Page 201 - Grow from Within Mastering Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation

186 grow from within

allocate and protect resources but also recognize that, while
corporate budget cycles operate in quarters and years, new
business creation occurs over years or decades.
Executives who are interested in growing new businesses
from within should also consider how to grow new business
builders from within. While effective coaching can benefit any-
one across the company, it can have a particular impact on cor-
porate entrepreneurs. This is a role for the thick-skinned, and
project leaders typically have few colleagues engaged in simi-
lar activities. Occasional redirects and pep talks from senior
leaders, the kind that show that they’re actively interested and
are there to help, can do wonders. When EBO project leaders
met with IBM’s Vice Chairman John Thompson, it wasn’t just
for evaluation. They engaged in monthly working sessions with
Thompson and the leader of the business unit into which they
expected the new business to eventually move. They would
explore strategy, resources, development plans—anything nec-
essary to help the new company succeed. Thompson saw it as
his role to coach the EBO leaders through adversity and to build
IBM’s bench of experienced corporate entrepreneurs.
Legendary innovator and executive Donald N. Frey, head of
the design team at Ford Motor Company that designed the orig-
inal Ford Mustang in the 1960s and later CEO of then-Fortune
500 company Bell+Howell, related that his toughest and most
important job was identifying innovative thinkers who also had
the skills to build new businesses. During his years as CEO,
from 1971 to 1988, Frey made a habit of meeting with groups of
employees from all levels at Bell+Howell. When he met some-
one who he felt had the potential to be an innovation leader,
he’d add that person’s name to a list in the top center drawer
of his desk. “Innovative people ask unique, insightful questions.
They say different things than other people. . . . Inside a large
company, they also have to have guts to be heard.” When the