來源：中歐視角
近年來，越來越多的大型跨國企業正在積極尋求與初創企業進行合作。對大型企業來說，初創企業可以幫助其更好地落地創新方案，並提供新鮮思路；對初創企業來說，這種合作能助其一展商業抱負，實現自身價值。中歐國際工商學院國際商務及戰略學副教授沙梅恩（Shameen Prashantham）多年來致力於研究初創企業與大型跨國企業的合作之道，他形象地稱之為「與巨猿共舞」。在本文中，他結合豐富案例，探討了在面對危機時，初創企業與大型企業之間的合作策略。
A large-scale crisis – such as the 2020 coronavirus pandemic – can (and must) bring out the best in humanity. In the midst of much undeniable strife, myriad organisations around the world have been racing against time to come up with valuable innovations, including start-ups from California to Bangalore and Singapore, that are generating new solutions or making existing ones available. Some of these efforts, including those of the European Union, involves bringing together small and large organisations to achieve outcomes that neither can accomplish on their own.
像2020年新冠肺炎疫情這樣的大規模危機，其實能夠甚至必然會激發人性中美好的部分。疫情固然引發了一些紛爭，但世界各地的無數企業，包括初創企業在內，都在爭分奪秒地試圖以創新理念打造全新解決方案，或者讓現有解決方案得到更廣泛的應用。這其中的一些努力，促成了大企業和小企業之間的合作，取得了大家各自為戰所不可能實現的成就。
However, while these initiatives are laudable, a note of caution may be in order. My research for over a decade on corporation-start-up partnering – which I refer to as 「dancing with gorillas」 – points to a paradox: while there is scope for win-win relationships between small and large organisations by tapping their relative strengths (for instance, one has scale and the other speed), the very differences that make them attractive to each other also make it difficult for them to work together.
這些舉措值得讚賞，但仍有一些注意事項需要關注。十多年來，我一直在研究大企業與初創企業之間的合作——我將之形容為「與巨猿共舞」——我的研究結果指向了一條悖論：儘管通過利用各自的相關優勢，如一家具有規模優勢而另一家發展迅速，大企業和小企業有機會實現雙贏，但巨大差異性在讓它們彼此吸引的同時，也會為它們之間的合作製造麻煩。
Therefore, it is important to thoughtfully harness partnering between large and small organisations in turbulent times. The following are three partnering strategies that can help.
因此，在經濟動蕩時期，謹慎對待大企業和小企業之間的合作關係至關重要。以下是三種可供借鑑的合作策略：
Leverage the urgency of a crisis to focus the mind on the specific potential synergy
利用危機的緊迫性，專注於具體的、可實現的協同效應
The prospect of a win-win is all too often a vague idea. Being clear about the synergy is important. In some cases, it may be that the small firm addresses a pain point of the larger organisation.
很多時候，「達成雙贏」只是一個模糊概念。合作企業需要明確究竟什麼是「協同效應」，在一些情況下，可能就是小企業幫助大企業解決痛點。
Consider HiNounou, a Shanghai-based start-up founded by French entrepreneur Charles Bark that offers home wellness kits for seniors comprised of genomic testing, medical devices and AI-enabled telemedicine which helps people keep in touch with elderly relatives remotely, and monitor the risk of chronic diseases. This start-up, which has consistently partnered with large corporations, has accelerated its partnering efforts with French multinational St Gobain and used its expertise to urgently provide them with anti-coronavirus survival kits that include masks and disinfectant gel.
由法國企業家夏爾·樸（Charles Bark）在上海創立的企業諾童（HiNounou）就是這樣一個案例。諾童為老年人提供家庭健康套件，包括基因檢測、醫療設備，以及AI支持的遠程醫療服務，以幫助人們與年邁的親人保持遠程聯繫，監控其慢性疾病風險。這家初創企業一直與大企業保持合作，最近它們加快了與法國跨國企業聖戈班集團（St Gobain）的合作，利用專業知識為聖戈班集團緊急供應抗擊新冠肺炎疫情的急救包，其中包括口罩和消毒液等。
In other cases, the synergy stems from a venture utilising a large organisation’s technological building blocks. Sehat Kahani is a Pakistani start-up founded by Dr. Sara Saeed (CEO) and Dr. Iffat Zaffar (COO) that uses telemedicine to provide remote medical advice to patients while at the same time tapping the underutilised capacities of women doctors. This start-up’s relationship with Microsoft has helped it rapidly scale its mobile app and gain traction owing to the coronavirus crisis. Participating in large corporations』 partner ecosystems provides support in the scaling process, and in this case the timing was opportune in terms of social impact, with the urgency of the situation making the synergy even clearer and eliciting quick decisions from both parties.
在其他案例中，協同效應則源於初創企業對大企業的技術構件的利用。Sehat Kahani（意為「醫療故事」）公司由巴基斯坦人沙拉·薩伊德（Sara Saeed）博士和依法·扎法爾（Iffat Zaffar）博士創立，他們分別擔任公司執行長與營運長，該企業充分利用閒置的女性醫生資源，通過遠程服務為患者提供醫療建議。這家初創企業與微軟合作後，其手機應用的使用規模迅速擴大，在新冠疫情期間，備受用戶青睞。成為大企業合作生態系統中的一員，對於該初創企業的規模化多有助益。在這個案例中，協同效應在危機背景下顯得分外清晰，促使雙方迅速做出決策，就擴大社會影響而言，時機把握得恰到好處。
Leverage expertise in interfaces between large and small organisations
利用大企業和小企業合作機制中的專業知識
Recognising synergy is one thing, working together is quite another – due to vast structural and organisational differences. Some large organisations have worked hard to establish partner interfaces with start-ups such as corporate accelerators (cohorts) or pitching competitions (funnels). The expertise to build effective corporation-start-up interfaces can help to accelerate collaboration between these dissimilar organisations in turbulent times.
