The telecommunications carrier that has been on everyone's lips concerning innovation is T-Mobile USA. Formerly a full subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, the German telecommunications behemoth, now T-Mobile USA, is publicly listed (TMUS) and only 67% owned by Deutsche Telekom. How did a boring 4th place American carrier become one of the hottest and innovative telecommunications companies?

With the increasing number of startups entering brownfield sectors such as financial services, one would think that corporate incubators would be prime recipients of startups attempting to navigate these brownfield sectors. While on the surface this would appear to be the case, the reality of the situation again depends on the real purpose of a corporate incubator.

In the post-recession economy, markets are changing faster than the mighty corporations of old can keep up with. To combat the epidemic of nimble startups, corporations are advocating fresh thinking such as prototyping, failing fast and quick iterations based on customer feedback. But few, if any, corporations have been able to point to any concrete successes, no matter the size. Why is that?