Corporates & Start-ups Collaboration (Part 1)
Hi. My name is Andrei. For the last 8 years, I have held various positions in companies that were growing at an incredible speed: MTS, IKEA, Svyaznoy.
Regardless of the working place, product management has always been my key task. I managed projects differently: sometimes I created something from scratch, sometimes I developed what had already been created.
My favorite projects were exactly corporate startups. I would like to tell you a little about how we managed corporate startups.
What is the benefit
The major benefit of corporate entrepreneurship is an opportunity to learn by doing and work with “ready-made” resources. You study entrepreneurship, launch and develop your own business — it’s all at the expense of the company’s budget without your investment, and side by side with market experts.
How to pitch a business idea
First of all, no corporate manager can ignore startups, because startups are driving major innovations that disrupt entire industries, and a source of fresh talent and ideas that can help rejuvenate corporate cultures.
Most likely, the company will be ready to allocate resources to the employee with credibility, who has already experienced product launching, process management, business model development.
Four steps to start:
- Clarify and visualize your objectives.
- Brainstorm the idea with the loyal colleagues. For example, with someone from the commercial department: they are well-informed about company development and market situation.
- Test hypotheses.
- Pitch an idea to top-managers. Remember that they are primarily interested in numbers.
What’s next
After pitching the idea and allocating the budget we have to build a team (a minimum number of people is enough — but with an impressive background) and agree on the expectations with management.
What to do when everything’s going wrong
Even the most ambitious ideas can fail. To minimize the negative consequences of failure, it is important to manage the expectations of investors (in case of a corporate startup — the expectations of your managers).
An important difference of a corporate startup: the company provides to you not only a budget but also human resources. Therefore, it is important to count required resources to implement the plan.
Another important aspect is to quit while you’re ahead. There is such a phenomenon: when a person has too much invested financially and emotionally, he cannot abandon the project, even if it’s already clear that it won’t work out.
In finance, there is a term “sunk cost”. It’s a cost that has already been incurred and that cannot be recovered. In order not to fall into that trap, it’s necessary to set intermediate goals, that serves as an indicator of business process is moving (or not) towards the goal.
The second part is coming!
I’d appreciate it, if you subscribe to my Telegram Channel https://t.me/productmonkey. Learn more about Product Management! 🚀
