[Archelaos]

> If you thought corporate VC was bad, try that in an old-Europe context...

I am not sure whether it is specific for old-Europe or not just a universal symptom for long-running companies unable to re-invent themselves, because they were somehow locked into an established pathway, so that fundamental changes promissing probable benefits in the long run would mean certain short-term losses in the near future due to major investments and canibalization of their legacy businesses. An example outside of Europe seems to be Boeing's stretching of a several-decade-old airplane design towards a limit were it became increasingly problematic, while starting over would have involved extremely large investments and the loss of much of the experience gained from the old design.

On the positive side, such lock-ins of traditional companies can mean sound business opportunities for small newcomers. I was myself working with small dynamic companies in Germany and Austria who were afraid that one day a large, financially strong competitor might decide to copy their successful products and business modell or enter their highly profitable niche market -- however, it never happened. In other words: If the parent is right and established companies in old-Europe are even more unflexible than elsewhere, it should be safer to attempt to disrupt their old-Europe markets than to try the same somewhere else.