There have been many books written on why companies succeed/fail. The general observations that you make all concur with agreed wisdoms on this matter: small st

There have been many books written on why companies succeed/fail. The general observations that you make all concur with agreed wisdoms on this matter: small startup = mobile, creative, innovative and fast moving. Estabslhsed blue-chip company = the opposite. So... how does a large monolith renew itself? One solution with a reasonable track record is to 'replace from within', much as a cuckoo replaces its host. 1. Set up a small unit within your (monolith) company. 2. Staff it with your best and brightest. 3. Physically separate this unit from the rest of the company, but not so much that they forget 'who they belong to'. 4. Establish a line of direct communication between this unit and a high-level manager, bypassing middle managers. 5. XXXX 6. Profit! XXXX is the problem part. How to graft the young onto the old? Failure to capitalize = Kodak (invented the digital camera but could not make it 'happen'), Palm and its development of WebOS (could have been a contender, but let down by poor hardware and other stuff), Palo Alto and Xerox ('nuff said).