Page 175 - Grow from Within Mastering Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation

162 grow from within

easier. (At one company we know, the corporate entrepreneur-
ship team made efforts to garner local press coverage, which it
discovered was superior to internal memos as a method of get-
ting the word out.) More important, the corporate entrepreneur-
ship group needs to be ready to show tangible performance
when the CFO’s office calls and asks, “What are we getting for
our money?” Be ready to answer that question at a moment’s
notice, because chances are you’ll have to.
Recall from the BP case in Chapter 3 that many executives
were initially skeptical about the role and potential impact of
a small group like the CTO office. As business successes
mounted, skepticism gave way to support, and the office’s
brand and impact grew. Based on its reputation for solving
problems (without becoming too caught up in bureaucratic
processes), it began receiving unprompted questions from
business unit managers. It increasingly came to be perceived
as a strategic contributor to BP business units.

Evolve

Another advantage of starting with quick wins is that such
experiences also generate early lessons about what works and
what does not. Whatever initial organization your company
creates to pursue corporate entrepreneurship, it should be
designed knowing that it is going to change. Successful cor-
porate entrepreneurship requires adaptation in order to gen-
erate self-sustaining new businesses on a consistent basis.
Expectations across the company need to be continuously
explained and managed.
The BP case from Chapter 3 is an excellent example. The
office of the CTO began with broad networking events with an
external focus—finding promising IT technologies and sup-
pliers—but over time it evolved toward an operating motif that