Andrew Hamilton is chief executive of The Icehouse, a business growth centre focused on making a difference for New Zealand.
If you are one of those creative Kiwis who have an idea for a world-changing product or service this year, how do you go about approaching large companies in New Zealand to support you?
Regardless of how hard it is, large Kiwi companies provide a great testing ground and credibility-builder for entrepreneurs in their early days.
But we all can't be Steve Jobs of Apple or Rod Drury of Xero. This is important because what entrepreneurs lack most is credibility and track record. Until you have this, you will need to find other ways to get the large companies to take notice.
First up, how do you actually get in the door to have a conversation? Our large companies are not set up to have thousands of conversations each year with Kiwi entrepreneurs.
To get noticed we have found it helps working through an intermediary such as The Icehouse or any of the business growth centres in New Zealand. These organisations have established relationships with large organisations and even if they don't, by brand and reputation they are known as trusted third parties for innovation by these organisations.
Sure you can try and approach them directly but when there is already an existing and trusted relationship, why not use it to your advantage?
Once you are in the door, try not to talk about your product or service from the get-go. We have often seen that if you just start the conversation with a request to test assumptions about the market executives will be much more open.
We call this market validation, where you are not permitted to talk about your product or service until at least the third meeting with a prospective customer.
You are focused on identifying where the real pain point is that you might be able to build a solution for, which the organisation would pay for. If you can be disciplined enough to follow this process, it will have an incredible impact on testing your original assumptions with the reality of a customer's need.
The third area to consider is language. This is also a challenging area because corporate people generally speak another language, and if you don't mold your language to the large organisation you will get nowhere, regardless of how good the innovation is.
A really good example is the banking industry. I am continually surprised by how confusing and complex this industry is, probably because of the regulation and risks that require the banks to run their organisations appropriately.
To get interest from the banks, you really need to work with someone who understands how to turn your concept into the language that fits the banks.
Large companies in New Zealand have been shown to be supportive of Kiwi entrepreneurs. They are challenging to work with because they are large and mostly conservative. However the benefits are great if you can find the path to get into a partnership with them.
If you are struggling, look to organisations such as The Icehouse to help create the introduction and guide you through the initial discussions.
