Page 14 - Grow from Within Mastering Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation

I NTR ODUCTION

Corporate

Entrepreneurship,

Innovation, and

Organic Growth

[The] time has now come to do for . . . innovation what we did
for management in general some thirty years ago: to develop
the principles, the practice and the discipline.
—Peter Drucker, 1985

et’s start with what this book is not. This is not a book
Labout creativity or “thinking outside the box.” Companies
typically have more promising, innovative concepts around
than they can pursue. Nor is it a book about managing innova-
tion projects. There are many fine books on conceiving, devel-
oping, and launching radically new products and services.
This is a book about taking creativity and making it real, about
turning innovation projects into substantial new paths to growth
within established enterprises. Corporate entrepreneurship is
the strategy and practice of conceiving, fostering, launching, and
managing new businesses—not just new products or services—
that are distinct from but make significant use of a company’s
current core assets, market position, or capabilities.
For many, the view of Kurt Estes, a former corporate entre-
preneurship leader at Motorola, is apt: “A company that does
not innovate to create new growth opportunities will be
reduced to a purveyor of commodity products and services on

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