Page 145 - Grow from Within Mastering Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation

132 grow from within

requires significant investments over many years. Large direct
costs make such organizations vulnerable to changes in the cor-
porate business climate. Motorola’s corporate entrepreneur-
ship group, the Early Stage Accelerator, had an annual budget
in the tens of millions of dollars and a dedicated staff of more
than 35 people. Despite successfully commercializing dozens
of technologies and cutting idea-to-market cycle times in half,
it was disbanded when Motorola ran into hard times in 2008.
Also, despite many improvements in how Producer orga -
nizations are connected to the corporate strategy and leader-
ship, integrating successful projects into established business
units remains an inherent difficulty for a separated organiza-
tion. Both Cargill and Cisco succeed at this because of the cor-
porate flexibility each has in creating new business units and,
more important, the direct interest and engagement of top
executives. There is not much that some companies can do to
change how they are organized or how they function. BP could
not suddenly change the fundamental organization of the oil
and gas industry. DuPont’s corporate offices could not start
doing end runs around the firm’s business units. Clearly, this
is one of the reasons that BP and DuPont opted for Advocate
organizations instead of Producers.
The direct engagement of top executives is an essential ele-
ment of moving new businesses into full-scale implementation.
This is true for all four models of corporate entrepreneurship,
but it is a particular requirement for Producer organizations.
Without it, project teams may become isolated, and they can
be undermined by existing business units, particularly if they
are perceived as pilfering top creative talent.
Over time, building credibility and trust throughout the
company is critical if the Producer Model is to succeed. Most
of the corporate entrepreneurship leaders in our study said that
they spend more than half their time on communications
within the company, and we have found that successful Pro-