Your current market position is no guarantee for transforming into a successful digital business. To enhance their innovation capabilities and boost the necessary culture change, many traditional businesses are looking to startups as one option to drive service differentiation.

Transformative innovation supports the shift toward a customer-obsessed strategy. But transformative innovation requires a different innovation culture. The corporate incubator, foundry, and accelerator offer the potential to channel fresh innovation from outside the traditional organization into the traditional organization:

  • Digital start-ups can facilitate business model transformation. Many digital startups comprise elements of acting as an intermediary, broker, or a platform business. Integrating these elements in your organization drives a shift in your business model.
  • Corporate incubators and accelerators make it easier to ideate and test concepts and ideas. An incubator or corporate accelerator offers the potential to channel fresh ideas and innovation from outside into the traditional organization.
  • Many startup founders view corporate accelerators with a degree of suspicion. Anticipate and prepare for founders who worry about their ability to decide their own future. Offer them sufficient independence, and don’t smother the startups.

Large corporates should not overestimate the immediate impact startups can have on their day-to-day operations. Running a corporate incubator, foundry, or accelerator is a marathon, not a sprint. Setting up your corporate incubator or accelerator can be challenging and costly. There are many options for traditional organizations to get involved with startups. Consider your prime business objectives and weigh carefully how you want to interact with startups.

To succeed, the corporate incubator, foundry, and accelerator needs to attract the most creative, innovative, and cutting-edge startup entrepreneurs. The report Leverage The Incubator, Foundry, And Accelerator Model To Drive Transformative Innovation highlights the potential for traditional businesses to work with startups and shares experiences with setting up corporate incubators and accelerators.