https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/business-model-fire-insurance...

In short I was making the point that large corporations should deliberately invest in start-ups that directly attack their own current business model. Think of this as a way of stress testing your business model with the benefit that you own a stake if the attacker happens to succeed. Side benefit, those start-ups that fail will have small teams of technically talented people who now know your market, and are now needing an acquire-hire. Pick through and hire the best out of the failed efforts.

The most famous example I can think of is Microsoft heavily investing in Apple when Apple was just about at its low-point.