CAN CORPORATES INNOVATE LIKE A STARTUP?

Almost every industry is currently facing disruption from startups who aren’t bound by convention and bureaucracy when it comes to solving problems the consumer faces in all elements of their life. We have heard the stories of fabled Unicorns (organisations valued at >$1 billion) like Airbnb, Slack, Tesla and WeWork that seem to have appeared from nowhere. And it seems that the brightest minds and top talent has also switched from beating down the door of Wall Street in a suit to nabbing jobs via social media to wear sneakers in Silicon Valley.

Naturally, corporates who are fast losing market share as their consumer and employee brand cachet decreases are wondering how they can compete in the new, faster-paced marketplace. Is innovation the answer?

Before rushing into jumping on the innovation bandwagon with an expensive solution (along with adding ‘Innovation’ to their list of values, of course), firms should be aware that only 0.2% of startups have a success rate versus more cautious but resource-rich corporates who have a 12.5% success rate.

So what is the solution? Whilst there isn’t necessarily a neat answer, this is exactly the challenge that The Acquire Group set as a discussion topic, led by Slingshot, last week at their Executive Leader’s dinner.

Culture is key to tackling the innovation challenge, especially in terms of willingness to take risks and challenge their own previous successes. Boards need to recognise that what got the organisation here isn’t going to get them there. At a minimum, viewing innovation through a ‘risk’ lens might be the only way for many to ensure they are motivated to take action.

Whilst it will require some uncomfortable self-assessment, humbleness and open communication, it is critical for ongoing success. The outcome of not addressing this in the boardroom is quite simply that their business will not survive.

Slingshot is a corporate accelerator that partners corporates with startups to enable them to gain collectively in delivering a great consumer and employee experience. Simply put, each others’ strengths are the others’ weaknesses so 1 + 1 = 3.

The Acquire Group is always delighted to bring together amazing people in our community to discuss thought provoking topics over food and wine and last week was no exception.

We were proud to host over 40 executives from Adshel, AFTRS, Beam Suntory, Bloom Chemist, BresicWhitney, Breville, Broadcast Australia, CBRE, Coca Cola Amatil, Cover-more, CSR, David Jones, Dentsu, Diageo, Domain, Endemol Shine, Fairfax, Finity, Fox, Fox Sports, Frucor, Goodman Fielder, Greencross, HiPages, HT&E, Kmart Tyres, Kellogg’s, Macquarie Telecom, Mauri (George Weston Foods), McGrath, Message Media, Northcott, oOh! Media, Optus, Partners in Performance, Qualtrics, Safety Culture, SBS, Stockland, Stryker, TAFE, Tourism Australia and Westpac.

The Acquire Group is always keen to connect with innovative leaders across the Finance, Strategy and HR functional areas, so please contact us to discuss how you are meeting this challenge.