How corporations can win the race against disruptive startups

Abstract

Following the rise of digital technologies, more and more large corporations and entire industries are disrupted by technology startups. In the past it was Airbnb disrupting the hospitality industry with more beds around the world than any hotel chain. Now it's Tesla who is disrupting automotive companies by selling more premium vehicles then BMW or Porsche, and in the future it might be new P2P-insurances or bitcoinbased payment apps that disrupt the financial industry. These are just a few examples of disruptive digital startups that are winning against powerful corporations and traditional industries. Looking at the big picture, it increasingly seems that even abundant with money and resources, large, complex corporations still cannot find a way to compete against agile startups that are able to exploit disruptive technologies much faster. Built on secondary research and experiences with more than 50 innovation projects, the authors aim to shed light on the disruption paradox for large corporations and offer an efficient innovation framework including the 5C-Process as a novel managerial solution to it. This should sensitize decision makers in established companies in regards to their innovation challenges and any digital disruption threats, and provide them with new tools to act and win the race against disruptive startups.