4 ways every company can innovate like a startup

There’s never been a better time to be an entrepreneur. Today’s nature of innovation encourages agility, flexibility and creativity above all else. If you’re an innovator, it’s an exciting world of possibilities. If you’re not an innovator, but instead run a traditionally structured business, understanding how to thrive in this dynamic, fast-paced world can feel daunting.

According to Mike Stemple, author of Innovating Innovation!, business leaders can learn a lot from successful startups and the innovative entrepreneurs who run them. Stemple himself has launched over 20 startups. As a consultant, he assisted in the strategic and tactical development of new technologies with established government contractors and, in doing so, helped secure a $750 million contract. has worked with many innovative companies including Disney, Sprint, Nissan, Volvo, HP, Molson Coors, 3M, Dell, American Express and BMW.

“Most companies are bad at innovation because they don’t think and act like startups,” says Stemple. “To avoid falling into this trap, business leaders must focus on talent, embrace bold ideas, prioritize performance over process, and package what they offer in an engaging and dynamic way.” is needed.”

1. Hire more innovators

Startups and entrepreneurs know that innovative people are at the heart of any business. Companies must learn to prioritize hiring innovators. Fortunately, innovation at its core is 100% psychological, governed by psychology, and accessible to everyone.

Mr Stemple said: “Innovators see the world as it could be, not as it is. They spend time envisioning the future, and then return to the present to build bridges to that future.”

Hiring innovators is not enough. Companies also need to make sure their culture supports innovation. When companies create a culture of fear, even inadvertently, it becomes impossible to generate world-changing ideas.

Again, companies can look to startups for inspiration. The startup world celebrates the creation of breakthrough innovation, and consumers reward innovative companies with loyalty and business.

2. Embrace bold ideas

Hiring and empowering innovators is just the beginning. Companies, like startups, must learn to embrace bold ideas.

“Startups base their entire existence on bold ideas, building bold innovations on bold timescales,” said Stemple. “Companies gain an advantage by responding quickly to evolution, but companies tend to wait for third-party confirmation of changes they see in the market.”

Waiting is not an effective strategy for dealing with evolution. The corporate culture wants to wait until the problem is fully developed before finding a solution. A more effective approach, like innovators, is to stay ahead of the curve and look for opportunities revealed by the changing environment. Then work on creating the solution early on.

Large companies are often willing to compromise with “good enough”. Focusing on doing “good enough” to keep up with the evolution of the world is not effective. Because evolution never stops. By the time you build “enough”, you need something else. Accommodating every small change in this gradual manner is highly inefficient. To be profitable, you must anticipate the future and build towards it.

3. Prioritize performance over process

A big part of being open to bold ideas is not getting bogged down in how to do things until you stop asking how to do things. Processes and operations are overrated. Performance always trumps process.

“In a large company, respecting established processes and changing the way things are done can take a lot of inertia,” says Stemple. “Good ideas for change are ignored because the corporate status quo is unquestionably adhered to.”

Dedication to established processes is one reason why some large companies lack innovation. They treat their process as law. When you have a lot of inefficient rules and processes, especially when it comes to innovation, those rules act as a tax, reducing your chances of innovation success and future profits.

Efficient startups do not have this tax. Since there is no established process, we will develop one along the way. Processes that don’t work aren’t a disaster as they can easily be discarded for something better. By staying fluid and open-minded, startups create agile processes that are fine-tuned to the projects they’re building and the customers they serve. Startups have the flexibility to chart their own path. That means you can move faster than companies that create their own obstacles.

4. Tell better stories

There is one more step corporate leaders must take to innovate like a startup. They must learn to tell better stories because effective stories are profitable.

“The boardroom is a very analytical place, and corporate leaders often forget how powerful emotional storytelling can be,” says Stemple. “I spend a lot of time teaching corporate innovators how to tell better stories. It’s really hard to say no to a story you’re emotionally invested in.

Great innovators understand that stories and innovations derive a lot of their power from the unknown. We always want to know what happens next.

The unknown can be scary, but it’s also exciting. The best stories and the best innovations bring out the excitement of the unknown. Like storytellers, it’s the innovator’s job to pave the way into the unknown. All innovations are stories, and innovators should build on stories and make them clearer.

Make your business like a battle

It may be daunting to achieve, but true innovation is in your hands. “It has everything you need,” he says Stemple. “Everyone has the power to innovate, take something outdated and adapt it to a new environment.”

Make sure you bring in and support other innovators to keep progressing. Be open to bold ideas. Make performance, not process, the most important thing in your company. Learn how to tell a more compelling story about your product.

Then you can take your company to the next level by tapping into the most important parts of the human experience. Embrace innovation like a startup and you’re ready to create the future.