Page 206 - Grow from Within Mastering Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Leadership from All Le vels 191

which innovation—whether it be a new business, a new prod-
uct, or a new type of weapons system—can flourish.
The lessons demonstrated by the development of the F-117A
are applicable to any large organization that is attempting sig-
nificant change. Corporate entrepreneurship organizations face
an inherent difficulty: because they are conceiving and devel-
oping ideas that stretch the boundaries of the home organiza-
tion—the vision—special leadership efforts will be required to
implement proven ideas.
This view is shared by Miles D. White, chairman and CEO of
Abbott Laboratories. Speaking at a Kellogg Innovation Network
Dialogue in 2007, he said, “To manage an atmosphere of innova-
tion, you have to expect it everywhere. It has to be OK to fail (and
that takes work). And you have to ask for the impossible. When
you demand a truly unique and difficult question, it’s amazing
what people devise. Asking such questions while constraining
resources pushes people toward more creative solutions.”

Corporate Entrepreneurship Program Leadership

While it is necessary, senior management engagement isn’t suf-
ficient. If your company has made the decision to create a
focused corporate entrepreneurship team with dedicated fund-
ing (i.e., either the Advocate or the Producer Model), then you’ll
need talent to lead the overall corporate entrepreneurship pro-
gram, as well as the projects that make up the portfolio.
Depending on how ambitious your objectives are, it typically is
not enough to simply rely on a set of competent managers who
as assigned to the program part-time. The most successful
organizations select a fairly senior and well-respected manager
to take the lead full-time, like Daru Darukhanavala at BP,
Andrea Hunt at Baxter, or Robert A. Cooper at DuPont. All of