For companies looking to take part in the process of corporate venturing as a means of business development, it is sometimes best to look at it as a process that is based on science. Corporate venturing, or entrepreneurship within an existing business, can be broken down into a basic concept called “idea networking.”
Idea networking, or networking for the purpose of ideas, is essentially the process of finding new ideas by separating from like-minded people as those from your organization. The intention here is to get a new perspective on the issue, leading to the development of new thoughts and eventually new business growth strategies. This process needs to be purposeful and it needs to be in service of getting out of your comfort zone.
The keywords here are “novel and useful.” If something is novel and useful, it can be considered creative. By obtaining new perspectives, it can lead to acquiring ideas your organization may not have previously considered. Once those ideas come in, you are ready to implement them.
This leads to the next key which is ensuring the idea is in fact something that can be implemented by your organization. It has to be able to be replicated, it has to be sustainable, and it has to be able to be consumed. If this can be sustained long enough and consistently, it can lead to a disruption in the industry.
These ideas do not need to be revolutionary or come from scratch, but oftentimes they come from associating things and bringing them together for a different purpose or use.
Once these steps have been taken, innovation is what comes from it. This is all a system to inspire new entrepreneurial thought, which will bring business development.