Learning from IKEA Bootcamp and other corporate accelerator programmes

So IKEA Bootcamp – IKEA’s first ever accelerator programme – has drawn to a close. As someone who had the chance to work closely with IKEA and the fantastic team at Rainmaking it was a pleasure and a privilege to be a small part of their journey whilst I took time away from my day job running Frame Labs.

Bootcamp was a rush of activity, excitement, progress, opportunity, challenges, re-thinks, conviction, optimism, wobbles, laughter and acceleration. I wanted to take a few moments to reflect on my own personal learning from the IKEA programme as it has just ended.

My main learnings, though, are drawn from my wealth of experience being involved in multiple accelerator programmes with other big companies.

None of these learnings are related to any specific company, but the learnings relate to all companies seeking to build a programme to work with startups.

Give before you ask

Generally, in my experience of network building around startups, I think the best policy is always providing lots of value to the network before you ask for anything in return (such as asking them to pitch to solve your business challenge). This way you build lots of informal network capital.

Programme design

The way I have built programmes has been to think about Outcomes (commercial, brand and societal) and 3 Pillars: Rhythm (time and intensity), Content (curriculum, methods, inspiration) and faculty (external advisors, mentors) and play around with these to meet the desired outcomes.

Ensure that whatever is built is distinctly different from other acceleration programmes.

There are so many programmes for startups now. The vast majority are using the same playbook, and only the top programmes access the top mentors and investors. The more distinct the programme, the more focus you tend to have on the difference you are seeking to make to startups.

Capital and “learning from our people” on corporate accelerators are, in my view, not distinctly different in most cases as the learning is generic management content delivered by staff who are not expert at teaching startups.

For me, the values-driven approach to business for a startup perspective is really needed in the world. IKEA is a wonderful example of how you can build a company that endures in large part due to the values it holds as a company. That IKEA undertook an accelerator focused on solving "big problems" is testament to these values.

The earlier the stage = greater impact on values and business model

If you are building a programme specifically for later stage companies, then you will naturally have less of an opportunity to impact how these companies align with your own values and ways of working.

The caveat when you are a large company is that the scale of the opportunity of being your partner will sometimes lead to startups throwing out everything in order to land you as a customer. This is not good in the long term for anyone. You don’t want a partner who is entirely dependent on your custom. That makes them a brittle partner.

The later the stage of the companies you partner with, the less distinct “entrepreneurship” work is from supply chain work. You need to understand what is distinct about “startup” work vs “finding innovation partners”. If you are a big company then everyone is smaller than you so working with startups is more about their stage (seed to Series A I would suggest).

Internal education

There is an internal education piece that needs to be formalised about areas such as Startup Thinking / Startup Methods / Mentoring Startups / Sponsoring Startups / How Our Company and Startups Work Together.

Don’t underestimate the pre-work that needs to go into internal education. The great thing is that this education is brilliant learning content for your staff – understanding what you do, how it relates to startups, how to support and learn from startups. The ROI is very high.

Building your ecosystem

I would also start to think about building a network of startup investors, experienced founders with experience of the right industries and great speakers to come deliver inspiring content

If startups are to step up to meet the scale of your company then they will most likely need capital, and if the startups have you as a client / partner then they are likely to be able to attract capital.

This should also include regular and effective content to reinforce your distinctive approach to business, innovation and working with startups. Ideally you would open up the strategic reasons you are undertaking startup programmes.

You should also have an effective (open) front door for the startup the community, ideally with a named person managing the flow of interest.

Manage expectations

There is literally no limit to the number of times you need to set and reiterate clear expectations of what intended outcomes will be.

However, this needs to be more detail than “we don’t intend to sign anything before the end of the programme” as most corporate accelerators do.

In the programme design you should also design your own internal process and structure around exploring and on-boarding with startups. You might put every startup into streams from weak ties through to formal partners with everything from discovery, internal business case identification through to due diligence and contract negotiation.

Ideally publish this process, most crucially to startups on your programmes so they understand where in your process they are.

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I’ll leave it there. Towards the middle of 2018 I will be writing up how to undertake programmes where startups and deep impact are your intended outcomes as well as how to think about and effectively navigate corporate accelerators as a startup.

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* Note: this article has been slightly updated to reflect some feedback on content.