FT Innovate 2015
5th October 2015

Big v small: which one is better at coming up with and executing the big idea?
Level39 are delighted to be a supporting partner of the Financial Times Live team for their upcoming innovation conference: FT Innovate 2015.
The event, hosted by Vinopolis in London Bridge, seeks to answer some of the most important questions in the startup world: how do startups work effectively with large institutions? How do the big companies work with the agile, innovative startups? What can startups learn from big corporates?
All these questions will be answered, and for Level39 members we are delighted to offer a discounted rate when registering for the event.
————
There is a story going round the business world: big companies can’t innovate. They’re all about inefficiency, stifled by bureaucracy and stuck in the past when it comes to the nimbleness required to generate and execute the best ideas.
Instead, all the best innovation is coming from start-ups, especially those in the tech world. Inspired by Silicon Valley, mantras like the ‘pivot’ and ‘failing fast’ and fuelled by new digital tools, they can do in months what it would take a big company years to achieve.
But is this big bad, small good narrative too simplistic? Are the big guns fighting back? Or is the future of innovation really a story of how big and small companies will work together, as each seeks to figure out a way of working with the other?
This disruption dynamic is creating an atmosphere of paranoia for both big companies and startups alike, and is the wider context within which FT Innovate 2015 sits.