Excubation: a new path to innovation

Large companies used to be the jealous guardians of their own secrets, relying exclusively on their R&D departments to tackle markets with innovative products and services. This model worked for a long time, giving them a lasting competitive edge. However, since the 2000s, the meteoric rise of technology-driven start-ups has shaken these industrial behemoths.

The complex structures, hierarchical rigidity and specific resources of large companies often prevent them from competing with small start-ups, which have the flexibility and freedom to explore new ideas and avant-garde business models. Faced with this challenge, large companies have tried to remain competitive by developing in-house incubators and investing in promising start-ups.

However, the failure rate of these in-house initiatives is high, mainly due to the difficulty of reintegrating these new ideas into the larger company. This is where excubation comes in. This innovative model consists of a large company creating a start-up or developing an innovative project with the support of external partners, while maintaining its in-house team. The aim is to encourage the emergence of new ideas and business models outside the company, while ensuring that they contribute to its future growth. In contrast to incubation, excubation enables a start-up or project to flourish outside the company's walls.

To implement a successful excubation program, large companies must follow seven essential rules established by Excubate:

1. Separating innovation from execution: excubation is about harnessing the complementary strengths of start-ups and large corporations by separating the exploration phase from the exploitation phase. Start-ups offer unparalleled agility and capacity for innovation, while large corporations have the strength, experience and resources to turn ideas into reality and grow rapidly.
2. Attracting entrepreneurial talent: To succeed in creating new businesses or developing innovative projects, major corporations need to attract and retain entrepreneurial talent. This requires offering them a high level of autonomy and responsibility, as well as access to the financial, human and logistical resources needed to bring their projects to fruition.
3. Facilitating the innovation process: Clearly defining the innovation process is crucial. Large companies, with their level of organization and structuring, must offer start-ups all the resources they need.
4. Managing the innovation portfolio: Even if excubation innovation projects are developed externally, the company must respect a limited number of simultaneous projects. It is essential to clearly allocate the budget between innovations developed in-house, those carried out with partners and those excubated.
5. Inspire in-house employees: To encourage innovation, the company can adopt measures such as job rotation, participation in start-up events or temporary relief from certain constraints to foster a more flexible and agile work environment.
6. Educate employees: Once employees are motivated to explore new ideas, the company needs to educate them by giving them access to information and resources that will enable them to understand start-up practices and adopt new agile methodologies.
7. Sustaining the flow of ideas: The aim of excubation is not just to solve short-term business problems, but also to maintain a long-term culture of innovation.

By following these rules, large companies can adopt excubation as a win-win model, combining the best of both worlds to stay competitive in a constantly changing world.

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