#InnovativeOrDie: How to make large companies innovative in one day?

Small startups tend to be very innovative but have nor customers, neither revenues. Large companies have many customers and many revenues but become slow moving, risk-averse and often the opposite of innovative. Is there a way to make large companies innovative very fast? Yes there is.

The answer is simple. Combine the best of both worlds, all orchestrated by an innovator. The large company invites its best customers to an innovation breakfast, lunch, dinner or a complete day. The large company provides the space, food, drinks, ... as well as the industry problems and the customers.

The small startups bring the innovations. Five to ten amazingly innovative demos. All focusing on different aspects that customers of the large company value. Each startup demos a prototype on how they could solve a big cost problem or bring new revenues to the customers of the large company.

The innovator understands the industry problems and finds the right startups to show prototypes of solutions.

Everybody needs to be in the right mindset. So let's start the event with an innovative talk. The innovator explains how the world is being disrupted through innovation. How Kodak choose to make digital cameras and failed. How Fujifilm focused on its core competences and applied them to new markets and succeeded. How we live in an exponential world where prices of many important items are going to go down instead of up. Factory-made diamonds is a great example. You can literately give every visitor a pair of 2 carats diamonds now. Electricity is about to become almost free. It will be produced by solar panels which are printed at enormous scale and can soon be coated on top of windows. Transport and logistics will also become exponentially cheaper. Robotaxis which stop people from having to invest large amounts of money into buying a car. Traditional car manufactures are being squeezed by cheap Chinese EVs and impressive American robotaxis. Kodak vs Fujifilm is back. Houses which are 3D printed or assembled in modules. Food which is 3D printed, plant-based but looks, smells and tastes better than meat, fish, cheese,... How AI will make some lawyers, programmers, designers, marketeers, tax, risk and other experts 100x more productive and making 99% unemployed. All corporate innovation initiatives have absorbed lots of money but did not deliver. #InnovateOrDie is the main message.

With the audience in the right mindset, it is time to show innovations. Customers of the large company can understand how startups will help them. The customers can sign up for a free or inexpensive prototype, if they commit to organise a dragon's den around a paid pilot afterwards. The large company will be seen as being innovative but gains something more interesting. With 5 to 10 innovative startups in the room, it can save millions in R&D, failed product launches and wasted marketing. It just needs to see which of the 10 startups get to sign up many of its customers. The next step is to make an investment in the startups that have traction. They will need money to launch pilots with customers. The large company can help their customers launch and scale the new innovations. They either sign preferential partnerships with the successful startups or directly buy them. Either way the startups and the large company win.

So if your industry has big problems and you need innovative solutions, when do you want your #InnovateOrDie event to be organised?