Five Questions for David Kidder, Co-author of "New to Big: How Companies can Create Like Entrepreneurs..."

David Kidder - founder, investor, speaker, and author.

I recently read an excellent book by David Kidder and Christina Wallace, New to Big. It is one of the best books I have read on entrepreneurship, especially how you can bring an entrepreneur mindset into large companies to enable growth.

It is a playbook for large companies to not only survive but thrive by becoming "ambidextrous." They have to become a New to Big machine to build new businesses to sustain growth. Once it becomes big, the core can take that nascent business from Big to Bigger, which is their forte. 

A company's success in becoming good at both New to Big and Big to Bigger rests on a CEO being ambidextrous. CEOs are experienced at Big to Bigger but not New to Big. Using a football metaphor, it is akin to having Tom Brady being great at QB on offense and also being an excellent safety on defense. But that is what is needed for large companies to remain relevant.

Every company wants a high valuation from Wall Street, but they don't know how to do it. Kidder explains at a high-level how a company can do this and turn it into its core competency. You don't have a choice. Either you are going to change or become roadkill. 

What should you do if you want your company to grow by becoming a New to Big machine?

• Read this blog post. 
• Get David Kidder's book New to Big to understand what's involved for Big to Bigger machine to become a New to Big machine.
• Socialize internally and convince others (peers and C-Suite) why your company must explore becoming a New to Big machine  
• Build momentum internally incrementally
• Get buy-in from the CEO
• Contact Bionic and see how they can help you succeed in becoming New to Big. You don't want to do it yourself. Transforming to become a New to Big machine is hard. To accelerate and succeed at becoming a New to Big machine, you will need some experts' consultation. You have to get off to a good start so you can't take any chances by doing it yourself.
• Create a New to Big culture within your company, and Wall Street will richly reward you and your company, and you will be on a fast track to make it to C-Suite

Start now since your competitors are already doing it.  

Good Luck!  
 
Question 1:
It is hard for companies to become and remain a powerful Big to Bigger machine. Should large companies attempt to become a New to Big machine, or should they instead focus on their core competencies and acquire successful companies at New to Big? 

• Companies should be both "Big to Bigger" and "New to Big" if they want to be resilient and remain powerful. New to Big is about discovering new growth opportunities - it is the form of management adopted to discover new growth. Big to Bigger captures growth that exists, while New to Big captures new growth. A company must be doing both to be resilient to disruption. 

Question 2:
What is the main reason that prevents a large company from becoming a New to Big machine?
 

• Working with numerous large companies, what we have seen is that growth innovation cannot be exclusively led outside the core, i.e., growth cannot be outsourced. For a large company to succeed in becoming a New to Big machine, it needs to take place inside the organization and from top-down, especially the CEO must lead this effort.  For example, partners like P&G that started inside the core have been extraordinarily successful by adopting the growth systems and mindsets we've advocated, and the stock prices reflect that.    

Question 3:
You write in your book that the "success of New to Big sits squarely with the CEO." So don't you need a CEO with experience in New to Big to make it work?

• The CEO does not necessarily need experience in New to Big. They need to be open to the growth mindsets necessary to transform the company - they need to have the desire and motivation to learn the New to Big mindsets and methodologies. The transformation of the company begins with the desire to transform from the leader. 

Question 4:
Briefly, what should startups need to do to become a Big to Bigger machine? Should they attempt to become Big to Bigger by going IPO or sell to a large company or a private equity firm?

• Startups have a lot of options, and it will really depend on their journey - it's impossible to give a blanket answer to what a startup should or should not do. A startup, by definition, is a high-growth new company experiencing unbounded returns. When the returns stop or the full value of the market is discovered, that journey ends, but you are ultimately always trying to get bigger, and there are many ways to do that. 

Question 5:
Isn't New to Big hard to succeed in large companies partly because you are trying to create this machine in an artificial environment? By this, I mean entrepreneurs make many sacrifices to create a market, including taking low compensation. How do you create that hunger and urgency in a New to Big initiative in large companies where they have an escape path to Big to Bigger?

• Entrepreneurship is about discovering and solving new problems, and this isn't exclusive to startups. When you're solving a problem, you have to adopt a mindset that pushes you forward to understand the customers' needs and build a solution. Big companies are learning that their new competitors are startups, so they need to recognize the potential of disruption from anywhere and want to put out the best solution. The incentives and rewards might be different at a startup versus a big company, but the job is the same. 

Bonus Question:
You mention about Day One mindset that Jeff Bezos uses to keep Amazon a well oiled New to Big machine. But isn't he rare in that he has mastered being ambidextrous? Isn't that his secret sauce in making Amazon one of the most valuable companies on Wall Street? 

• Sure, it's his secret sauce. But the miracle behind that is permission. There are the attributes and skills of the Day One mindset (see below), but most organizations don't have the permissions and capabilities to do the work. There's no monopoly on the Day One mindset - but it's about the permission to get there that leaders lack. People can adopt his mindset and use his teachings to open the permissions of the Day One mindset. 

Attributes + Skills of Day One Mindset: 
Obsession over customer problems + needs (not tech)
Capturing impact of outside forces (right, on-time)
Rediscovery + leveraging of proprietary gifts
Outside-in vs. Inside-out: bold growth portfolios driving truth 
Speed + cost: lean experimentation, productive failure 

Five books recommended by David Kidder to get a deeper understanding of being an entrepreneur:

• The Hard Thing About Hard Things - Ben Horowitz 
• What You Do Is Who You Are: How to Create Your Business Culture - Ben Horowitz
• Startup CEO - Matt Blumberg 
• The Startup Owner's Manual: The Step-By-Step Guide for Building a Great Company - Bob Dorf & Steve Blank  
• Rework - David Heinemeier Hansson and Jason Fried
• And of course, The Startup Playbook and New to Big   - David Kidder 

I want to thank David Kidder (founder, investor, speaker, and author) and Rachel Jerome (Marketing Manager) for their help with this blog post.

David Kidder's Books:
New to Big: How Companies Can Create Like Entrepreneurs, Invest Like VCs, and Install a Permanent Operating System for Growth
The Startup Playbook: Secrets of the Fastest-Growing Startups from Their Founding Entrepreneurs
David Kidder's Linkedin Contact:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidskidder/

David Kidder's Website:
https://www.davidskidder.com/

Bionic Website:
https://onbionic.com/

The Science of Success Podcast
Would You Bet Your Life On It? How to be Certain with David Kidder
                
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I am author, speaker, executive coach.  I guide people thrive on high stakes stage whether it's for a job interview, career advancement, a sales presentation or a high-stakes speech. I am the author of a practical  book on speaking titled Winning Speech Moments: How to Achieve Your Objective with Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere. The main idea of the book is that if you want people to remember your speech and take action, you must create a winning speech moment.

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