Global Venturing Review: Is CVC a mistake?

“I think it’s all over. I don’t think it’s a company’s job to try to emulate the investment strategy of a Silicon Valley VC,” says change management consultant Greg Larkin. “And I don’t think it’s a large company’s job to emulate the innovation strategy of a Silicon Valley-backed startup. I always think that was a mistake.”

Larkin is a change management consultant, founder of Punks & Pinstripes, a network of transformation executives at Fortune 500 companies, and the author of This Might Get Me Fired, a book about intrapreneurship. He’s not against innovation. He’s against the way it has been done over the last few years, with corporate investors and innovators rushing to follow the Silicon Valley model.

That is about to unravel, he says., following the over-exuberance of the last few years. As the benign, low-interest rate environment recedes and capital becomes harder to come by, every corporate venturing and corporate innovation programme is about to face what Larkin likes to call the “f*** you, pay me meeting”. This is the meeting in which the team has to prove their value to the bottom line of the parent business — or they end up getting cut.

In this interview with Global Venture Review, Larkin sets out his case for where companies are going wrong on innovation and venturing — and how to fix it. If you are a corporate investor you may violently disagree with him, but it is worth hearing his case.

Be sure to like, share and subscribe!