Corporate renewal is essential but immensely challenging. Today’s hot stock is often tomorrow’s humdrum company. Many companies address their growth gaps by establishing incubators for new efforts, and they struggle. One study of 300 such incubators found that only 47% met their strategic goals and 24% met their financial goals. What makes for a successful incubator?
Begin by recognizing that incubation is hard. Incubators tend to be small units in much larger firms, addressing a universe of possibility with scant resources. They get stretched too thin, become captured by core business units, pursue irrelevant ideas, or all of the above. Moreover, they pursue inherently medium and long-term growth initiatives in a climate that usually values hitting short-term financial targets, and so they are prime candidates for cost-cutting when inevitable budget crunches arise.
To read the original article: Seven Signs of a Successful Incubator - Forbes
