Page 258 - The Design Thinking Playbook

EXPERT TIP

Working like a create-up

Create-ups are young enterprises that act as research laboratories. Behind these experimental labs, there
is usually a strong entrepreneurial personality such as Marc and his co-founders. The founders often
come from elite universities and bring in-depth knowledge from their studies as well as the capability of
programming. Their intention is mainly to design new business models. They live a culture that is charac-
terized by:

• a clear vision,
• a long-term strategy,
• a strong personal commitment on the part of the founder, and
• a high level of risk tolerance.

A typical approach for a create-up is to turn existing business models on their head and thus rock the mar-
ket. They create a value proposition, for instance, that offers added value at better price/performance con-
ditions or disrupts an existing business ecosystem. The employees in a create-up are passionate about the
vision of the enterprise. Instead of power games, hierarchies, and rigid structures, the prevailing culture CREATE-UPS
is one that aims at solving problems. Paired with a positive mindset, they are focused on realizing market
opportunities. In so doing, they make intense use of the network that was already built up and cultivated at
the elite universities. See Chapter 2.2, where we described the Connect 2 Value framework.
START-UPS
Established companies can learn a great deal from the create-up mindset. It starts with a clear vision,
continues with a network-oriented way of thinking, and is expressed in the fact that all actors are involved
in the problem solution as well as in agile and flat organizational structures.

Traditional No Experimental
organizational models project teams
laboratories

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