Innovation is no longer the sole preserve of fleet-footed startups as large companies try to become better positioned to innovate than ever before, according to Harvard Business Review author Scott Anthony.

He said that innovation revolution spurred by venture capitalists decades ago has created the conditions, which allow big companies to shift from shackling innovation to unleashing it.

In parallel, the same forces that have enabled startups to thrive and grow are also raising the level and rate of competition among startups, in effect making erstwhile disruptors themselves the targets of newer upstarts. In this shifting climate, nimble startups and large corporations would do well to learn from each other, adopting strategic behaviors that can help them navigate the more intensely competitive market.

During his talk before technopreneurs who attended the Second Kickstart Startup Mixer event in Makati City recently, Anthony that large corporations could have entrepreneurially minded people, whom he calls “corporate catalysts,” working with their companies’ resources, scale and
growing agility to develop innovative solutions to global challenges.

But when startups compete with corporate giants, the challenges they could face are overwhelming.

He cited that the case of the pacemaker, a popular lifesaving medical equipment. Anthony said that startups would have to either build a new pacemaker and seek regulatory approval that would take years, or partner with an established pacemaker manufacturer.

Anthony added that big companies have capabilities, experience, relationships, expertise and resources that entrepreneurs do not have.

The overall message Anthony left to his audience with that innovation is driven by economics and business strategy, as much as it is by technology; and that the underlying driver above all is human creativity and its unrelenting, disciplined effort. Or, as Anthony said, quoting Yoda of Star Wars fame: “Do or do not. There is no try.”

Picking up on Anthony’s thesis, Minette Navarrete, president of Kickstart Ventures Inc., Globe Telecoms’ wholly owned incubator-accelerator, notes that the time has come for large corporations to embrace the entrepreneurial community and provide aspiring technopreneurs with the necessary support mechanisms for them to start their own businesses.

As an active incubator-accelerator in the Philippines, Kickstart provides selected startups with tools needed to build and test their ideas, seed funding for faster execution, one-on-one mentorship from experts in various fields, and introductions to partner companies within the Globe, Singtel, and Ayala networks in the Philippines and abroad, to help them scale bigger.

Anthony is a leading expert on innovation, having authored four books on innovation and advised companies around the world. He also works as managing director of Innosight Asia-Pacific in Singapore and leads its Asian consulting operations and venture capital investment activities.