Gorillas Can Dance: Lessons from Microsoft and Other Corporations on Partnering with Startups
Shameen Prashantham
Wiley (September 2021)

Years ago at one of GE’s annual meetings, its then chairman and CEO was asked for reasons why he thought so highly of small companies. Here’s Jack Welch’s reply:

“For one, they communicate better. Without the din and prattle of bureaucracy, people listen as well as talk; and since there are fewer of them they generally know and understand each other. Second, small companies move faster. They know the penalties for hesitation in the marketplace. Third, in small companies, with fewer layers and less camouflage, the leaders show up very clearly on the screen. Their performance and its impact are clear to everyone. And, finally, smaller companies waste less. They spend less time in endless reviews and approvals and politics and paper drills. They have fewer people; therefore they can only do the important things. Their people are free to direct their energy and attention toward the marketplace rather than fighting bureaucracy.”

I was again reminded of those remarks when I began to read Shameen Prashantham’s brilliant book, whose title was prompted by C.K. Prahalad’s observation that startups “must learn to dance with the large gorillas.” In this volume, Prashantham shares the most valuable lessons he learned from his rigorous analysis of what happened after startups were on the entrepreneurial dance floor with giants that include (in alpha order) Bayer, BMW, Bosch, Cisco, Ford, Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Nissan, Qualcomm, SAP, Texas Instruments, Unilever, and Walmart. Keep in mind: Each of them was once a startup.

These are among the key points:

o There is much of value for giants and startups to learn from each other.
o The exchange of this knowledge depends on mutual respect and trust.
o The “fit” must combine the right questions with the right answers, the right solutions with the right problems, etc.
o Each of the giants was once a startup but few of the startups will become a giant. 
o Both giants and startups must identify what are for them the most appropriate Sustainable Development goals (SDGs) and then work together to achieve them.

There are several reasons why Microsoft could serve as a role model: it took (and continues to take) startup partnering seriously during what Prashantham characterizes as “an unfolding journey” — yet had to work hard to figure things out” as must others; its active involvement covers multiple geographies, including China, India, Israel, Kenya, South Africa, the UK and the United States, among others; also, “it thus offers a story of a learning journey lessons for all companies that are committed to partnering with startups, even traditional ones.”

Prashantham urges his reader to keep in mind that “partnering between startups (including social ventures) and corporations (and other large organizations) is part of a much larger, and vitally important, reality: accomplishing the SDGs will take a (massive) collective effort.” In fact, what is required “is coalitions of organizations. Indeed, an important contribution that influential organizations can contribute is to co-opt coalitions of partners — corporations, startups, multilateral organizations, and NGOs.”

C-level executives who read this book must be prepared to develop three separate but interdependent mindsets that enable them to “make things happen,” to “join forces with others,” and to “engage with the world.”

This book is a brilliant achievement. I commend Shameen Prashantham on the abundance of invaluable information, insights, and counsel he provides. Of greatest interest and value to me is his concept of global coalitions.

Think about it: What if Bayer, BMW, Bosch, Cisco, Ford, Google, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Nissan, Qualcomm, SAP, Texas Instruments, Unilever, and Walmart (among other giants) partnered with startups in China, India, Israel, Kenya, South Africa, the UK and the United States (among other countries) in order to help reach other to achieve their Sustainable Development goals (SDGs)?

In this context, I am again reminded of this passage in George Bernard Shaw’s play, Back to Methuselah, Act I: “You see things; and you say ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say ‘Why not?'”