Large organisations are engaging startups in growing numbers, due in part to a realisation that companies have not been built to respond to the accelerating pace of change in a timely manner, and that short of restructuring the entire organisation from the ground up, partnering with startups who are unencumbered by bureaucracy, short-term shareholder demands and employee incentives, is an easier way to tap into emerging technologies, business models and talent.

This makes sense for most large organisations given that startups tend to explore disruptive innovations – usually low margin, small market and high risk to begin with – don’t support short term and often large company growth targets, but if left unchecked, may be the source of dwindling market share a few years down the track (here’s looking at you Blockbuster for passing up the opportunity to buy Netflix for US$50M – the company is today worth 140 times that).

In this episode I run through eight ways that corporates can connect with startup ecosystems and engage startups to work collaboratively towards their mutual goals – some light touch and others that require a more serious commitment of time and money.