This Low-Cost, Low-Effort Growth Strategy Could Transform Your Company Into an Innovation Powerhouse How participating in startup competitions can spur corporate growth.

As an experienced corporate executive, entrepreneur and investor, I often advise corporations about accelerating their growth. This is a common challenge for companies around the globe. These companies might be using previous-generation technology and, unfortunately, traditional Research & Development (R&D) efforts are often ineffective in developing innovative ideas. Corporations sometimes partner with universities on joint technology projects. However, such partnerships usually produce results too slowly in today's fast-paced business environment.

I believe that the secret to accelerating corporate growth is to become more innovative. While it is possible to innovate internally, organizations attempting this fail more often than they succeed. It's inherently challenging to ask corporate employees to think like a startup founder. Instead, I recommend that corporations become more innovative by investing in startups, which allows the corporation to grow more quickly. Since the startup ecosystem develops innovative ideas continually, investing in startups is the fastest and most cost-effective way to grow.

Related: Startups & Corporates: A Symbiotic Relationship

Capitalizing on global startup competitions

Startup competitions are growing around the world. Participating in them — whether this means attending, speaking or judging — offers corporations a chance to network with innovative startup founders. By doing so, they can build relationships, learn market insights, discover innovative technology and gain access to talent. Together, such opportunities will help corporations become more innovative and grow quickly. Since startup competitions bring together the best companies from around the world in one place, this is an effective way to meet many of them in a short timeframe.

Today, it's typical that major conferences — such as TechCrunch Disrupt, Startup Grind, Dublin Tech Summit, and Web Summit — host startup competitions at their events. Universities also host business plan competitions, often for startups that are already generating revenue while their founders are still in school. There are also dedicated startup competitions such as the Startup World Cup, which hosts 100+ regional competitions around the globe. It culminates in a grand finale event where the winner receives a $1 million investment prize. All these types of events are strong networking opportunities since they are attended by startups, corporations, investors and the media.

How startup competitions benefit corporations

Let's review specific ways that corporations can get the most out of startup competitions. As a starting point, corporations should look for startups that match their strategic direction and business objectives. Corporations can use these competitions to initiate partnerships designed to help both parties grow. As these partnerships develop, corporations can assess whether to invest in the startups they partner with.

Startup competitions also serve as a testing ground for new technologies and innovative ideas. There are normally stringent criteria to enter these competitions, so once a corporate manager or executive decides to attend, they can be assured that only the best ideas are being presented. I believe it's a good idea for corporations to look for startup technologies that complement their technology so that the two companies can work together to grow in a mutually beneficial way.

Another way corporations can benefit from participating in startup competitions is to use the event to understand market trends. Corporations should examine what new technologies are being developed and what customer challenges startups are trying to solve. This helps determine which startups are most relevant for a corporation to become more competitive. Another opportunity that startup competitions offer is the chance for corporations to look at new talent. Typically well-educated, creative people are those who participate in these competitions. Corporations can grow their networks and may even be able to hire startup employees from these events.

The role of corporate venture capital

Beyond networking and partnership, I recommend corporations consider investing in startups to become more innovative. At startup competitions, they can meet founders and discover new technology. They can then invest with the assistance of a Venture Capital (VC) partner. Although a corporation can set up an internal investing organization, doing so is difficult and expensive. Hiring VC professionals who want to work in a corporate environment is also difficult. An alternative model is Venture Capital-as-a-Service (VCaaS), which means aligning with a VC firm to invest on the corporation's behalf.

Corporations that utilize the VCaaS model invest based on their budget, timeline and strategic objectives. VCaaS offers a high level of flexibility and benefits corporations since the VC firm finds startups with innovative technology and conducts thorough due diligence. This ensures that an investment is mutually beneficial.

Related: Corporate Innovation Through Effective Startup Investing

Startup competitions do a remarkable job of attracting the best technology ideas and the best founders from across the world. These events allow startups to share their expertise, technology and ideas. They can also use these competitions to meet new partners and investors. Ultimately, this will help startups and their corporate partners reach new customers and markets, growing more quickly than they would otherwise.