Page 43 - Grow from Within Mastering Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation

30 grow from within

spun out the unit for a handsome profit, but in doing so, it sac-
rificed expansion within the pharmaceutical market.
Because truly new businesses are unlikely to emerge from
typical business units, many companies have created programs
dedicated to making corporate entrepreneurship happen on a
repeated basis. Since its success with pharmaceutical gases,
Linde has become more deliberate in its quest for new busi-
ness–led growth, though its initiatives are still in the formative
stages. Other companies have been at it for years and report
substantial results.
In 2000, Baxter International founded a team, Non-Tradi-
tional Research and Innovation (NTRI), focused on products,
markets, and businesses that the company’s individual busi-
ness units would be unlikely to fund but that could expand
Baxter’s overall growth opportunities. Baxter’s CEO at the
time, Harry Kraemer, invited Andrea Hunt, the leader of a
companywide shared values program that had achieved rec-
ognized success, to lead the effort. Over seven years, with sup-
port from two successive CEOs and the company’s chief
science officer, Dr. Norbert Riedel, Hunt’s small team gener-
ated a portfolio of validated opportunities, as well as a sub-
stantial new opportunity for herself. Today, Hunt leads
Cellular Therapies, a new business that emerged from NTRI’s
efforts. Baxter’s current CEO, Bob Parkinson, refers to Cellular
Therapies as a growth engine for the company’s future. The
Non-Traditional Research and Innovation team that Hunt built
continues under the leadership of Nancy Schmelkin.
Because of its success, the group today enjoys a level of
credibility and access companywide that would be the envy
of many corporate entrepreneurship teams. This took focus,
perseverance, political acumen, and solid business sense,
but doing new things still remains a challenge. It is inher-
ently uncomfortable for companies that are built on effi-