“The unexamined life is not worth living”, as Socrates said. It is fitting as I take the reins as the new editor of Global Corporate Venturing that an important academic attempt to understand what corporate venturing achieves has been published, in part using our data. Following the great Greek philosopher, our publication wants to be able to fully understand using data exactly what corporate venturing achieves.
The good news is that corporate venturing is likely a positive activity, if the recent research, by the Corporate Venturing Research Initiative at Switzerland-based university ETH Zurich in collaboration with US-based consultancy firm Bain & Company, is correct. In part using data from
Global Corporate Venturing, their research found corporate venturing has transformed parent companies in 77% of cases, based on its sample of 48 active Fortune Global 2000 companies.
The research sheds light on how corporate venturing units are trying to affect such transformation. Interestingly while many regard corporate venturing units as investors with limited price sensitivity, due to their strategic goals, 75% of units regarded financial returns from the activity as important. There also seems to be a rigorous attempt by many to only invest in areas they understand, with only 17% focusing on white space opportunities outside their core business. That a minority decide to focus on the strategy of investing outside their area of expertise is heartening, because while such a move may provide a wider understanding of changes in the business world and some transformational opportunities, common sense would suggest mistakes are more likely to be made.
We want to facilitate wider studies of what the sector achieves. Do let us know what we should be thinking about to fully understand how corporate venturing works and what it achieves. As our publication grows its pool of data we will hopefully be able to fully understand with a Socratic approach what corporate venturing is and be able to outline how it can be done well. Many of the people we write about clearly already know this secret, yet do tell us how you managed this success.