expectations of what will happen. With this mindset, we are curious to explore the unknown unknown and understand more deeply.
A company is only as strong as the team behind
„We are snowflake. Strong individuals, beautifully combined“ (Japanese Haiku)
The effort of building a company is only as strong as the team behind it. Therefore we include three main elements to our business-building approach of Forward31:
- The strongest business-building cases include entrepreneurs from outside the parent company, who bring valuable experience in leading and building start-ups. They are the secret sauce to make new ventures a success.
- Connectors from the parent company, who help new businesses gain advantages from the parent company’s assets and who have an extensive network within the headquarters.
- A diverse team of specialists in design thinking, business model design, software development, and other business-building disciplines, who lend their expertise until new businesses are large enough to bring in their own specialists.
In addition, Forward31 has the license to kill its projects and authority to scale up new businesses as we see fit, provided that we validate our assumptions and honor the parent company’s strategic objectives.
Network in the heart of entrepreneurship
“Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.” – Ryūnosuke Satoro
Having the right strategy, setup and team is essential. But the most important factor to make new ventures a success is a strong network. Therefore Forward31 spans a global network of partners and entrepreneurs to work with us. To kickstart our activities we have our home base in Berlin in the Factory, where 3,500 entrepreneurs, startups and freelancers as well as corporate, tech players and investors enhance our extensive network.
From here, we want to jump-start and elevate new ventures. We care, we dare to win and go for speed. Are you ready to invent yourself? Join us here!
Dr. Christian Knörle is Head of Company Building at Porsche Digital.
About this publication: Where innovation meets tradition. There’s more to Porsche than sports cars — we’re tackling new challenges, develop digital products and think digital with a focus on the customer. On our Medium blog, we tell these stories. It’s about our #nextvisions, smart technologies and the people that drive our digital journey. Please follow us on Twitter (Porsche Digital, Next Visions), Instagram (Porsche Digital, Next Visions, Porsche Newsroom) and LinkedIn (Porsche AG, Porsche Digital) for more.
