Designing the Successful Corporate Accelerator

CHAPTER 15MAKING PARTNERSHIPS WORK

After a fantastic accelerator program where everything was done just right, your corporation decides to partner with one of the start-ups, and you're off to the races! Your innovation goals are hit, and everything is easy from here on out. Well, not quite.

In theory, partnerships between big companies and startups should be a win-win. Corporates can partner with startups to tap into their energy and creativity, experience different methods of working, and learn from their use of new business models and technologies. In return, startups can tap into corporate partners’ market knowledge, reputation, customer base and industry expertise. Corporations have the resources, brand, and customers that startups yearn for, whereas startups have agility and innovative mindset that corporations value.

The potential is certainly there, but it's harder than it seems to get these partnerships right. Instead of tapping into each other's strengths, a poorly planned partnership can exacerbate each partner's weaknesses. Startups get bogged down in internal processes of a larger partner; corporations have unrealistic expectations or do not give the partnership a chance to demonstrate its value over a reasonable time frame. Although the depths are not always apparent at first, there are many dangerous asymmetries in culture, processes, and desired outcomes that ...