Page 48 - Grow from Within Mastering Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Understanding Corporate Entrepreneurship 35

to give greater design, engineering, and manufacturing power
to Detroit-based managers. The SAIC-GM-Wuling joint ven-
ture continues to thrive, but one wonders whether the increas-
ing encroachment of the dominant GM processes and culture
may damage this valuable property.
This bias toward efficiency, with its downside of inflexibil-
ity, highlights the need for corporations to create deliberate,
focused corporate entrepreneurship capabilities. A critical role
of corporate entrepreneurs is to help companies overcome nar-
row, short-term thinking, so that they remain great companies
in the long term.

Internal Bias
Corporate entrepreneurship requires companies to learn. If
you’re really doing something new, then by definition you’ll
need to seek knowledge in new places. Many people’s inclina-
tion is to search internally for assistance and capabilities. This
can make good sense, given the breadth and quality of many
companies’ knowledge bases. It’s also safer, as everyone oper-
ates under similar confidentiality rules and modi operandi.
Unfortunately, if you always look in the same places, you’re
likely to find the same solutions.
If you’re building new businesses, you’ll need to seek exter-
nal knowledge. In fact, external networks are essential. How-
ever, finding and engaging outside companies can be tricky,
particularly when sensitive intellectual property or trade
secrets might be involved, leading to fears of losing competi-
tive advantage. Many companies underestimate the time it
takes to find the right partners and negotiate deals, and many
fall prey to zero-sum thinking. Existing external networks may
be ad hoc and unmanaged, making it difficult to maintain a
coherent picture of the company’s external ecosystem.