Executives wax and wane in their enthusiasm for launching new ventures outside an organization’s core business. In their more enthusiastic moments, leaders often see corporate venturing initiatives as sources of organic growth and vitally important engines of renewal. However, in their more disenchanted periods executives may see new ventures as high-risk, foolhardy distractions from effectively running the core business. What’s more, such pessimism isn’t wrong. Corporate ventures are risky and they usually do not produce hoped-for results.1
Executives thus face a dilemma. Creating vital innovation and organic growth generally requires investing in new ventures. The venturing process, however, is unpredictable and failure-prone. Is it possible to invest sensibly in corporate ventures, despite their risky nature? And how do new ventures contribute to the overall renewal of organizations? These questions stimulated us to consider how managers can extract value from venturing while recognizing its risky nature. To research these questions, we launched an in-depth investigation of the venturing process at Nokia Corp. of Finland, the world’s leading mobile phone supplier and a company respected for its innovative capabilities. (See “About the Research,” p. 52.) Our research yielded eight key lessons relevant to executives grappling with the challenge of corporate venturing. One overarching conclusion of our research is that to extract value from the ambiguous and uncertain world of venturing, companies... To read the complete article, login or sign-up using the form below.
Subscribe today to read this article, or Buy a PDF.
More Info.
Buy this article. Purchase one or more copies of this article as a PDF.
Subscribe today to read the most recent articles and the current issue of MIT Sloan Management Review.
Already registered or subscribed? Login below.
Current Subscribers: Do you subscribe to MIT Sloan Management Review? Register for online access.
- Register for free access to recent articles and the current issue of MIT Sloan Management Review.
- Subscribe and read articles from the past three years online.
- Premium subscription—access to the entire archive of articles.
