289: Igniting A Start-Up Spark In Big Business

When a company is first founded, it’s full of life. There is a start-up spark that drives improvement and change, and challenges the norm. But when that same company grows into a big business and becomes recognised as a “corporate” rather than a “start-up”, this spark is diluted or even extinguished completely which can be a dangerous position. So as we’re looking to transform, how can we ignite (or maybe reignite) the start-up spark in big business? Join Oliver Banks and discover how you can take on the traits and mindsets of an entrepreneur to build a culture that’s ready for change and disruption.

Listen to this episode of the Retail Transformation Show and discover:

• Why it’s important to adopt an entrepreneurial mindset, and how this spark enables transformation.
• Six essential traits to blend elements of a start-up culture which can rejuvenate your organization.
• The simple, actionable steps you can start today for each entrepreneurial trait.

 

 

Episode summary: Six start-up traits and how to bring them to life quickly

The episode recognizes the challenges big businesses face in maintaining the entrepreneurial spirit they had as start-ups. It emphasizes the importance of igniting this start-up spark within established companies by embodying entrepreneurial behaviours and mindsets.

1. Listening: It’s crucial to actively listen to customers, colleagues, and stakeholders to truly understand feedback and uncover valuable insights.

• Suggested action or behaviour: Ask, listen and take notes. Notetaking will help you listen and stop you from jumping in prematurely.

2. Lean Thinking: This aspect focuses on delivering meaningful value to customers with minimal resources by understanding what customers truly value and eliminating waste.

• Suggested action or behaviour: Always ask what customers value and what they would not. Don’t make assumptions on this.

3. Continuous Improvement: This is about being open to identifying opportunities for refining and improving your ways of working on a daily basis, whether as an individual, a team or as a company. It’s aligned with the concept of Kaizen and marginal gains for ongoing progress.

• Suggested action or behaviour: Identify one thing to improve on a daily basis. This could be about meetings, interactions or more tangible items like an aspect of business performance.

4. Experimenting: We don’t know everything, so it’s important to try out new ideas and hypotheses, learning from both successes and failures to drive innovation and adaptation.

• Suggested action or behaviour: Consider what new experiments could be started and document your hypothesis and how you could prove or disprove this.

5. Collaborating: It’s crucial to consider options for working internally and externally in partnerships to enhance flexibility, teamwork, and overall effectiveness in achieving common goals.

• Suggested action or behaviour: Identify options to collaborate more effectively to act in the best interest of customers.

6. Sense of Urgency: Retail naturally works at a fast pace. But with this fast pace, it’s important to prioritize meaningful tasks effectively to avoid being over-busy and also to address the “elephant in the room”.

• Suggested action or behaviour: Identify the elephant in the room, and consider how you can make it more visible for all to see.

Additionally, igniting a startup spark requires a combination of small actions and larger initiatives tailored to the company’s existing culture. But, by acting on these six traits, companies can create a culture that embraces change and innovation and ultimately leads to successful transformation. Building an entrepreneurial mindset is a continuous process that involves consistent effort and adaptability.

The final point of consideration is to think and take action: How will you unlock the spirit of a start-up in your company?

Explore if Oliver and OB&Co can help you transform

Oliver helps organizations and individuals to drive effective transformation. This includes defining operating models across the business as a way of standardising the approaches to getting the right work done effectively and efficiently. He also works with individuals to help advise and act as a thinking partner to rapidly drive personal growth.

Speak to Oliver about the Accelerator service for hands-on support to get things done. Or ask about the Navigator service to develop capabilities.

📧 Email on oliver.banks@obandco.uk

🔗 Connect with Oliver Banks on LinkedIn and send a message.

Additional podcast episodes to listen to next

Firstly, in the previous episode, Oliver explores how our own head might be sabotaging our efforts. This could prevent us from igniting that start-up spark, so listen to episode 288: How Our Own Brain Blocks Meaningful Work.

In episode 276: The Small Steps To Continuous Improvement, Oliver shares more about the concept of Kaizen and continuous improvement. Listen now to dive deeper into this important trait.

Amazon expanded from a start-up to a corporate giant in relatively a short period of time. However, they’ve kept a “day one” mindset alongside and this has helped them keep the entrepreneurial spark alive. Dive deeper in episode 257: Unpacking How Amazon Have Expanded.

And finally, in episode 280: Driving Retail Transformation – Book Launch Special, Oliver shares more about his brand new book, and why it might help you transform how you’re transforming. For the book launch week, Oliver released additional episodes, so also check out episode 281, 282, 283 and 284 to explore more about what’s waiting for you inside the covers of the book.