In February, Boeing announced a New Ventures organization that is being run by an outsider and that is designed to create a safe harbor for audacious ideas. To succeed, it isn t, of course, enough just to establish the office. For fear of failure, businesses typically attempt incremental improvements to old ideas rather than pursue truly novel ones. But the only way to get a significant financial return is through breakthroughs. Businesses usually try just one or two new ventures at a time, but portfolios are a better idea.
Venture capitalists say that the best predictor of future success is past success.
The second best predictor is past failure . Few inside big corporations have played the start-up game. One client, a huge bank not known as a magnet for entrepreneurial talent, took a novel tack with six top business school students. It gave them summer internships during which they drafted new-venture plans that they got to present to the chief executive. Three plans got financed, and five of the students work for the bank.