The Challenge.
Companies conduct out-of-the-box innovation to create new growth and to transform the company. While eight out of 10 companies have innovation as a top-3 priority, only
are innovation-ready. Only 1 out of 10 initiatives make it to market launch. And only a quarter of those who do generate more than $50m in annual revenues.
The result: No new growth. No transformation. Corporate innovation is seen as ‘innovation theater’ – a costly hobby but not a driver for new growth.
The Challenge Solved.
Success from out-of-the-box innovation.
Nexwave is Amadeus’ business incubator. Our client Steve Kopp leads Nexwave’s incubation office, in charge of strategy, governance, operations, portfolio management and marketing & communications.
In a recent video, Steve shared why Nexwave decided to replace its existing approach to business building and how he sees the fruits of our collaboration emerging.
More Success Stories.
Meet some of our clients.
Their names and companies are sanitized for confidentiality.
Like you, they are from industry-leading companies.
Their companies excel in their current business models and want to create new businesses.
Like you, they have a mandate to transform and to create.
They lead innovation centers, Digital labs, corporate incubators/accelerators or corporate startups.
Like you, they ran into challenges.
Scaling outside-of-the-box innovations is hard. It requires careful alignment of the proven NOW with the uncertain NEW.
They applied the Lean Scaleup.
What did they get? Business impact. Increased reputation inside the company.
We designed and validated a business model innovation. There is significant interest from a number of companies. But our C-suite is not ready to invest significant money and they are not prepared to give us entrepreneurial autonomy.
We worked with Lean Scaleup advisors: What’s missing for the innovation to be really‘ready to be scaled’? How does our ‘set-up for success’ look like – using Core’s assets where it makes sense and build / partner in other areas? How do we lead the discussions with C-suite?
Our company has lots of ideas and great technology. We also have heaps of PoCs and MVPs – but they do not scale. We are not excellent in building new businesses. It takes us ages to make a few baby steps.
We worked together with Lean Scaleup advisors on solving the big questions. How do we embed new-business building in the (Digital) Transformation agenda so that we win C-suite? How do we secure BU and corporate support beyond funding? How should structures and systems be designed so that we can move at pace?
We validated our corporate startup to be scale-worthy and scale-ready. We received the funding to go from 3 to 30 customers.
Having stakeholder trust is good, but not good enough. We need corporate assets and capabilities to de-risk and accelerate the journey.
However, they can’t support us extensively due to their agenda and their KPIs. What are best practices in NOW/NEW collaboration models? How can I arrange a win/win agreement?
Thought Leader in Innovation.
Lean Scaleup has been named one of the “Top 50 Thought Leading Companies on Innovation 2025” by Thinkers360 — alongside global leaders like Microsoft and EY.
This recognition reflects the voices of corporate innovators, customers, and experts who believe in our mission.
At Lean Scaleup, we support innovation leaders inside large organizations with what matters most:
- Drive Your Agenda – With An Expert in Your Corner.
- Ready To Scale? Make Sure The Organization Is Ready, Too.
- Growth At The Edge – Where Innovation Still Moves The Needle.
How To Get Started.
The momentum behind The Lean Scaleup is clearly growing.
In our monthly discussion forums, we see a growing number of practitioners from prime companies. Over 100 joined us to write the book on the next version of the framework.
Many want to learn more about Best Practices in generating new growth outside of the box and scaling innovation.
Frequently, these conversations culminate with the question, “sounds convincing – how do we start?”
Quite often, our first joint steps to upgrade their company’s out-of-the-box innovation are the ones that you find below.
The References.
Amadeus…
Nexwave is Amadeus’ business incubator. Our client Steve Kopp leads Nexwave’s incubation office, in charge of strategy, governance, operations, portfolio management and marketing & communications.
In a recent video, Steve shared why Nexwave decided to replace its existing approach to business building and how he sees the fruits of our collaboration emerging.
… and more.
You can filter the list by industry sector by clicking on the relevant headline.
The Books.
Why is out-of-the-box innovation mandatory?
How to leverage your company’s assets and capabilities effectively?
How to create a setup for success?
Understand why most companies fail because their frameworks are not sufficient.
Get inspiration from from case studies and Best Practices.
Learn which pieces your company needs to put in place.
Benefit from the framework that helped dozens of companies succeed.
And The Framework.
The Lean Scaleup™ – A systematic approach to succeed in out-of-the-box innovation. Actionable and practical.
Co-created by 100+ corporate and academic experts.
The thesis: To solve the scaling challenge, your company needs to make two distinct value creation systems work together: Winning NOW (some call this Exploit or Perform) and creating NEW (Explore or Transform).
To do so, companies need to build a bridge between NOW and NEW and acquire four learnable skills.
The Framework as Podcast.
For a more comprehensive understanding, please have a look at chapter 5 of the book "NOW and NEW."
The Insights.
See All
For growth initiatives, rising expectations don’t always lead to greater impact.
Corporate innovation can no longer survive on buzzwords. They must prove rapid, tangible value.
⏵ Frequently Asked Questions.
1. How can large companies create growth beyond their core business?
Creating new growth beyond the existing business requires more than early-stage innovation.
It needs a structured system to create ideas with company-fit and to scale validated ideas.
The Lean Scaleup framework provides this system, enabling corporates to build profitable, scalable new businesses inside the enterprise.
2. What are the biggest reasons why corporate startups fail to scale?
Most ventures stall because they lack alignment between strategy, governance, and execution.
Innovation teams work in isolation, and the core business often resists integration.
Lean Scaleup solves this by aligning all key actors — from C-suite to delivery teams — around one growth journey.
3. What’s the best framework for scaling innovation in large organizations?
For corporates, Design Thinking and Lean Startup aren’t enough.
The Lean Scaleup framework extends proven startup concepts into the enterprise context — with added structures for alignment, lifecycle governance, and integration with core operations.
It is built for the end-to-end process, not just validation.
4. What is the Lean Scaleup approach?
Lean Scaleup is a structured, end-to-end framework that helps large companies turn validated innovation concepts into real business impact.
Developed with 100+ corporate practitioners, it bridges the gap between innovation teams and core operations.
It enables new growth from within.
5. Who created the Lean Scaleup framework?
The Lean Scaleup framework was developed by Frank Mattes.
He is a recognized thought leader in corporate innovation and collaborated with 100+ practitioners from global enterprises to develop that framework.
It’s featured in his book “NOW and NEW” and trusted by leading companies worldwide.
7. How does Lean Scaleup make growth actionable — not just strategic?
Lean Scaleup isn’t a theoretical model. It’s a modular, practical system of 12 building blocks — tailored to different corporate roles.
You only need a few modules per persona, but everything fits into one coherent system that drives execution, not just strategy decks.
9. How can we get started with Lean Scaleup?
You can start with a free Lean Scaleup Self-Assessment, book an expert consultation, or dive into the book “NOW and NEW.”
From there, workshops or custom projects can tailor the framework to your specific growth goals.