Disrupt the Disruptors … corporates are on a mission to “fightback” against the disruption of start-ups … How will they do it?
February 6, 2020
“Fightback” is the mission for any large corporation in a world increasingly disrupted by young start-up businesses.
Start-ups have become seen as the disruptors of markets – from Airbnb in accommodation to Netflix in entertainment – because they bring new propositions, underpinned by new business models, targeting niche audiences, or doing only specific parts of the traditional activity, but delivered in a faster, smarter and usually digitally-enabled way.
Yet large, established corporates could be argued to have many more advantages – familiar brands, large customer bases, huge resources, existing infrastructure, experienced leaders – if only they unlock them with more creativity and agility. They have tended to be more conservative, wedded to their physically-based, full-service solutions, and struggle to innovate.
Start-ups are the speedboats who can zoom around evolving markets, seize new opportunities, partner easily with others, and can adapt and evolve quickly. Corporates are the supertankers with power and scale, but find it hard to change direction.
Simon Torrence explains how he sees today’s markets, from the perspective of corporates and start-ups:
So how can corporates fight back?
The new book “Fightback”, co-authored by Simon, creates a blueprint to help corporate leaders to use the digital economy to their advantage by leveraging three powerful, but little understood, strategic tools
- platform business models … corporate venturing with technology entrepreneurs through platforms is a proven and actionable proposition for new growth.
- digital ventures … developing scalable solutions to some of the greatest challenges of the next few years and to collaborate with established organisations to create new ventures that will have enduring value
- entrepreneurial skills … combining the power and expertise of long-established companies with the creative mindset and execution skills of tech entrepreneurs
It is a playbook for corporate renewal in an age of digitalisation.
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