The wayang on disruption must not go on

THAT "I'm in the game too" seems to be the PR (public relations) spiel of large local enterprises of late - every day, one more of them clambers up the corporate innovation bandwagon, and proclaims to want to disrupt themselves by innovating or finding new partners in startups. But how many are doing it "for real "?

Take the Straits Times Index, comprised of the 30 largest companies by market capitalisation on the Singapore Exchange. Nearly all of these have embarked on some sort of programme to engage with startups, or to boost innovation and entrepreneurial activity internally.

A few have created innovation teams: DBS's Innovation Group in February 2012; StarHub's I3 in February 2013. Others have allocated a corporate venture capital fund: Singapore Press Holdings' S$100 million Media Fund in October 2013; Wilmar's S$20 million co-investment fund with National Research Foundation under the third instalment of the Early Stage Venture Fund in May 2016. And some have launched accelerator programmes with exte…