Today innovating is not enough, you have to do it fast. Opportunities for large companies and startups.
You do not have to invent business from scratch, nor give up what you know and master, but the digital revolution is a reality and it does not only occur in data-based businesses: any economic activity today is different from what it was ago ten years, and the realities of then are not enough today.
Juan Camilo Quintero, manager of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at ANDI, has worked in innovation management at the university, the State and the company for several years, and believes that at the present time large companies should consider the need to increase the pace and for this they can resort to various means. One of them is to stop being suspicious of entrepreneurs and see them as allies to enter a new paradigm.
For those who work in innovation, the S-curve for the maturation of a technology is a traditional exercise. After the release and growth comes maturation.
Quintero superimposes another graph on top of this graph: companies aspire to be at the top of the curve, but they cannot accept that the maturity line remains horizontal, they must look for a new S to maintain growth. And it is with innovation that he proposes that this curve always continue upwards.
For this reason, he maintains that it is a matter of speed in innovation. And while he ranks companies at the top of the chart, he puts university research at the front of the line. There is a great distance that sometimes does not allow us to innovate at the necessary speed. In the middle are the startups, small, light companies with an innovative vocation, which can provide novel responses and new services in the sector in which the company operates.
faster relationships
Many startups, despite having very powerful products or services, do not overcome the valley of death because:
- They are not clear about their business model
- The leader is absorbed in administrative tasks that distract him from his innovative focus.
ANDI’s Innovation Manager affirms that the purpose should be to “reduce time and space in the relationship between entrepreneurs and businessmen”. In his opinion, this is the network that should operate smoothly in the current circumstances where speed is required. There are many possibilities to co-create between entrepreneurs and startups.
Opportunities for the entrepreneur
- customers for your product.
- Needs in which it can concur in joint processes with businessmen.
- Partners, when your venture is in the sector in which an entrepreneur sees growth opportunities
Opportunities for the entrepreneur
- Innovation paths faster than those that can be given by a person or a research team inside.
- Offers of innovation in response to raised needs.
- Radar in which it detects businesses that it can acquire for growth goals that are often not achieved organically, and that generally have the advantage that they have a technological base that allows them scalability to grow sustainably.
To buy or not to buy
Google bought 19 startups last year , and allocates significant resources to projects where it finds avenues for growth.
Acquisition is always an alternative. If you do, some questions to ask yourself are:
Acquisition is always an alternative. If you do, some questions to ask yourself are:
Does what it does have to do with my core?
Is your business scalable?
Is your business model clear?
Is your leader inspiring?
