The Legacy Company’s Guide to Innovation

Many experts are urging established companies to radically innovate—and disrupt themselves before someone else does. The trouble is, large firms aren’t designed for moon shots. Their owners don’t like the risks and won’t kill the goose that lays the golden egg. As a result, all too often they end up defaulting to incremental innovation.

But there is a solution: Incumbents can partner with entrepreneurial start-ups or with intrapreneurs that have ideas for breakthrough products. By doing that, they can leverage their significant resources while increasing the odds that those ideas will take off. This approach does require careful management, however.

Drawing on the experiences of more than a dozen large multinationals, including Atlas Copco, Enel, and Epiroc, this article outlines a three-stage innovation process for incumbents to follow: First, set up numerous projects with multiple partners, nurturing them until their chances of success become clear. Next, once a venture has a breakthrough, gradually increase your commitment and help it remove roadblocks. Finally, when its business model is viable and it has a critical mass of customers, rapidly mobilize the resources it needs to scale up quickly.