IPGATE is built by a small group of people with unusual backgrounds. This series gives them the page, in their own words.
Dr. Thomas Leiber founded IPGATE and holds close to 500 patents in braking and vehicle control, built across a career of starting companies and bringing brake-by-wire from theory to the road. Dr. Hans-Jörg Feigel spent decades at the top of the supplier industry, as Senior Vice President at Continental and President of Mando Europe, before joining IPGATE as a consultant. One built from the outside in, the other from the inside out. We put them in one conversation about why established companies struggle to innovate, and what the agile ones already know.
Big companies have resources, talent, and market position. Why do so many still struggle to innovate?
Dr. Feigel: Because success makes you slow. A company doing well with its current products starts to believe the path it is on will simply continue. The hardest moment for a new idea is not having it. It is the selection phase inside the company, where budgets would have to move and other departments would have to contribute. The more disruptive the idea, the higher the chance it dies right there. And underneath all of it is fear. When the new threatens to replace the old, people see their roles at risk, and they resist. That is human. It takes far-sighted and patient leadership to move through it.
Dr. Leiber: I felt that resistance from the outside. As a startup, we often had to prove an idea worked with our own money before a large company would even look. On one project, a smaller competitor was eager to move, we built something promising together, and then they cut ties and accused us of misleading them. Years later, the technology we had built became a cornerstone of the market. The reason they left was simple. The CEO was focused on a merger and the short-term return. A Senior Vice President may want to be a pioneer, while the CEO wants this quarter's number. A startup has one vision and the freedom to chase it. That is the difference, and it is not about resources.
When a company is already in crisis, can innovation pull it out, or is that too late?
Dr. Feigel: Innovation has to be proactive, not reactive. You invest in it in the stable years, when the resources are actually there. By the time the crisis hits, the money and the time are gone, and innovation needs lead time more than it needs urgency. A large company that only reaches for innovation when it is already bleeding has waited too long.
Dr. Leiber: I think about how my father worked in this industry. Back then, there was real collaboration between suppliers and manufacturers, and he always said the innovation comes from the suppliers. Give them room to grow, and the whole ecosystem benefits. Today, the mindset is cost-cutting, the lowest price instead of the longest partnership, and that quietly kills the thing everyone claims to want. Inspired by Kirk Kinnell, I work the other way, WIN-WIN-WIN, where the third win is a relationship that outlasts the deal. That is a shift the industry has not made yet.
What can established companies actually learn from startups?
Dr. Feigel: Speed, and a painful look in the mirror. The moment a large company runs a project alongside a startup, it sees how slow and heavy its own processes really are. The way to make it work is structure agreed at the start: clear goals, a named counterpart on each side, and terms for handling inventions before anyone invents anything. The style that succeeds is cooperative, built on understanding and compromise, not on who holds the upper hand.
Dr. Leiber: For me the answer was people. Our team is fifteen nationalities, and the mix is where the better ideas come from. Often the best solution is already in the room and gets missed because of a narrow mindset or a sense of superiority. The other piece is reward. A pioneer inside a large company carries all the risk and gets none of the upside. Success has many fathers, and failure is an orphan. In a startup you can own a piece of what you build. Give people in large companies that same stake, and far more of them will take the risk.
What has to change structurally, and what kind of leadership does that take?
Dr. Feigel: Structure first. The bigger the company, the more hierarchy and bureaucracy it grows, and that is where innovation suffocates. The answer many are finding is the company within a company, autonomous units with real decision-making freedom. The holding nurtures, it does not micromanage. And we should be honest about the stakes. In Germany the automotive industry is part of the national identity, the way Swissair was to the Swiss. If it falters, it can disappear. That awareness is what finally forces the change.
Dr. Leiber: And it comes down to leadership, and to humility. A real leader unlocks the potential of the team instead of guarding control. The people most afraid of losing control become the biggest obstacle to progress. Empower the team and make the bold decision, and you protect the jobs everyone is so afraid of losing. Cling to the old way out of fear, and you lose them anyway.
Key Takeaways
- 01Success makes companies slow.The danger is rarely a lack of resources. It is the belief that today's winning path will keep winning.
- 02Fund innovation before the crisis.It needs lead time, and the resources to start it vanish exactly when you finally feel the urgency.
- 03Reward the risk-takers.A pioneer inside a large company carries all the risk and none of the upside. Give them a real stake, and more will take the leap.
- 04Build the company within the company.Autonomous units with real authority, supported rather than controlled, keep a large firm moving at startup speed.
- 05Partnerships beat transactions.WIN-WIN-WIN, where the third win is a relationship that outlasts the deal, is the one thing cost-cutting can never buy.
Conclusion
The pattern underneath it all is the same. Large companies do not lack resources or talent. They lack the appetite for risk and the structures that let a good idea survive contact with the organization. Startups have less of everything except clarity and speed, and that is usually enough. The fix is not a new department. It is a culture that rewards the people willing to move, and leaders humble enough to let them.
If you do not take risks, you have already lost.