Two Reasons People Think That Big Corporates Do Not Innovate?
This article is written by Mohammad Eslim, a Contributor Author at Startup Istanbul.
Startup Istanbul 2017 had a number industry leaders hold a panel session and discuss relevant topics, including: Vera Shokina who is the Managing Director of Silicon Valley Bank. Yinal Özkan, CEO of AWS. Yousef M. Hamidaddin who handles Innovation & Change Advocate Anchored. And Asra Nadeem, Program Director of Draper University.
Apparently, most people believe that a new product is innovation whereas in corporates’ point of view it is a new goal achieved.
There are a lot of researches about how big corporates do innovate in different ventures, many reasons seemed to make people not see the achieved innovation within a corporate. Reason one: is that people don't really see what's the innovation plan of the company? What is their new horizon? Or what are the marvelous ideas they plan to bring to life? The level of innovation corporates is not what people expect. This causes a huge gap between the shareholders and the client’s points of view.
As for the other reason, is how can a big corporate reward the employees who came with the ideas of innovation? There is no equity, no wealth distribution. So how can the corporate reward them financially?
How corporates plan their innovation?
So, for big corporates to start their innovation process, they should start to come with ideas that suit their business interests, referred to as the nature of innovation. It does not mean to build new room and buy furniture. It means to start thinking how to make your new idea into new success.
Innovation doesn't have to be a complicated task or a complex process, it can be shallow. For example, if you have a new idea of a software system and came up with a successful working software that solved a problem or served as a new product it is considered innovative.
It also should be noted that not every innovation has to be related to technology, there is a gap between real life business and the where technology is right now. Meaning is that innovation can be a cow Fitbit as a Pakistani startup team did. Now the big corporates, (such as Angora and many U. S corporates), are clients to this innovative solution. Point is, there are such tremendous opportunities that can be your print in the world so snag it, don't hesitate and start to work.
Corporates up for innovation? What's the best approach?
Big corporates that are in progress of innovation know that it takes lots of dedication, time and financing; that is the reason why they need a separate team which its purpose is to direct decisions and new products into the future of the business they lead.
According to the recent studies, there was a common problem with the innovative approach of the corporates which was solved by the decentralization of the innovation team. The team is separated from the corporate’ corporate's section and is financially dependent on not only the corporate’ corporate's financial support, but also on an out sponsor. This allows the innovation team to be financially free of the strict condition of the business finances.
How to encourage innovation؟
In general, the innovation motivation in this region is not strong enough for fresh minds to start their own business ideas, it is mostly because the state does not shoulder the cost of innovation with the private sector. And on the other hand, students struggle with finances when they come up with very nice ideas.
In conclusion, the whole responsibility should be shouldered by government, universities campuses and the private sector society. They are needed for such an innovative economy to be strongly established for a new future.
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