Elephants can learn to dance by imitating what cheetahs are good at

Build, Destroy, Learn, Rebuild Mindset: The dominant mindset in startups is that of a challenger breaking new ground. Experiment, learn, and redirect as needed. Many successful startups pivot to new models as market conditions change. Globally, Netflix’s transition from a DVD rental service to an online streaming service is well known. In India, Myntra started as a personalized gift service and later moved into lifestyle and fashion e-commerce. These are just two of his examples. However, large organizations have a bias towards maintaining the status quo. While some companies have established innovation accelerators and labs to drive innovation, research shows that many fail to achieve large-scale business impact. The real challenge facing large companies is finding the balance between risk-taking and caution as they grow, adopting a “build, destroy, learn” approach.

Agility and action bias: In today’s fast-moving world, the ability to move with speed and agility is a competitive advantage. Startups have a knack for making decisions quickly, prioritizing action over deliberation. Large companies struggle with this problem because they have many processes and systems. One company we know conducted an “audit” of all its reports and processes and found that the majority of the reports were never used and many of the processes were overly complex. The solution was to eliminate unused reports and radically simplify processes to speed up decision-making. The authors found that a systematic and dispassionate review of processes and structures is a good starting point for gaining speed and mindset to act.

Radical customer focus: In startups, leaders have first-hand insight into market realities. They get out in the field, interact with potential customers, and get a feel for the competition. Customer feedback is important information for decision-making. In large organizations, a leader’s market exposure is (to a large extent) reduced and sterilized. Despite their best intentions, even the leaders’ “market visits” only offer a rosy picture, all orchestrated for the visit of the bigwigs. Of course, large companies are aware of this and are trying to set it right. Recently, a major telecommunications company announced that all of its executives would spend his day visiting customers and understanding their pain points. This on-the-ground effort is important, but even more important is integrating what the voice of the customer wants from the company and making it part of the company’s DNA rather than a separate process.

Organization-first approach: In the early stages of a startup, the founders know everything about the company and make all the decisions. Even as the organization grows and several functions are established, the founder remains the central figure in resolving any conflicts, implicitly or explicitly making the trade-offs involved in decision-making, and working towards the overall goals of the organization. Optimize. In large organizations, structures are created because it is impossible for one person to make all the decisions. Unfortunately, most structures have an implicit (if not explicit) incentive to optimize for silos rather than the whole. Starting an autonomous small business within a larger organization can mimic aspects of startup culture and provide both independence and accountability to different departments of a larger company. These structures must be carefully considered to truly solve the business problem and be fit for purpose, rather than forcing business unit structures that don’t make sense.

Personal connections and collective purpose: In a startup, everyone knows everyone (even family members). There is a sense of camaraderie, collective purpose, and informality, and group size and dynamics foster a sense of mutual responsibility. Large companies need to find ways to maintain this small business feel as they grow. Mini-business structures, cross-functional task forces, and office design are all mechanisms that organizations have attempted to use to foster this ethos.

Management mindset: In each of the areas listed above, large companies have attempted structural or process interventions to recreate the magic of startups. In our view, while these are beneficial, there is one common element that is most important: fostering a mindset of ownership among all employees. Stock option grants provide a good basis for this. Genuine involvement in creating the overall agenda, autonomy in driving strategic initiatives, promoting boundarylessness, and a sharp focus on results orientation all go a long way toward making employees feel like owners. Helpful. When large companies embrace the startup theme and create a mindset of ownership, the elephants really start dancing.

Remember that all large companies were once startups. In the next article, we explore what young startups can glean from their more established peers and close the loop on mutual learning.

These are the author’s personal views.