Designing the Successful Corporate Accelerator

CHAPTER 17PLANNING FOR LONG-TERM SUCCESS

Congratulations on reaching the end of this journey. You've worked through the high-level strategy of why a corporate accelerator makes sense, and mastered the nitty-gritty details of how to recruit mentors and startups. You've decided on your programming and measures of success. You've even considered whether to bring in a partner from outside your company to help you establish the first few cohorts of your corporate accelerator or to run the investment and portfolio management.

Selling the vision to the senior executives, business unit leaders, and even the rank-and-file employees can be a challenge, but without them, getting momentum and traction for the program is impossible. You have a playbook in your hands, but as they say, the map is not the terrain. You need to navigate your own unique company and all of its idiosyncrasies to get the key stakeholders aligned with your vision, and this doesn't just happen once, it continues on an ongoing basis. Having a blueprint for action from this book, a benchmark for budgets and timelines, and a guide to ensuring goals and metrics of success are aligned will help, but if you're an innovation pioneer in your company, there are no trails to follow. You'll need to forge them yourself.

Building a corporate accelerator that can achieve the company's goals is within your reach if you can do these ...