Fightback Now

Sharing my learnings from the book, Fightback Now by Felix Staeritz and Dr Sven Jungmann

Fightback Now by Felix Staeritz and Dr Sven Jungmann

As the pandemic recedes, innovation will be the key issue. The old ways didn’t save us from the new coronavirus – and we know they won’t solve the climate change crisis that’s heading our way. We need innovation now. FightBack shows how we can use digital technology.

entrepreneurial creativity and new business models to exploit our existing assets and fashion a viable future for our children. It offers a new approach, based on corporate venture building, that can mobilize the underutilized potential of our mighty corporations, enabling them to play a key role in launching innovative, profitable and strategically relevant businesses and creating a better world.

• The global spread of COVID-19 has shown how health care and the global economy are deeply connected. The world will face an even bigger challenge in the coming decades: extreme climate change.
• The way forward is collaboration and innovation through technology to produce positive, public-oriented growth. But while this may work when it comes to growing a social media app, when lives are on the line, tech companies can’t treat regulations like speed limits to be ignored if nobody’s around. Governments and corporations must collaborate, linking government data and administrative capabilities with technological know-how and creativity
• platform businesses – firms that connect buyers and sellers, but don’t produce anything themselves. These businesses are perhaps the single most important new model created by the digital era. Unlike traditional brick-and-mortar companies, the cost of running a platform barely scales up as the number of users increases, meaning that these companies can earn big profits with small overheads. The companies have a natural mechanism for growth, too, called the network effect. The more people who are connected via a platform, the better it becomes. So how are business leaders supposed to think about platforms moving forward? First, understand that while platforms are powerful tools, building new ones will face increasing limitations. That said, keep an eye on new markets that may open up due to changing global circumstances
• the world has the tools to create better outcomes. First and foremost, a change in the approach to health care would have an enormous impact. The old model focuses on outputs – how many vaccines delivered or surgeries performed. A new model, called value-based health care, focuses not just on concrete outcomes, but also on how the patient feels. By considering the patient holistically, and not just thinking about what treatments or procedures might be indicated, doctors can lower costs, provide better care, and produce a healthier society. But health-care challenges arising from global conditions like climate change, can’t be solved patient by patient – entire industries need to reshape their thinking. Technology can help provide new approaches here. Here’s where collaboration helps create better outcomes: by linking environmental activists, businessmen, and tech innovators together to achieve a common goal, industries have found amazing breakthroughs.
• The coronavirus pandemic has taught the world that entrepreneurial energy can be found in the most unlikely places. So how can people and organizations tap into this mindset before the next crisis hits? First, understand what makes the entrepreneur’s mindset special. One of the defining characteristics of entrepreneurs is that they’re willing to take risks. This isn’t a superpower – they just accept uncertainty and continue to move forward toward their goal. Once you’ve identified potential entrepreneurs, collaboration is key – nothing gets built alone. The goal is to give them a supportive environment where they’re valued and given room to grow.
• How exactly are corporations supposed to build the future? the authors suggest Corporate Venture Building (CVB) is a better way forward. This combines the best parts of several different models: it has the mentorship and financing of a start-up accelerator, the idea-generation of an innovation lab, and the stability and institutional knowledge of an internal development team.
• CVB can be implemented in just three steps. First, identify a specific problem that an entrepreneur can tackle. Next, build an efficient team and give it space to work, knowing that some adjustments will be needed. Finally, plan out how you want to scale the business up.