Page 147 - Grow from Within Mastering Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation
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134 grow from within
neurship models that a company can adopt. The four models
represent archetypal approaches to corporate entrepreneurship.
• Opportunist Model. For those organizations with a history
and culture that are broadly supportive of internal new
business development, corporate entrepreneurship may
thrive without any formal office or dedicated funding.
All companies, by definition, start as Opportunists;
very few succeed exclusively with this model in the
long run.
• Enabler Model. Some companies retain the open,
serendipitous spirit of the Opportunist Model, but
designate funding and other support for corporate
entrepreneurship, aimed at facilitating individuals and
self-formed internal teams across the company.
• Advocate Model. In this relatively new type of corporate
entrepreneurship, a central office spearheads and
orchestrates, driving concept development and the
formation of new business teams, but it must persuade
business units to provide most of the funding. This
method is unlikely to generate concepts that disrupt an
existing business, but on occasion it can be
transformative.
• Producer Model. Finally, in several companies, corporate
entrepreneurship is focused in a single, corporatewide,
corporate-funded effort. This is typically the model of
choice in industries where complex systems must be
integrated, such as high-tech and aerospace. Unlike the
separate organizations of the past, these groups are full-
service organizations, covering the whole corporate
entrepreneurship cycle from concept development to
initial launch.