Cisco is quite a ubiquitous name on acquiror lists for sell-side mandates in the networking equipment space. The list begins from there and then extends on. But one of the things that stood out when I was looking at their acquisitive history for a mandate was how supportive they have been of employees who branched out on their own. As smaller startups they had the advantage of being more agile, had a ready customer in Cisco and once established, they generally found a potential buyer in Cisco itself - and for a good price!

The joke goes that Cisco’s acquisitions are generally within 100 miles of San Jose (yes yes I know.....there’s Tandberg.....it’s a joke guys! )

Google has been following a similar trend. Employees go ahead, spread their wings and then come back into the fold – so to speak.

Microsoft besides the acquisitions has established the Biz Spark program where they provide support to start-ups in a number of other ways – both for tech support as well as market development.

A brief search, but I couldn't find any equivalent for Apple....they seem quite protective about concentrating the research and development in-house. There has always been a general feedback from industry about the closed nature of Apple’s platform but this seemed like quite another aspect of it.

I wonder if that’s an element of corporate culture here and if it in any way signifies the environment within the firm - would be great to hear from experts in organizational development.

How do you encourage innovation within a firm without stifling it at the individual level?