Unlocking Corporate Innovation: How 'New to Big' Transforms Giants into Market Creators

Innovation has traditionally been seen as the playground of startups—nimble, risk-taking, and unencumbered by legacy systems. But what if large, established companies could harness that same spirit? The book New to Big by David Kidder and Christina Wallace offers a compelling answer: yes, they can. The secret lies in building a new growth operating system alongside the existing one, enabling enterprises to innovate like entrepreneurs and invest like venture capitalists.

Big to Bigger vs New to Big: The Innovation Mindset Shift

Most companies excel at 'Big to Bigger'—scaling existing products and services efficiently. However, this approach hits a ceiling when markets evolve or new technologies disrupt. 'New to Big' is about creating entirely new businesses and markets, which requires a different mindset, processes, and leadership approach. This duality means companies must run two operating systems simultaneously: one optimized for operational excellence, the other for discovery and experimentation.

For example, a startup building a machine learning dashboard for marketers struggled to scale because it targeted two different customer segments simultaneously. Meanwhile, a Fortune 100 company grappled with innovating within its traditional structure, leading to the creation of a dedicated innovation team empowered to explore new growth areas.

This distinction is crucial: innovation requires permission and ownership from the CEO, a cultural shift that embraces failure and learning as part of the journey.

From TAM to TAP: Seeing Beyond Existing Markets

Traditional business planning relies on Total Addressable Market (TAM) to size opportunities, but TAM only captures existing markets. New to Big introduces Total Addressable Problem (TAP), which focuses on unmet customer needs and problems that can create new markets. This shift encourages companies to look outward and discover opportunities beyond current boundaries.

Take social media’s early days: what seemed like a niche market for college students was actually tapping into a much larger TAP—the universal desire for asynchronous, personal connection. This insight propelled explosive growth.

Leadership and Mindsets: The Growth Leader Challenge

Leadership today demands ambidexterity—balancing operational rigor with entrepreneurial creativity. Leaders must 'turn outside in,' embracing external trends and customer insights, while fostering a culture that celebrates productive failure and ends the addiction to being right. These mindsets are essential for unlocking innovation at scale.

For instance, leaders who empower small, cross-functional teams to experiment rapidly and kill unpromising projects avoid wasting resources and accelerate learning.

Discovery and Validation: The Entrepreneurial Engine

Deep customer understanding through ethnographic research and mapping opportunity areas against enabling technologies helps companies uncover white spaces ripe for innovation. Validation then rigorously tests hypotheses about customers, problems, solutions, and business models with quick, low-cost experiments. This approach reduces risk and increases the likelihood of commercial success.

One company tested demand for a new product by accepting preorders online, revealing true purchase intent beyond survey data.

Funding Innovation: The Growth Board Model

To manage risk and accelerate growth, enterprises can adopt a venture capital-style Growth Board that funds and governs new ventures. The board allocates staged investments, reviews milestones, and removes organizational roadblocks, fostering a portfolio approach that accepts failure as part of the process.

People and Culture: The Foundation of Innovation

Entrepreneurial talent thrives on curiosity, resilience, and customer obsession. Creating psychological safety ensures teams can experiment and fail without fear. Reward systems that recognize learning and innovation rather than just outcomes support sustained growth.

Scaling and Embedding Growth

Innovation capability is scaled through pilots, expansion, and enterprise-wide rollout, developing a talent pipeline and embedding the Growth OS into organizational DNA. This structured approach ensures lasting transformation.

Going on Offense: Leading the Future

Finally, companies must go on offense—boldly creating new offerings and markets with CEO ownership and a culture that sustains innovation. This proactive stance positions enterprises as market creators, not followers.

As the book concludes, the call to action is clear: embrace the journey from New to Big and unlock the power of innovation to shape the future.

This comprehensive framework is backed by real-world examples and practical strategies, making it a must-read for leaders seeking to drive growth in an uncertain world.

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