Page 57 - Grow from Within Mastering Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation

44 grow from within

credible way at any time. In 2008, BP’s top leadership changed.
In a gratifying turn for your authors, the office of the CTO was
able to share with the new leaders the teaching case we had
written for use at the Kellogg School regarding the CTO pro-
gram. Among other data and endorsements from partners
around the company, the case helped describe and validate the
value and wisdom of the program. Never underestimate the
value of telling a powerful story—especially when others tell
it for you.

The Pure-Play Challenge

Public companies face a particular challenge in implementing
ongoing corporate entrepreneurship efforts: the suspicion (or
even the ire) of Wall Street. The investment community has
come to frown on diversified conglomerates, believing that the
most successful companies in a given industry are the ones that
focus exclusively on that industry. Investment analysts also
find it easier to evaluate and forecast the performance of com-
panies that are focused on a single industry segment.
While often justified, such stances tend to be overdone to the
extent that investors punish public companies that experiment
with new markets, with potentially dire consequences for exec-
utives. One heavy industrial company with which the authors
have worked leveraged a happenstance application of some of
its internal technology to address a pressing problem in med-
ical diagnosis. A press release announcing an award for the
technology earned the project team’s vice president an irritated
call from the CEO. He feared that, despite the valuable public
relations impact of having made a meaningful social contribu-
tion, the company’s stock price might be hurt.
Public companies face the typically near-term orientation
of demanding stockholders. Public owners want, quite rea-