Just keeping it 100: if you come up with a really good idea, (orthogonal to the companies business) that can make a lot of money in 20% time and give it back to your company rather than starting your own shit with it, you're stupid. Or just have low testosterone.
A lot of ideas fit somewhere between viable startups and obvious new features. If you think in terms of the next 20 years being able to put, developed X could easily be worth a few million. Even if X can't really be done as a startup.
IMO, the biggest benefit from a companies standpoint is people can try out new things without cluttering up the main product. Boring but works is often best for a company and terrible on peoples resumes.
