Peer Group Process: Jointly solving the SCALING UP problem

Ever more companies have recognized that they need separate innovation units / vehicles, also referred to as Innovation Centers, Digital Labs, Incubators, Accelerators etc.

Usually, those structures come up with some great ideas that have the potential for “the next big thing”. Some of those ideas validate their value propositions and first customers can be found. A few of them – usually after some pivoting – make it to a point where they have demonstrated product-market fit and gained some initial traction. This distinguishes them to be recognized as potential future businesses and to receive further support.

But then they run up to the cliffs of a chasm. How to further scale so that a significant business impact can be achieved?

Of course, scaling up in a corporate setting could be achieved potentially by leveraging corporate assets such as the company’s client base, existing assets and competencies. But in practice one finds that this is quite hard. There will be a lot of resistance from the core organization since it and the to-be-scaled-up unit play by different rules: There is predictability on the one and agility on the other side; Management systems do not match, the cultures and mindsets turn out to be disparate, performance metrics prove incompatible and priorities are profoundly different.

So far, there seems no solid body of knowledge available about how to cross the chasm in a predictable way and how to turn “Scaling Up” from an art to a practice.

Join the Peer Group

As indicated in our recent update, we aim at changing this. We are building a Peer Group of 10 – 20 leading companies that feel these pain points and are willing to develop the “Next Practice”.

The Peer Group is going to feature a highly interactive format including physical workshops, WebEx, Academia support, an online discussion platform and results from an online survey (to be conducted in April). We will also offer an opportunity to participate remotely.

If you are a corporate practitioner and you are interested in participating, please drop me a line.  We look forward to jointly tie into solving the “Scaling Up” problem.