The pros and cons of innovation in large groups (1)

When an enterprise reaches a certain stage of development, many leaders will start to think about innovation. Because the scale of the industry may limit the further development of the enterprise, or the original business logic of the enterprise has changed, or the advantages brought by technological innovation are gradually being caught up by competitors, etc., large groups also need to keep pace with the times and innovate and develop. .

Compared with grassroots entrepreneurship, innovation within a large group has obvious advantages:

(1) Financial support. Starting a business is difficult, and even a penny can stump a hero. For many companies, they may run out of ammunition and food before reaching the breaking point. If financing is not obtained in time, the business has to cease operations, and the entrepreneurial game is over. There are many tragedies in which founders are heavily in debt due to starting a business, their wives and children are separated, and they jump out of despair. In comparison, innovative projects under large groups can often be effectively guaranteed in terms of funding.

(2) Brand endorsement. Entrepreneurship projects under large groups may be more likely to attract outside attention from the beginning. When an innovation project is launched, the brand of a large group is the best enabler. If an innovative project can inherit part of the brand connotation of a large group, the brand of the innovative project will already have the first batch of trial users on the day of its establishment. Brand advocates of large groups may become the first customers of innovative projects. We can call them "seed customers". At the same time, due to the brand endorsement of large groups, consumers also love Wujiwu, and their trust and acceptance of new brands will be higher than other new brands. This is a coveted and precious resource for grassroots entrepreneurs. For example, France's Biostime is establishing a pet food division. The concept of the new division is to protect the intestinal health of pets. Due to the long-term cultivation of probiotics and the image of the Biostime brand as a guardian of intestinal health for infants and young children, there is no doubt that the new division will protect the intestinal health of pets. Consumers will inevitably project the trust in intestinal health established in the Biostime brand to the new brand.

(3) Resource integration capabilities. Benefiting from the brand influence and industry influence of large groups, their innovative projects are often able to gain access to the industry's top resources relatively quickly at the beginning. Well-matched pairs exist in all areas and levels of cooperation. For a grassroots startup, unless the founder has accumulated industry resources, it is often difficult to develop new high-end cooperation in a short period of time. Even if the founder once held a high position on the previous platform and did many influential things. But without the influence of the platform, the resources it can mobilize will also be greatly reduced. However, innovative projects of large groups can often integrate the resources needed for business development in the short term because of the endorsement of the large group behind them.

(4) Attract talents.

Relatively speaking, innovation projects of large groups will have a higher ability to attract talents. Large groups can often provide employees with relatively competitive salary packages, generous welfare guarantees, standardized management systems, humanized work cultures, and relatively stable career development prospects. These are still very attractive to most working professionals. As for grassroots startups, because their foundation is weak, business development risks are high. On the one hand, they do not provide as many employee resources as large groups, and their environment may not be as comfortable as those of large groups. They may not be able to cover all five insurances and one housing fund, especially when cash flow is tight. At that time, the risks of wage arrears and layoffs were much higher than those of large group companies. Of course, many entrepreneurial companies now very cleverly adopt joint-stock systems to solve part of the problem of attracting talents. However, for many professionals, large groups are still the first choice for career development, especially in the early career value accumulation period.

At the same time, innovative projects of large groups are often supported and incubated by the group's logistics support department in the early stages. HR of large groups often have more advantages in recruitment channels and recruitment resources. They can reach the talent they need more quickly through external headhunters.

The innovative project of a large group, backed by a big tree to enjoy the shade, attracts as much attention as a koi when it is born. It seems that it has the right time, place and people when it is born, but why is it often difficult to successfully hatch it? What about new innovative projects? As the saying goes, there are advantages and disadvantages. In the next issue, we will talk about the disadvantages of innovative projects under large groups.