Page 191 - Grow from Within Mastering Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation

176 grow from within

requires—or, worse yet, if these actions are actively thwarted—
people will stop trying. The most persistent, passionate people
will either give up or leave and start a new venture. In this con-
text, Mahatma Gandhi’s social change adage, “Be the change
you envision,” provides excellent advice. People within orga -
nizations emulate and play to those who succeed. If you want
innovative behavior, then start exhibiting it yourself.
Most meaningful endeavors require leadership. Corporate
entrepreneurship requires better-integrated, more focused, and
more powerful leadership than most other corporate activities.
By definition, a new business upsets the status quo and requires
individuals within the corporation to do things differently.
Momentum, risk aversion, and a company’s existing incentive
systems are just a few of the hurdles facing active leadership in
its pursuit of corporate entrepreneurship. Although frustrating,
many of the obstacles to corporate entrepreneurship exist for
understandable, often rational reasons. Elements of sound man-
agement such as handling financial risk, keeping business units
running smoothly in their core area, and driving efficiency are
essential to ongoing business success. But they can also impede
the development of new businesses.
Of course, employees should be given incentives to maxi-
mize the near-term performance of their business units or func-
tions. Unfortunately, this usually means that new business
opportunities, which may take time to conceive and develop,
take a backseat to projects aimed at making incremental
improvements to larger, existing revenue generators. For exam-
ple, if a $1 billion business unit has an opportunity to leverage
a new venture with current revenues of $1 million, how impor-
tant can this new venture really be? Barring incentives or other
mechanisms to encourage giving attention to the new venture,
typical business unit salespeople might prefer to sell another
$10 million of what they’ve got and understand, as opposed to