Here is, in a few words, an idea for a large company to develop in an entrepreneurial way.

In general, a large company seeks either to create incubators, with external startups, more or less related to its core business, or to launch a certain number of internal projects, which will generate a certain amount of turnover, and which, potentially, will bring added value to the existing business model.

Both strategies are effective, but they are not comprehensive.

Let's take an example.

Let's imagine a telecom operator launching an application via a small subsidiary. This application is quite successful in a geographical area, for example Africa. Let's imagine that the turnover of this subsidiary reaches 20 million euros.

Let's also imagine that the more the turnover increases, the more this large company naturally takes care of this activity.

What is going to happen?

The more the subsidiary that launched this application develops, the more the parent company will take care of it, and in a certain way suffocate it, whether through research and development assistance, commercial assistance, etc.

Which is paradoxical. The subsidiary will also reach its market share ceiling, in the geographical area, in this case, Africa, to use the example mentioned above.

The subject of my remarks can be summed up in one word: ambition.

If I am the manager of this large company, I can have two types of ambitions.

First ambition:

The first is to use the success of this application in a given geographical area to generate business on my main activity. The ambition is therefore regional and temporal.

The large company ends up managing a subsidiary that generates a low flow of business compared to its own consolidated turnover.

The question then arises of selling this subsidiary when it is no longer useful, when it is no longer a core business. The purchaser of the subsidiary (an investment fund, a competitor) will then have the ambition to bring the acquired company to a much higher level of activity, by changing certain parameters (e.g. global expansion).

Second ambition:

The second ambition consists in moving from a logic of development in Africa to that of creating a global leader.

If I, as the manager of a large company, have this type of ambition, I will have to let this subsidiary develop on its real market. Concretely, let the beautiful plant grow outside of my business.

To do this, it will be necessary to identify one or more entrepreneurs within the subsidiary team and let them take off.

With a sharing of capital and risks. Or else, you will have to look for an entrepreneur or an interim manager on the market, whose ambition will naturally be to grow this beautiful plant from a turnover of 20 million euros, to a large plant with a turnover of 100 million euros.

This outsourced subsidiary will move much more easily from geographic to global leadership. By having access, of course, to all financial and managerial development instruments. By having in a way taken his freedom, his flight.

My vision:

In my opinion, the second type of ambition is interesting and less risky than the first. If we apply this principle to a large number of subsidiaries, then we will see the emergence of world leaders, by statistical effect.

Leaders in which the big company will be a shareholder. Leaders who will form a kind of ecosystem for big business. Leaders who will produce a very important activity.

As the manager of a large company, I therefore populate my ecosystem with affiliated companies, in which I have a certain percentage of capital. These companies generate flow to my core business and protect it from radical attacks.

This type of reasoning applies in part to the framework of Google/Uber relationships.

The founders of Uber are in the Google ecosystem. Uber shares the Google Map with Google. Rather than developing complete vertical integrations, isn't it better to create an ecosystem based on beautiful plants that you leave completely outside of big business?

Overcoming obstacles to promote entrepreneurial development

A number of barriers need to be broken down to achieve this. The first of these is power.

Management power of the parent company. Management power of the subsidiary itself. You also need to have a form of humility and a sense of general interest to let the beautiful plant go, to let it live its life in a truly entrepreneurial model.

I hope that this belief will inspire you.