There’s a whole lot of things that big business can learn from startups. Not because the people working in startups are necessarily more clever than those working in bigger, established businesses, but because we are living in times of rapid change. When any system is large and established, people playing inside it tend to serve the system itself, not what made the system possible. Just like old agrarian businesses learned a number of methods from the burgeoning industrialist 200 years ago – all big businesses should have a good look around at their changing environment. The evidence as to why could not be clearer. In the past 10 years 50% of the Fortune 500 have fallen off the list. The top 10 IPO’s since 2000 have over $500 billion in market capitaliztion. This thing we are living through is a revolution in every sense of the word. And in times of revolution we have no choice but to amend the way we go to market.

So here are my top 6 strategy lessons large companies can get from startups.

1. Speed is the asset

Business is a function of momentum. And momentum for those struggling to remember their grade school physics is Mass x Speed. Because startups have no mass (they are small) they tend to focus on speed to gather momentum. Big businesses are usually the opposite – slow. But when their infrastructure (their mass) is becoming outdated and very often replaced then they have no choice but to speed up. They too must move fast. Times of rapid change, require rapid movement. The big don’t always eat the small, but the fast always eat the slow.

2. Disrupt systems, don’t serve them

Startups totally disrespect existing businesses and market modalities. They care not for them and only care about customer solutions. Startups don’t try and fit into and leverage an infrastructure, they try and change it, redefine it and make it more efficient for the end customer and the business itself. Large businesses tend to serve their infrastructure and try to utilize existing assets. When there is evidence of an older system breaking they try and save it, or operate both with the old and the new system concurrently. They’d be better off abandoning the old and adopting the new. They’d be better off remembering that both technology and customers are recalcitrant when it comes legacy systems.

3. Research in market, not in private

Startups rarely waste time with contrived market research such as focus groups, or ‘fake-us’ groups as I like to call them. They’d rather get a quick and dirty MVP (Minimum viable product) into the actual market with real customers. See if people will use what they put in market, or pay for the service of product – then iterate versions based on real world feedback. This leads to a faster feedback cycle, which is based in reality rather than opinion. Startups also work out ways to ‘launch cheaply’ so that mistakes can become an effectiveness tactic, rather than something costly worth avoiding. Startups don’t pretend to know the answer, but seek to find it instead.

4. Void filling mentality (profit later)

When a category is hot, or a certain technology or consumer play is expected to become big, startups go about filling the void before a business model is found. They fill the void first, generate customer loyalty and usage and then work out how to profit from the asset. It’s about creating the asset first, and profit later. The opposite to how large companies play. Most of the amazing digital businesses we use daily started this way – you need look no further than Google, Facebook and Twitter. The business side came second – the serving others came first. When change is a foot, the balance sheet must come second to the movement, because the change itself is inevitable.

5. Eco system & co-opetition

Startups worry less about their competition and more about the wider shift. In fact, they often work along side their competitors to build the eco system. Market share is often a function of taking it away from other channels and industries entirely. Startups also build platforms for others (including their customers) to play on. They open up the R&D lab in the form of API’s to gain brand innovation from outsiders. They conduct their experiments in the open. They hide in plain sight. They hand over part of the brand to the audience. Did you ever notice how industrial companies used to take legal action against people using their logo unauthorized, while digital companies have their logos available for download and usage? It’s a clearly different collaborative mentality – and it works.

6. Assets are optional

Of the most counterintuitive methods startups take is this idea: assets are optional. There is now a clear ‘splitting of the asset’. It used to be that you had to own the factory, or the factors of production to serve certain markets. In a connected society this is now a choice. From Alibaba to digital labour markets, to crowd based asset leverage. This assets are optional approach can create both rapid growth and financial advantage. How many cars do Uber own? How many planes Trip Adviser own? How many buildings does Airbnb own? You get the picture. This pattern of asset utlisation instead of asset accumulation will continue to disrupt many established industries.

So the only question remaining for large company executives is this:

Will you let others disrupt you out of business, or will you have the presence of mind to self disrupt?