Large groups, to innovate, dare to take an entrepreneurial approach!

Why didn’t Solocal give birth to TheFork?

The company already enjoyed strong commercial relationships with French restaurants. Canal+, which had long been selling its own subscription video content, could have envisioned the next Netflix. And why has Cegedim never matched the success of Doctolib?

Large companies have to innovate if they don’t want to be overtaken and need new growth engines—yet their missed opportunities are legion. Paradoxically, they possess enviable assets for launching and sustaining new businesses: distribution networks, customer bases, sector expertise, talent, brand recognition, investment capacity, and more.

Innovation starts with the way you think—and then with the way you act

To kick‑start innovation you often have to change the operating mode first. Inevitably the organisation will face legitimate resistance: ingrained habits, short‑term pressure, and aversion to risk. The firm must step outside its usual frame, adopt a different time‑scale, and learn by doing. You cannot leave your comfort zone by staying inward‑looking; pairing corporates with entrepreneurs is a powerful way to tackle daunting challenges in a new manner.

Move at the market’s tempo

The market sets the pace. Today’s entrepreneurs, backed by venture capital, have both resources and the freedom to act very fast. Corporate innovation has to keep that same tempo.

Wanting to innovate and launch a startup is not about a glossy slide deck or yet another version of a business plan. Succeeding means moving quickly to stay in step with the market, obsessing over product‑market fit and then growth, being able to question yourself, pivot, and iterate relentlessly to find the best path forward.

Making mistakes is part of entrepreneurship—and usually requires ditching many of the methods and procedures that govern a corporate environment.

Capital, sponsorship, and real autonomy

A sufficient investment capacity is obviously vital, as is C‑suite support to set a true ambition and guarantee a different way of operating. If the corporate exerts an immediate stranglehold on the project and refuses to share control, it will inevitably produce a run‑of‑the‑mill initiative—far from the impact a genuine startup could achieve. The same applies to any refusal to acknowledge weaknesses or to hand over skills the organisation does not have.

If the initial diagnosis looks convincing, the next step is to assemble talent that can beat market standards—in a fierce war for talent.

Create a new space where real innovation can flourish

The key asset of every high‑performing startup is its founding team. How do you attract the best founders when they can launch on their own, raise capital, and operate exactly as they please?

By offering them the one thing a corporate normally lacks: an environment designed for entrepreneurial freedom—outside the usual walls, free from legacy constraints, but powered by the corporate’s assets.