La collaboration between companies and startups is the key to innovate and look to the future. It is necessary to work on cultural factors, sharing resources and skills in order to create a synergy between the respective approaches and methodologies. If managed correctly, partnerships can produce numerous economic and strategic benefits for both parties. On the one hand, large Italian companies can draw on the pool of talent and ideas of emerging realities, on the other, startups can benefit from new forms of financing and increase their competitiveness on the market. This is what emerged from the new report produced by McKinsey & Company and B Heroesecosystem of initiatives to support the growth of new innovative Italian businesses.
In particular, the study "When David allies with Goliath. Collaborating to innovate: rethinking partnership models between startups and large companies in Italy” analyzes the characteristics of the European context and the state of the relationship between startups and large Italian companies through the point of view of over 80 Italian B2B and B2C startups active in various sectors and a relevant panel of managers from large national and international companies. The main results follow.
Despite the last decade, the 36% of active startups all over the world was born in Europe (against 45% in the USA), these are unable to reach a market value exceeding 1 billion dollars in the short term, the so-called "unicorns" which represent only 14% against 50% in the United States. This because? Among the many difficulties, the study by McKinsey and B Heroes identifies three: the fragmentation of the market, the difficulty of accessing finance and the scarce availability of talent.
In more than 80% of cases, startups and large Italian companies are satisfied with their partnership experiences. This is because Italian startups see large companies as partners capable of facilitating access to funding (the 75%), accelerate market entry of end users (88%) and secure a positive image return (90%). Instead, large Italian companies are looking for forms of collaboration to draw on the reservoir of talents, ideas and energies of startups and to encourage cultural change within them thanks to contamination with new modern ways of working.
Even if the benefits of a partnership are evident, in Italy only 41% of startups collaborate currently with more than two companies, while 35% of startups have not established any type of relationship and 24% have started their first collaborations with one or two companies.
But when does the relationship work? The study identifies a shared path through which startups and large companies can collaborate, drawing mutual benefit from their partnership. The determining factors identified are: the role of leadership fundamental to drive towards innovation and growth; atransversal innovation e integrated in the organization and corporate culture; a open approach which allows you to experiment, test and change during construction to always keep up with the times; the speed in establishing partnerships e respect the identity of the startups so that these do not lose their target market.
“Startups represent a strength for the entire European industrial fabric, a strategic tool for economic development in an area that, naturally and historically, is prone to collaboration, the contamination of ideas and technological innovation,” he commented. Alessio Botta, Senior Partner at McKinsey and author of the study -. We believe that an effective partnership between the corporate world and startups, especially those active in the B2B sector, represents a unique opportunity for the creation of unicorns on a global level that can compete with companies from the United States and Asia".
Laura Prinzi, Managing Director of B Heroes, added: "Collaborating is the key to the effective development of innovative solutions and to look to the future: the road to innovation is the result of an effective mix of different realities, cultures, skills and resources . Partnerships between companies and startups bring advantages for both parties, but it is necessary to work on cultural factors, promoting positive contaminations that recognize and respect different identities: on the one hand, companies must align their organizational context, in terms of processes and times, to work with startups; on the other, startups must learn to understand the language of business and of their interlocutors, decision-making and governance processes”.
