In corporate innovation, incubation and scaling call for opposite operating models. Incubation is exploratory and discovery-driven — its job is to reduce the uncertainty in a new strategy hypothesis before much is committed. Scaling is execution-driven — its job is to optimize, build operating capability, and grow a now-validated business efficiently. The Mezzanine is BRI Associates' name for the transition between the two: the scaling stage of governance, where venture-specific operating practices are hybridized with controlled re-integration into the parent organization's core resources and processes. The difficulty is that the incubation governance model is wrong for a business that now needs execution discipline, while the mature-core governance model is wrong for a business that still has unresolved uncertainties — so imposing core-business synergies all at once is one of the most common ways mature companies destroy ventures they spent years building.
BRI's approach phases core-business synergies in as the venture's operational maturity allows, rather than all at once, using mechanisms such as Custom Governance and the Functional Interface (FIT) Team to manage the handoff. For the full treatment — the transition mechanics and how the Mezzanine sits at the back end of the innovation pipeline — see the Innovation Methodology pillar at /supporting/methodology. Related Terminology Index entries: Custom Governance, Functional Interface Team, Exploratory Business, Pipeline, and RPP.
