Wow! What an adventure in Paris. As part of our programme under the Centre for Business Innovation umbrella.
A capacity crowd of corporate venturers, lab leaders and innovators came together in Paris to talk about all things ‘working with / partnering with small companies and start-ups.
Nissan Innovation lab being perfect hosts and kindly offering us all a chance to interact with their latest incubatees.
With the calibre of attendees we had, it is easy to see why Jean-Francois from NUMA told us that corporate venturing has doubled in the last 3 years, with over $83.5bn invested and now accounts for 20% of all Venture Capital invested.
It was a packed schedule of:
- Case studies:
- Nissan – Automotive
- Visteon – Tech
- Oxsensis – Precision Engineering
- MOONSHOT Internet – Insuretech
- Key Speakers & Academics:
- Jean-Francois Caillard, NUMA and one of France’s leading CV do-ers
- Prof. Anna Glaser ESCP Europe management school
- Workshop – creating a ‘Curious Company’.
Quite amazed at the ground we covered (and still finished on time!). I certainly left with my brain on fire…
Highlights
For me, there were some key areas that resonated throughout the day – I am not sure there were answers but we heard a lot from both sides…
- How to …survive the corporate Tsunami
- Co-location of internal teams and start-ups.
- The longer term thinking allowed by remaining on a salary with a safe job to go back to vs. the entrepreneurial creativity caused by having to pay the rent this month
- Is the CV department the correct point of contact or do you allow other areas of your business to undertake this type of activity?
- ‘Options’ are they the easiest way forward for investments – Afterall the only time you will need to get senior sign-off is when it is a success!
- Conflicts of interest: Your company as a shareholder AND as a client Your business lines may prefer to work with a competitor
And of course my favorite: Write and keep the “investment thesis” – since management evolves faster than portfolio
I am looking forward to arranging the content for 23/4 January in London. There are a few places available – let me know if you would like to find out how to attend.
This blog originally appeared on the CFBI blog