Page 214 - Grow from Within Mastering Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Leadership from All Le vels 199

ifested depends significantly on the context and objectives of
the group, most successful corporate entrepreneurship groups
that we’ve seen tend to have a very limited number of coordi-
nation procedures, a few simple metrics, and quick, ongoing
feedback. Most activities are managed as projects, with each
project defining its specific objectives, activities, and resource
requirements. Project managers take care of moving things for-
ward. Coordination occurs through regular communication
between project managers. This sounds obvious, but don’t
assume that coordination will just happen. Projects become
everyone’s focus, so regular check-in meetings can be always
pushed off for “more important things.” Recognize that the
long-term interests of the new business creation group require
connecting on a regular basis; sharing challenges, insights, and
opportunities; and balancing the portfolio of projects.
Such management mechanisms should be simple and
focused. Corporate entrepreneurs must remain nimble, but
they also need to optimize the group’s scarce resources. BP’s
office of the CTO employs a mandatory all-team meeting every
Friday morning. It doesn’t matter where you are—you will be
on the call if you’re not attending in person. Each team mem-
ber updates the group on his or her progress and critical chal-
lenges, but the team always ensures time to discuss the future
opportunities, pipeline, portfolio issues, and the like. Other
corporate entrepreneurship groups include status report doc-
uments as projects graduate through different phases. This can
be helpful, but you should always err on the side of simplicity.
If your group is applying all the documentation and reporting
of a standard line business, you’re probably doing things
wrong. Keep things together, but keep things moving.
Metrics at BP’s office of the CTO relate to a project’s progress
through a set of simple, overall objectives: there should be one
“game changer” in progress each year, defined as an IT oppor-