Definitely different experiences. Big firms will never stop trying to replicate the startup environment though--they are thirsty for actionable newness. Here’s how they can improve on these efforts:
Sponsor multiple forms of innovation. Eggs, one basket, fail.
Seek team members who are skilled and bored. Put them on the big problems before they bail.
Bring in outside talent as contractors (do work) and not as consultants (direct work). Set contract deadlines and do not waver.
Set up any working teams off-site. Allow them to choose and implement their own technologies. Do not give them corporate email addresses and suspend corporate email addresses for existing team members.
Provide a basic operating budget. Team should develop and publish success metrics. If they are met, continue funding.
Give existing team members a meaningful carrot for success. The desired job transfer; opportunity to add a specific person to their teams; remote work option; sabbatical. Cash is not king here.
Expect to lose money. Just like a VC. Unicorns are few and far between.
Plan for enough 100% devoted time. A year is a solid block unless you produce a physical product. Then 2 years is an absolute minimum.
Have data on the business, its resources, and your customers at the ready.
Provide access to internal and external SME's. One full day with either is a good rule of thumb.
Build constraints into everything. Teams not working a team-member sponsored idea should be focused on a narrowly defined problem.
Accept that the constraints will fail. When you ask a team to bake a cake, you might get cake pops. I like cake pops. You should too.
Require semi-formal, regularly timed reports of progress towards metrics. Recommend these go to a board member, not a #cxo.
Report successes to #cxo. Don’t wait too long, but there’s no reason to report to C-suite unless (a) concrete, interesting conclusions have been reached or (b) enough data is available for a go/no-go decision.
Provide pre-vetted access to customers. If B2B, I recommend designating a territory, a biz dev, and an account manager to provide this access. Seek and you will find the right sales folks to partner.
If team members do not have cross-functional, cross-company knowledge, have them spend time in the trenches. NOT learning about the trenches. Direct experience is gold, especially customer facing.
Start today. The longer you wait, the more you stagnate.
