Large enterprises (companies) become successful because they grow aggressively, globally and they are known to be ‘flawless’ in execution and delivery. This includes the largest computer hardware or software companies, pharmaceutical companies, consumer products good manufacturers, car manufacturers, aerospace and any/all in between. In order to run the very large human resources machinery, over the decades, processes and procedures have been put in place to assure their success. They have all grown into multi-billion dollar enterprises and are highly successful from a revenue perspective.

However, when it comes to nurturing a culture of disruption and innovation, and permitting experimentation to identify, test and fail (and succeed) in new product areas, the same companies get a very low score. This is generally speaking, of course, does not apply to all businesses. The big question is: Why? It is because the same processes that made them successful is now harming & prohibiting their product diversity, new market penetration and rapid product introduction.

So, what to do???

These large companies look at start-ups as the place to invest for disruption and innovation. While I love to see the market flooded with corporate venture dollars, I very much dislike the message this action sends to the rank and file: “We are OK with taking risk ‘outside’ of our company as long as we don’t disrupt anything internally.” This concern is often expressed as ‘we need to keep our focus on our key product lines’, and has hugely damaging effects on building a strong culture of innovation internally. Instead of a culture of innovation, we build a culture of complacency, apathy and lack of inspiration. All of this and more is discussed in-depth in my book ProVoke.

The question is: Can we disrupt very large enterprises? Yes.

It is easy? Absolutely not. Is it fast? No.

How? To start off with we need internal executive champions to trust the ability of the highly brilliant employees (scientists, engineers, business and marketing people, customer service staff and any and all others) and to allow them to nurture new ideas and explore disruptive possibilities. We need inspiring leaders to pave the journey.

This is not lack of focus and does not mean that staff stop doing their tasks and just experiment. To the contrary, they work harder and are more engaged, when they know that their ideas have a possibility internally.

We need to bring our external appetite for risk and innovation INSIDE our companies and to have faith in our culture and know that failed experiments are the foundation for new products. We need to reward those who relentlessly try and encourage those who are afraid to try. We need to not scrutinize creativity. Small degrees of creativity in ANY task, is innovation. When you add all the small innovations, along with the bold new ones, that is when we have a thriving enterprise and a true culture of innovation.

So, why not try? What do we have to lose?

I am delighted to see us slowly but surely changing the culture of the large companies. Remember: if you are a hot engineering, science, math, business or any grad, you are NOT going to go to the old-school, boring and dated company (no matter how many billions of dollars they have in the bank).

You are going to go where you are inspired, challenged and have the opportunity to be highly innovative. Large enterprises have the fullest bench in technology expertise, capability and execution track record. Imagine if we simply blend in the permission of being disruptive and innovative into this hugely capable culture.

An interesting question then arises: Would we look at start-ups as much as we do today?

Let’s Disrupt | Innovate | Lead. Imagine the possibilities!