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Leadership from All Le vels 185
Cargill’s stated strategic frame is broad, but it provides its
Emerging Business Accelerator (EBA) with a context within
which to select ventures that fit where the company’s leader-
ship intends to go: to be the “supplier of choice for customers
in the agriculture, food and related risk management sectors.”
Some companies have clear statements of where they will play;
some unfortunately don’t. Either way, it is the corporate entre-
preneur’s responsibility to figure out how his or her concept
fits within this larger vision and communicate it as such. Top
executives must recognize that the better articulated and more
insightfully designed a strategic frame they can provide, the
more it will help innovators companywide to build the future
the company desires.
Corporate leaders also need to proselytize on behalf of inter-
nal ventures. Use the bully pulpit by referring to innovative
programs in meetings, lauding entrepreneurial successes early
on to help them build momentum, and telling stories of inno-
vative employees’ efforts. Simply attending meetings focused
on new business creation can send the message across the com-
pany that entrepreneurship is valued. If the company’s top
people don’t spend time telling and showing commitment, then
how can they expect anyone else to do so?
Allocating resources shows commitment. If you’ve asked a
team to design and build new businesses to drive growth,
make sure that team is given the appropriate resources. While
some programs like IBM’s Emerging Business Opportunities
(EBO) have annual budgets in the tens or hundreds of millions
of dollars, most are more modest, as we’ve seen from examples
such as BP’s and DuPont’s Advocate Models. Either way,
building new businesses requires commitment. Surging and
shrinking budgets over time get in the way of productivity for
any organization, but this is especially true when development
horizons are measured in years. Senior leaders must not only