Page 245 - Grow from Within Mastering Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation

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sion is social in nature—suggests yet another avenue for cor-
porate entrepreneurs to make an impact in the world. Large
corporations have a great deal to gain, even beyond the good-
will and positive press associated with social action. As illus-
trated by the Danone-Grameen partnership described in
Chapter 1, business can “do well by doing good.” In the mean-
time, companies like Danone are learning powerful lessons
about serving vast swaths of the human population, knowl-
edge that will serve these companies well as global markets
expand and consumer requirements diversify and evolve.
Rather than running counter to the pursuit of profit, these
epochal challenges present organizations of all sizes with some
of the most compelling opportunities for profitable growth.
The entrepreneurs, innovators, and managers who engage
these issues might also find themselves rewarded with a deep
sense of meaning that is often missing from business as usual.
For the right people, there are few things more gratifying than
nurturing a concept from idea to marketplace success, espe-
cially when that idea is accompanied by a mission of conse-
quence. Jerry Porras, Stewart Emery, and Mark Thompson put
it well in their 2007 book, Success Built to Last: “Healthy, sus-
tainable societies require the creation of healthy, sustainable
organizations, and great organizations and societies can only
be built by human beings who can grow and create meaning-
ful success.”
Entrepreneurs generate much of the growth and many of the
new jobs in market economies. Entrepreneurship enables peo-
ple to envision and create the future, something that is perhaps
the fundamental path to a prosperous world. Despite inherent
challenges, large global corporations have all of the ingredients
to excel at the endeavor and the scale to make a significant
impact, and many are upping their game. It is everyone’s
responsibility—business, government, academia, and non-