Can enterprises transform through startup theory?

Just because you’re a large, established company doesn’t mean you can’t learn a thing or two from your smaller challengers. These small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) are often seen as nimbler, more flexible, and likely to take greater risks in a bid to learn from their failings as well as being bolder to get ahead.

Identifying positives coming from startup and scaleup cultures can help corporate boardrooms sustain success, especially when deciding on what technology to implement or what tech stacks to leverage.

There is admiration among established enterprises for the “innovation and agility of startups,” according to Steffen Hoffmann, managing director of Bosch UK and Ireland. That said, he suggests that actually putting these theories into practice can be problematic.

“It is often a real challenge for large companies that are usually caught up in spiderwebs of regulation and bureaucracy,” he explains. “One approach is to create a dedicated team tasked with monitoring emerging technologies and assessing how these innovations could be adapted to fit the scale and complexity of your company.

“This can help to avoid the risk of trying to recreate startup culture outright, and instead focuses on practical integration into existing systems, regulatory frameworks, and the needs of customers.”

Empowering specialist teams with “autonomy and resources” to take actions quickly without being “held back by the bureaucracy often found in large corporations” can be a benefit, Hoffman concedes, but he also acknowledges that process and following the rules are very important when you’re an already committed corporate entity.

“As every good innovator knows, in order for us to build something, we need to break a few things along the way,” Hoffman adds.

“Startups are rarely scared of disruption or short-term failure, whereas established enterprises often see this as a red alert. It is with prioritising pilot projects over large-scale rollouts that we can learn what works before making a major investment, therefore allowing us to not give in when we face the first hurdle or obstacle.”

Adaptability vs agility

Enterprises love to talk about agility, according to Julian Browne, CTO at digital transformation and IT consultancy Modu. “They plaster ‘agile’ across PowerPoints, hire armies of scrum masters and coaches, then spend millions ‘transforming’,” he says.

“[But] despite all the ceremony, many enterprises are still moving at the speed of corporate treacle,” he says. “Meanwhile, a 10-person startup with a fraction of the budget is running circles around them. Why? Because agility isn’t the answer. Adaptability is.”

Browne describes agile in enterprises as too much like “process theater” and advises big companies to drive forward real innovation by being able to adapt even when the world around you is quickly evolving.

“Enterprises need to rewire themselves for adaptability: the ability to listen, learn, and adjust, not the ability to tick agile boxes,” he says.

“Throughout my career, I’ve seen enterprises that are addicted to long, expensive programmes of work that often take years to show anything real. You get to the end, the world has moved on, and the executives who commissioned the work in the first place have left the building.

“Startups flourish by creating value quickly; if they don’t, they die. I’ve spent my career trying to get executives and their organizations to embrace the same urgency: deliver value every 60 days. Not just updates, not slideware, but something tangible that customers, employees, or shareholders can touch and feel.”

Sam Jackman, chief development officer at independent wireless telecommunications infrastructure company Shared Access, sees a solution – like Bosch’s Hoffmann – in enterprises creating smaller teams within a business unit to test and review new technologies, rather than focusing only on company-wide rollouts.

“Enterprise-wide deployments take longer and carry higher risk,” he warns, “as multiple parts of the organization need to sign off. This can delay implementation to the point where the technology’s benefits are diminished or indeed missed altogether.

“Deploying technology in smaller parts of the business allows innovation to be judged more quickly. Results can be measured, lessons learned, and successes used to build momentum, all of which help determine whether to scale solutions across the wider organization. Embedding individuals focused on innovation within each business unit, rather than relying on a single central team, is a great idea and helps to ensure a deeper understanding of local needs and opportunities.”

Scalable from the start

This isn’t about enterprises reinventing themselves; it’s about them making changes to deliver outcomes in weeks, not months, according to Dieter Halfar, partner at consultants Elixirr.

“On the technology front, enterprises can learn to embrace how startups approach building their tech foundations,” he explains.

“Startups typically design their systems to be modular, scalable, and cloud-first right from the beginning, avoiding the legacy pitfalls that slow larger organizations down.

“For established enterprises, this means taking a critical look at their existing architecture, identifying where data is siloed or duplicated, and making integration and modernisation a top priority.”

Halfar suggests that having a focus on interoperability enables faster decision-making and ultimately delivers better outcomes for customers.

“It’s also crucial for leaders to actively reward teams for experimentation and learning, not just flawless delivery. A culture that encourages calculated risk-taking and learns from setbacks, rather than punishing them, will see more practical innovation and better long-term results,” he adds.

“The goal isn’t to copy startups on the whole but to selectively embed the habits that help them move fast and adapt, while playing to the strengths and resources unique to large enterprises.”

Browne reiterates this advice on shorter-term delivery. “I firmly believe ‘value every 60 days’ is non-negotiable,” he says. “A 12-month plan is betting everything at the exact point when you know the least and can do the least about it. It’s why so many large programmes collapse into disappointment.

“Delivering tangible value every 60 days is in stark contrast; you’re constantly narrowing the cone, replacing blind hope with earned confidence. You learn what works, you course correct, and you compound value instead of compounding risk.”

Borrowing the startup mindset without importing “chaos” is the view of Francisco Gaffney, CEO of Trinity SES. He is another fan of small cross-functional teams who understand the business objectives and work on focused projects.

“Aim for quick wins within 90 days. Ship value early, then scale on a platform that can grow in complexity and volume,” he says.

But he is quick to warn of the perils of “shadow IT” – the use of unapproved and unmanaged hardware, software, or cloud services within an organization – which can emerge when “official systems lag”.

“They multiply risk and signal misalignment. Counter this with modern, integrated tools and visible dashboards that connect the shop floor to the top floor,” he adds.

“The shift from Industry 4.0 to 5.0 is human plus machine: utilising real-time data, IoT where it pays back, and AI for purposeful tasks such as demand forecasting, always aligned with strategy and governed for accountability.”

Be present in the business

Vidya Murali, author of ‘How to survive in a scale-up business’, is a fan of enterprise leaders knowing their business inside out across all functions. “Act like owners. In scaleups, no one hides behind job titles. Senior leaders might work in the warehouse for a day, take customer service calls, or sit alongside junior colleagues to solve problems,” he explains.

“Just as crucially, teams are empowered to make decisions without waiting for multiple layers of approval. Ownership is rewarded through outcomes, not hierarchy. Also, lead with vision and accessibility. Proximity to passionate founders fuels belief in startups. Corporates can emulate this by coaching leaders to sit among their teams, walk the floor, host open Q&As, and inspire through plain, purposeful language - not jargon.”

John Young, principal consultant at TSG Training, suggests a simple plan for transforming the basic foundations of the enterprise.

“Thinking like a startup means stripping away the manual work. You treat your infrastructure as code, so environments spin up and shut down automatically without waiting on tickets,” he says.

“The best place to start is provisioning and environment setup; once that’s automated, the rest of the workflow speeds up naturally.”

However, Hoffmann has another even simpler suggestion… collaboration. “On a wider level, it is also worth considering how this can work as a two-way street,” he advises.

“Startups are great places to work and create, but institutional knowledge can play a major role in long-term success, too. We are uniquely positioned as large enterprises to help address challenges that can sometimes block growth, whether that is scaling up manufacturing or interpreting complex regulations.

“There is plenty of opportunity to collaborate and share ideas and insights with startups. Ultimately, it is those who stop seeing startups purely as vendors and start treating them as partners in long-term innovation that will see success. There is plenty to learn from each other.”