Companies And Startups: The Advantages Of Open Innovation

Companies And Startups, Companies are increasingly interested in using startups to develop innovative projects through Open Innovation.

In the past, innovation was an internal challenge within the company and took place slowly and very orderly manner. In practice, it did not happen.

With the Open approach, companies have finally had the opportunity to innovate their processes by relying on collaborations from outside.

On the one hand, startups are fast, tech-savvy, and creative; on the other, companies are large, traditional, confident in experience, bureaucratic, and slower.

This type of innovation is based on sharing resources and skills and aims at developing technology. Collaborating with a startup means creating a synergistic bond where both realities understand each other’s needs.

The different step between the realities involves a negotiation that is not always easy, but a collaboration managed synergistically can bring significant benefits to both.

Successful Business Collaborate With Startups

Digital Transformation Academy and Startup Intelligence, it emerges that out of a sample of 230 large national companies, more than a third have already started collaborations with these realities. 27% are also planning to take this path in the future. 

Relations between startups and companies

The collaboration between startups and companies can take place for several reasons:

• creation of products or services
• supply of products or services
• partnership
• incubation programs
• creation and innovation of the overall business model
• acquisition of the startup
• When and if the relationship between the two entrepreneurial realities becomes solid, the collaboration can also become long-term.

Why do companies and startups collaborate?

Businesses and startups often contact in collaboration as they have similar strategies or, better yet, have different strategies that can be exploited to diversify their respective businesses.

The risks of acquiring a startup

Most companies have a solid confirmation of their way of working. Sometimes it happens that they decide to acquire a startup. This is a risk factor as their very structure prevents the startup from growing and evolving at its own pace.

Duration of collaborations between startups and companies

Collaborations in half of the cases are medium-long term, while a quarter, 22%, opt for occasional collaborations. However, it is a sign that exchanges are increasingly numerous and important.

Why Activate A Collaboration: All The Advantages

Collaboration is beneficial to startups for several reasons they can:

• enjoy various benefits in terms of resources, skills, and opportunities
• access to greater availability of capital and technologies
• to enter the market more easily thanks to the experience of companies
• take advantage of the reputation of companies

For businesses, on the other hand, the advantages can be summarized as follows:

• diversify the business and the range of products and services
• learn about and acquire new, more open organizational models
• discover new key professional figures

Manage Collaborations

Collaborations between companies and startups are never simple because the latter travel at different speeds and have very different methodologies and approaches.

The most common problems are:

• difficulty in communicating between the managers of the respective realities
• define the form of the collaboration (for example, the rules for intellectual property)
• management of timing and payments.

How To Improve Collaboration Between Companies And Startups

For the collaboration to bear fruit, both sides must take a step toward the other. Companies must therefore try to understand the organizational model of startups, and startups must try to understand the complexity and language of large companies.

To improve collaboration between companies and startups quickly and effectively it is advisable to use an Innovation manager. The innovator is indispensable to guiding the dialogue and collaboration between companies and startups.

The Innovation Manager must possess strong “political” ability, incorporate innovation as part of the “agenda,” execute and manage high-level projects, and, of course, excellent interpersonal skills for the challenges it may encounter.

We have been dealing with strategic innovation from an Open perspective for years and have all the necessary certifications to guarantee very high standards.

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