認可協同效應是一回事，但實際合作是另一回事，大企業和小企業在結構和組織上存在著巨大差異。一些大企業通過設立加速器或舉辦創業比賽等方式，與初創企業建立合作對接。在兩者之間建立有效的合作機制，有助於在經濟動蕩時期促進不同企業間的合作。
To illustrate, Gregor Gimmy and Matthias Meyer, the co-founders of BMW Start-up Garage, deployed their interfacing expertise in their current outfit, 27pilots, to set up Start-ups Against Coronavirus. This interface enables start-ups to address large organisations』 crisis-induced pain points in areas such as remote work, virtual events and supply chain management, amongst others. For their part, large corporations are able to rapidly obtain solutions from (often well-funded) innovative start-ups, thus becoming their 「venture clients」. For example, Leena AI, an Indian start-up, quickly developed a COVID-19 HR chat-bot, which is being deployed by LafargeHolcim, a large Swiss cement manufacturer – an outcome enabled by this initiative’s interfacing expertise.
又例如，寶馬初創車庫（BMW Start-up Garage）聯合創始人格雷戈裡·吉米（Gregor Gimmy）和馬提亞斯·邁耶（Matthias Meyer）在他們目前供職的機構27pilots中部署了合作機制，用於孵化抗擊新冠疫情的初創企業。通過這一合作，初創企業能幫助大企業解決由危機引起的在遠程辦公、線上活動、供應鏈管理等方面的痛點；大企業也能夠迅速地從（通常是資金充足的）創新型初創企業那裡獲取解決方案，成為後者的「企業客戶」。比如，印度初創公司Leena AI迅速開發了一款COVID-19 HR聊天機器人 ，目前被瑞士大型水泥製造公司拉法基豪瑞集團（LafargeHolcim）所採用。這一成果便是得益於上述合作機制。
Leverage pre-crisis exemplars of partnering between large and small organisations
借鑑危機發生前大企業與小企業的合作範例
Despite the best intentions, moving quickly during troubled times may not be easy. Proven success stories of small-large firm partnering may be well placed to hit the ground running in a crisis. An African start-up illustrates this well. When I visited Bayer’s G4A digital health team in Berlin a couple of years ago, the last thing I expected was to learn about a start-up from Ghana that had participated in its accelerator. Bisa (which means 「ask」 in the Twi language), is a mobile app that allows people to get medical advice. Conceived during the Ebola crisis by a young technology entrepreneur, Raindolf Owusu, who has been referred to as the Larry Page of Ghana, this young firm has enhanced its capabilities and visibility by partnering with Bayer. In the midst of the coronavirus crisis, Bisa has offered a lot of free advice and information dissemination to the public in Ghana and Senegal.
不管想法有多好，在經濟糟糕的時候採取迅速行動都並非易事。先前大企業與小企業之間的成功合作案例或許可以作為危機時期的借鑑，有家非洲初創企業便是如此。幾年前，我在柏林拜訪了拜耳的G4A數字健康團隊，出乎意料地發現來自加納的一家初創企業參與過拜耳的加速器項目。Bisa（加納特威語中的意思是「問」）是一款為人們提供醫療建議的手機應用，由年輕的創業者雷恩道夫·奧烏蘇（Raindolf Owusu）在伊波拉疫情爆發期間開發，他因此被稱為「加納的拉裡·佩奇（Larry Page，谷歌聯合創始人）」。這家嶄露頭角的公司通過與拜耳合作，提升了自身實力和曝光度。在此次新冠肺炎疫情期間，Bisa為加納和塞內加爾的民眾提供了大量的免費建議和信息。
Although the bonds of our strong relationships with family and friends are especially valuable in times of crisis, bridges built with highly dissimilar actors can also create value in such a period – and efforts to do this prior to a crisis can bear fruit during turbulent times. Israel’s Sheba Hospital, a medical centre with valuable expertise in partnering with start-ups through its ARC Innovation Center, was able to rapidly mobilise start-up ideas via a coronavirus hackathon. This example, and those of start-ups like Bisa, Hinounou and Sehat Kahani, show how pre-crisis investments in social capital with dissimilar actors help organisations respond rapidly and collaboratively to a societal crisis.
在危機時期，我們和親友之間的緊密紐帶非常珍貴，但迥然相異的行為體之間所建立的連接同樣具有價值——危機前所做的努力，可以在危機時開花結果。以色列的舍巴醫院（Sheba Hospital）通過其ARC創新中心與初創企業合作，積累了豐富經驗。通過一場新冠病毒「黑客馬拉松 」，舍巴醫院能夠迅速推動創新理念落地。這一案例與之前提到的Bisa、諾童、Sehat Kahani等初創企業的案例，都說明了危機前對不同行為體進行社會資本投資，可幫助企業在面對社會危機時做出快速、協同的反應。
To conclude, the ability to partner with dissimilar actors represents an important means of coping resiliently and flexibly with a large-scale crisis; those that have it ought to leverage it, and support those that don’t. It is a capability that pays off in the best – and worst – of times. And it provides hope for a post-crisis decade when the world economy rebuilds and continues its pursuit of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
總而言之，與不同行為體建立合作的能力對於靈活應對大規模危機至關重要；擁有這方面能力的企業應該盡己所能幫助能力不足的企業。這是一種在最好和最壞的時候都能獲得回報的能力。它能為疫情結束後的十年創造希望，確保世界經濟重建，並朝著2030年可持續發展目標繼續邁進。
This article originally appeared on Thinkers50’s website.
本文最初發表於全球思想家50人網站。