The 10 Commandments of Corporate-Startup Collaboration — Part 2
By: Orly Glick
The Do’s
- Do — Publish a CEO Endorsement and Innovation Statement
Prioritize innovation at the very top
Driving motivation for change should start from the top of the organization. We see the most successful innovation execution when the CEO provides her/his blessing with a clear innovation vision and a clear message as for the next step. On the other hand, we meet teams with wonderful ideas that get almost to the finish line but than fail to implement stuck in bureaucracy or internal politics as the organization is too slow and does not have a clear next step thus people are too afraid to make a change.
Corporates might want to create an ‘innovation credo’- similar to the traditional statement of values and beliefs of the company, with the same goal of guiding decision making only that the innovation credo will be catered towards the goals and next steps of innovation. Innovation spirit should be encouraged and employees should be encouraged to collaborate, perhaps even rewarded (recognition is a reward too), in order to build the team spirit and show a clear direction.
2) Do — Dedicate a Powerful Team with a Real Mandate
Theories are great, but when talking execution, it’s all about the people.
We have seen organizations that declare their march into innovation but are stuck in long processes politics and bureaucracy.
The successfully innovating corporates are the ones we have seen that allocate a dedicated team to the process, but more importantly, equips them with budget and a real mandate with actual KPI’s. Too often there will be innovation teams that are excited about their work, but they are not given the right tools or mandate to succeed. Moving from Horizon 1 to Horizon 2 or 3 requires a holistic, 30 thousand feet high view on how things interconnect and alignment of departments or business units is required to be orchestrated. The demand for more consumer data should involve the CTO or CIO group with enabling infrastructure technologies that support that, but on the other hand the dedicated team should be supportive to everyone and not overload CTO and CIO groups with too many new propositions without their buy-in. Orchestration is a key success factor and alignment could take time thus innovation teams have a major challenge and need support straight from the CEO. It’s all about people and the most successfully innovating corporates that we meet are the ones that found a leader that can connect the dots between technology and strategy but also empathetically connect to executive’s own professional needs within the organization. This is sometimes more art than science and the organization often times behaves like a body that discovered a virus and attacks itself, which leads to a system failure.
The successful traditional companies are the ones that have found the right leader that directly reports to the CEO or has a strong mandate and carefully and smartly brings the whole organization on board.
3) Do — Start with Pain-Points and Define Them Well
Define the problem and execute. Action is key.
Going through digital journey corporates run innovation workshops, strategic sessions, offsite meetings, out-of-the box thinking and agile trainings. All of these are important steps but, as in startup land, there should always be actionable next steps in order to move forward. Defining your pain points well is one of the most critical stepping stones to a practical and successful innovation execution.
Verbalizing company pain points does not have to be a 30 page brief (we’ve seen that too), but a short summary about the problem definition is pretty much sufficient to start working with and finding the right matching startups.
As mentioned earlier Pain points usually come from the core product teams and business units, but to augment and support innovation, one should consider and discuss also with other business units and support group. This will help align the organization.
4)Do — Create Quick Wins and Celebrate Them
Bringing the whole organization on board.
Every POC, partnership or other collaboration with a startup should be celebrated and communicated internally to create that positive feedback loop and emphasize the innovation culture. Fear from something new turns into fear of missing out.
Pick one or two of the lowest hanging fruit in the form of pain points that are relatively faster to solve and thus set a goal of one or two commercial engagements with startups for the first year (using the startup as a solution or a technology provider). Work with funds and ecosystem partners to find these startups and than, very important — celebrate those wins. Communicate them internally as well as externally. Build this into your firm-wide evaluation process and into a reward system to align everyone to think innovation.
Next: The don’ts with startups in part 3.
