In the business world, in order to make progress most ties and increase the value of your business, forming partnerships is unavoidable.
The advantages of a partnership are clearly numerous.
The experience, culture and new technology which is gotten from partnership can lead to making growth than you could ever imagine.
However, when it comes to startup and corporate engagements, it's much easier to see all the benefits which the startups are poised to receive and see nothing of that sort for the corporation.
After all, what could a small developing startup do for a big, well-established company?
Would you be surprised corporations actually learn a lot from the small startups?
So, howw does partnering with a startup make you a corporate rock star? Here are some ways;
1. The power of the workforce
Unlike corporations, startups have a generally different attitude towards their workers or employees.
Startups are in the business of motivating their employees and since it is simply a smaller group than that of a corporation, they have a better sense of loyalty and are accountable to each other.
They are like a family which strongly believe in the goals which they are working towards and thus, do whatever it takes to achieve them.
They live together, work together, breathe together and die together.
When a corporation engages with startups, they can imbibe this into their workforce.
The workforce, talent, and culture are, after all, the engine of every great business.
When the workforce is filled with a sense of positive energy and motivation to achieve the goals of the business, you can be sure that your business will be successful.
Therefore, a corporation can learn to have a workforce which has a sense of dedication and have trust among themselves. This will enable them to function better.
2. Better efficiency
Due to the fact that corporations are pretty large, the need for efficiency may become blurred.
The truth is, that inefficiency levels in workers are linked to just how big a corporation is. Nobody wants to feel like another cog in the wheel.
In big corporations, laziness and negligent behavior is part of the corporation and its workforce and may be hard to kick out.
This is different with startups.
Before they are a close-knit bunch and pretty small in number compared to startups, they have very high-efficiency methods.
They believe in the act of evolving to become better efficiently. When a corporation thus partners with startups, efficiency becomes better among the employees of the corporation and jobs will no longer be treated as with negligence but with a full blown concentration.
3. The act of managing money
Due to the fact that startups may not really have many funds, they are shrewd in how they spend -- take advertising as an example.
By routinely defining and experimenting on success, it enables them to choose the ads which are best suited to their businesses and thus will afford them quicker growth.
This is especially imperative for them because they simply cannot afford to spend a lot of funds on frivolous things which may not have any effect on their business or only impact awareness.
With corporations, things could turn out very differently.
Well established corporation have the necessary funds to do almost whatever they like. This could result in some very unnecessary spending on ads which may not contribute much to the value of the business.
When corporations partner with startups, they learn the need for a bit of shrewdness before making the decision to pay for ads. Or to put it more simply -- experimentation.
Startups allow the corporation to become better at this as well and this will enable them to be able to save their money and increase their business worth by some percentage.
4. The personal touch
The truth is that, the bigger the corporation, the bigger the chance that they have no personal experience with their customers.
This could make their customers feel detached from the corporation and in turn, will not foster a feeling of loyalty towards them.
However, the case is very much different from startups.
Startups have a thing for adding that personal touch to their business ventures.
Whether by telling a long historical story of how they started or by adding profiles of their various staff for their customers to see, they leave their clients with the feeling that they can trust them to do the work they need effectively.
This is something which corporations know they need but may have no way to go about finding them.
Startups give corporations suggestions on how to grow their customer base or make the current pool of customers happy.
This will ensure that the corporation succeeds in their quest to keep on growing and remain at the very top.
5. Bring talent into your workforce
The need to go for trusted experience sometimes feels just too tempting for big corporations.
Most times they feel that by going for these sorts of employees, they can be sure of less inefficiency and better quality with their work. This is unlike startups who sometimes do not really have the chance to get as many experienced employees as possible.
Therefore, most startups take an interest in finding amazing hidden talents and teaching them the rudiment of the business.
By nurturing them, the new talent grows in your startup and develops a deep sense of gratitude and loyalty to it and could become a workforce to be reckoned with.
In order to make their business grow, corporations can learn this from startups and bring in talent which would grow in their corporation.
This can happen through partnerships, co-working space and even acqui-hires (Acquisition + Hire. Or simply company acquisitions where the corporations also pick up the employees of the startup).
By nurturing these talents in their corporations, they may be securing the future of their corporation for many years to come.
Closing
The benefits which startup can give corporations are simply endless.
Some corporations realize these benefits and have already formed very fruitful engagements with startups and are reaping the fruits already.
Forming an engagement with them will surely leave your feeling like a rock star.
Time to bring out the big hair and the air guitar.
About the Author: Simon Hitchens is a startup enthusiast, columnist, researcher and educator living in Chicago, IL. He dreams of someday living somewhere warm and writing a novel -- in ink.
About Gearbox: Gearbox.AI provides the leading corporate-startup engagement solutions designed to help innovation leaders, corporate development professionals, and strategic partnership executives master the art and science identifying and aligning with what's next.
Through a unique combination of a membership community, AI-driven software, and cutting-edge expertise, Gearbox is focused helping corporations keep pace in an ever-changing digital world and providing startups with new avenues for growth. The result for modern innovators is unprecedented agility, risk management, and superior results.
Headquartered in St. Louis, MO with offices in Denver, Chicago, and Los Angeles, Gearbox serves as a pivotal partner to large corporations and a champion to innovative startups.
Want content just like this sent to your inbox? Subscribe below. Opt-out anytime.