Why Corporate Venturing Matters for Business Growth
Phil Hague, Innovation Design Director at 3M, on why companies that venture outperform their peers, and how to measure it.
With Phil Hague
From The Corporate Venturing Podcast, brought to you by Open Road Ventures
4 things this conversation gets into
- 01Why companies that venture outperform their market peers
- 02Short-term ROI against long-term strategic goals
- 03Measuring success beyond financial returns
- 04Corporate venturing and R&D working together
Phil Hague is Innovation Design Director at 3M. He draws on experience leading innovation at companies including Procter and Gamble, Lenovo and Microsoft.
Davide Ritorto is a management engineer from Italy with an international MBA, currently working at Lamborghini. He is what some call an intrapreneur, passionate about open innovation and corporate venturing, and driven by curiosity about how things work and how to make them work even better. Through Open Road Ventures he sets out to inspire and inform other innovators, intrapreneurs and dreamers.
He founded Open Road Ventures as a weekly publication on open innovation and corporate venturing, and The Corporate Venturing Podcast grew out of it. He also mentors startups at Motor Valley Accelerator and sits on the Open Innovation Advisory Board at UC Berkeley Haas.
The Corporate Venturing Podcast is made by Open Road Ventures. The Bundl Venture Club is a partner of the show.
Read the full show notes
Welcome to the second episode of The Corporate Venturing Podcast!
Corporate venturing has become a key strategy for companies looking to stay ahead in an evolving business landscape. But what makes it so impactful for growth, and how can leaders ensure their venturing efforts succeed?
In this episode, I sit down with Phil Hague, Innovation Design Director at 3M, to explore the role of corporate venturing in driving business success. Drawing from his experience leading innovation at companies like Procter & Gamble, Lenovo, and Microsoft, Phil shares practical insights on:
• Why corporate venturing matters and how companies leveraging it outperform their market peers.
• Balancing short-term ROI with long-term strategic goals—is innovation really just a cost center?
• How to measure the success of venturing initiatives, beyond financial returns.
• Creating an innovation-friendly culture and overcoming internal resistance.
• Corporate venturing vs. traditional R&D—how they can work together instead of competing for resources.
• Collaborating with startups—what makes corporate-startup partnerships successful?
• Emerging trends in corporate venturing.
Whether you’re leading a venturing team, working to build a culture of innovation, or looking for strategies to future-proof your business, this episode provides real-world insights to help you navigate corporate venturing successfully.
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