This is the first in our monthly Ask Adam series where venturing expert Adam Caper, managing director of Synchrony Venture Management, answers the industry's questions. To comment or ask further questions, anonymously if required, please email: jmawson@globalcorporateventuring.com

A great deal of ink has been spilled, and a multitude of pixels scattered, on depictions of the corporation as a Medusa-like entity, with various business units and corporate staff functions behaving as the proverbial head sprouting a thousand snakes, each writhing and striking at the world – and, all too often, one another – in pursuit of its own particular end.

For venture capital professionals working in large corporate settings, there may be tremendous conceptual support for leveraging the…