Startups have the agility and outside-of-the-box thinking that many corporates can only dream of. Corporates, on the other hand, have the scale and clout that startups are thirsty for. That’s why collaboration between the two offers so many mutual benefits: corporates can offer startups some of their first big contracts; startups offer the newest innovations to these huge companies.
At the Airport Innovation Days held in Paris, we spoke to a panel of key figures from an international airport operator and a startup about what it takes to create the perfect collaboration between corporates, investors and startups. Our speakers were:
- Maylis de la Loge, investment director at Groupe ADP, one of the biggest airport operators in the world
- Louis Gauthier, innovation project manager at Groupe ADP
- Jade Francine, cofounder and chief growth officer at WeMaintain, an IoT-enabled maintenance management startup
Here are the key takeaways from the panel:
1/ Open innovation helps corporates meet their targets
He notes that open innovation has helped the group “a lot” in reaching its objectives, and it was really important for the organisation to work with external companies with different skills and solutions.
“We need [open innovation] because we don’t have any big research and development departments. We need startups [that are] developing a new solution for the future for improving the processes of our airports and to optimise the service for our passengers.” — Louis Gauthier, innovation project manager at Groupe ADP
2/ Startups need straight talking from corporates
The fast-paced nature of startups is often difficult for corporates to comprehend. Francine says startups need to “go fast” because if they’re funded, they need to show traction and growth. She notes that sometimes when the decision making process from corporates is going to take a year — or even more — the startup could shut down in that time.
Francine adds that when startups have a great team and technology but no clear decision from corporates, that’s “the worst” because startup leaders don’t know if they should continue investing in the relationship.
“For corporates, [they should] say if it’s either yes or no — and it’s fine if it’s a no, because at least the startup can move on and work on something else.” — Jade Francine, cofounder and chief growth officer at WeMaintain
3/ Put in place set points of contact
Outsourcing key parts of an operation is new territory for some corporates — especially when such collaboration is with startups. De la Loge and Francine agree that having designated points of contact on both sides of the partnership ensures consistency and helps each party know who to go to with queries.
Francine says she has someone on the WeMaintain team that communicates with the Groupe ADP team almost on a daily basis. They receive the maintenance notifications, review the dashboard together and also work on what the Groupe ADP maintenance teams need. She says they’ve developed a relationship and trust each other.
“You need to have a long, dated relationship and transparency and the ability to say from the beginning when you cannot help or when you can push forward — because for a startup that has a lot of pressure on its time and human resources, it is super important to be transparent.” – Maylis de la Loge, investment director at Groupe ADP
4/ Attitudes are changing at corporates with the help of internal champions
As the needs of corporates continue to diversify, so too does their need to collaborate with startups. One of Gauthier’s responsibilities at Groupe ADP’s innovation hub is to act as a champion for startup collaboration — and he says it’s getting easier.
Years ago, he says, he would go to the business unit and attempt to convince them to try new solutions with startups — but today, that unit is coming to him.
“We changed the mentality of the business units and I think we did it well because today, all the business [units] want to explore new solutions [and] they know that new startups have those solutions.” — Gauthier, Groupe ADP
5/ Corporates must ensure legal and procurement teams are on board with collaborating
The legal and procurement departments’ job is to mitigate risk for a corporate — but Francine says they tend to forget that startups will actually bring a lot of value in terms of operations and mindset that can easily outweigh the risk.
Francine shares a personal experience of trying to work with a major corporate that said WeMaintain needed to have at least three years of existence — it didn’t, creating what she described as a “vicious circle”.
“You need to make sure the procurement team is willing to work with startups and understand what’s at stake for the startup, and that they have specific criteria too.” — Jade Francine, WeMaintain
6/ AI startups are helping corporates progress in leaps and bounds
The boom in the number of AI startups is a nod to the breadth of use cases the technology has — and this is relevant for airport operators, too. Gauthier notes that AI has helped Groupe ADP with data collection, safety and security.
Francine later adds that there are still deep problems in companies and societies that won’t be solved by AI — but AI startups continue to grow from strength to strength for now.
“AI can really help us to have data about what is going on at our airfield. For example, a project we made last year about the analysing and the collecting of data of the bus station in Orly airport was really important for us, because [now] we can improve our solution and hospitality for our passengers.” — Gauthier, Groupe ADP
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/startups-and-corporates-collaborate-brnd/
