Fast startup versus slow corporate? The word “corporate” itself is now often used as an adjective to describe a type or mode of company that, as a FinTech startup, you don’t want to emulate. CEOs of startups often say: “We don’t want to go all corporate”.
So what do we understand by the word corporate? For many people, when they hear the word corporate it implies: slow moving, bureaucratic, potentially out of date. Not words that we associate with the dynamic FinTech companies that we read about in the press. However, there are two thoughts on this that may give us a clue into what is driving the optical differential in growth, and they both stem from one word: “legacy”.
Legacy, the gift or transfer of value from the past to the present time, the notion that value is being created and built upon.
Legacy, the term used to describe outdated systems and processes that are no longer current and competitive.
So when we are considering a large corporate, we do have to view it with both definitions in mind. They have, by their very nature, demonstrated an ability to create a scaled, profitable business that has endured for decades, serving multi-generational customers, returning money to shareholders and with a capacity to invest for the future. The legacy of value.
With this we also typically see an organisation that has its foundations in technology, culture and organisational ...