Accelerating Corporate Innovation: Lessons from the Venture Capital Model

OVERVIEW:The last half century has seen the emergence of a new model of business innovation featuring the convergence of entrepreneurs, rapid technological change, and venture capital. This combination has proven an effective force at realizing disruptive innovation that has often left incumbents shattered in their wake. What can the mature enterprise learn from this venture capital model of innovation management? What is the role of the CTO in identifying and adopting these approaches? This article investigates the ten leading strategies employed by venture capitalists and entrepreneurs to test new ideas and commercialize innovations quickly. The most disruptive innovations are seen to be those that go beyond technical discovery to embrace business model innovations that disrupt supply chains, disintermediate incumbents, and create new markets. This article presents the tools the modern CTO needs to participate in this dynamic process.