TL;DRLarge software companies routinely build internal tools that prove valuable, then let them decay when priorities shift. Robert Brownstein proposes “independent project franchising”: letting the engineers closest to a validated internal tool spin it out as an autonomous venture, with the parent company as first customer and licensing partner. PwC data shows 42% of CEOs fear they are not transforming fast enough; Deloitte warns lean AI-native competitors are lowering the cost floor for software.
Innovation does not usually die because an experiment fails. It dies when ownership disappears. Large software companies can build an ancillary tool, prove that it solves a real problem, and still starve it of attention once leadership redirects the team toward the flagship product or the next urgent initiative. My argument is simple: when a useful internal project no longer fits the corporate roadmap, companies should consider giving it independence before they abandon it.
The timing matters. In PwC’s 2026 Global CEO Survey, 42% of chief executives said their biggest concern was whether they were transforming quickly enough to keep pace with technological change, while 29% questioned whether their innovation capability was adequate. Yet a related PwC analysis found that although half of CEOs consider innovation central to strategy, only 8% had substantially implemented at least 5 of 6 practices associated with supporting it. The industry does not lack ambition. It lacks durable structures for carrying promising work through a change in priorities.
