Struggling against the culture

An independent start-up has plenty of issues but there are some unique ones for ventures within larger companies.

The simplest thing an independent company can do is make a decision. Yes, the VC's may be in and controlling/frustrating/helping the board but you can make a decision pretty fast. Compare this to a multi-national trying to create a new venture. If well set up, you would want to have a sensible process to decide which ventures go forward and to review milestones and 'gates'.

All you need to do is round up the senior team of the company, hope they are not going to be distracted by other business, pray you don't get over-run off the agenda and also wait for this busy group of people to be available at the same time.

It gums up corporate ventures and seems to cause more frustration than anything else.

What kills more corporate start-ups than anything else.....well I would say slow decision making but there is something worse. When this business plan is off my back I'll get back to "10% of China - big companies thinking they can pull off what a rational small company would avoid."

© Copyright 2005 Richard A D Jones 2005