Start-ups: the new growth stimulus for large companies

Over the next few years, large corporate groups and intermediate sized companies are set to undergo major transformations and must rethink their organisation if they wish to remain competitive. Indeed, at a time when the VUCA context (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) is becoming a clear reality, old systems of governance have become obsolete and do not allow companies to develop appropriate growth strategies. Okay, but what is the solution? Such transformations do not come to order. It is a complex process that means integrating new ways of thinking and greater agility.

Changing mentalities and preparing for the future

It is exactly this context that is inspiring large companies to test new models by changing their way of operating, how they design their offerings, collaborate with their partners and serve their customers. This is a titanic, but essential, worksite, which will allow large companies not to progressively lose ground to more agile players that were able to adapt to the new market requirements.

Investing in collective intelligence and innovation

In view of these factors, we can perfectly understand the central role that start-ups can play in allowing key accounts to transform themselves in a durable manner. Many players have successfully launched original initiatives to develop their business model. For example, think of the case of companies that have created start-up studios, those that collaborate with start-ups on strategic projects and those that buy start-ups to inject agility into their operations, etc.

There is also a growing awareness on management boards that are being coached on how to operate better and to make decisions collectively. Finally, we can talk about the financing of intrapreneurial projects that allow employees to launch initiatives in start-up mode inside their company and benefit from financial and organisational support. All of this movement is now a concrete reality and an imperative for better growth.

Innovation is another strong indicator to take on-board. It is after all the driver of the growth of start-ups that position themselves as real laboratories for innovation. This methodology, which naturally represents an investment, is above all an outstanding opportunity to test new approaches in real-time, to confirm their appropriateness, and then to deploy them on a large scale to modernise existing processes.

These factors show that investing massively and working closely with start-ups is the key to allowing large organisations to continue to exist. In view of the major disruptions that we are going through, including those caused by Covid-19, it is clear that agile new growth models, which leave a greater place for innovation and collective intelligence, must be created.

By Marie Marraud des Grottes, Innovation Project Leader.