Page 62 - Grow from Within Mastering Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation

C HAPTER 2

New Business

Design

You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of
focus.
—Mark Twain

I’m not interested in new technologies; I’m interested in
building businesses. Often I find the ideas coming out of
research are really good technical ideas, but they need lots of
work to make into a business.
—Bruce Harreld, former IBM
senior VP for strategy

Fundamentals of New Business Design

The defining factor that distinguishes a corporate entrepreneur
from an independent entrepreneur is being part of an estab-
lished company. Having an established company behind you
provides external credibility, resources (one hopes), technol-
ogy, expertise, and channels—most of the things any entrepre-
neur requires. Established companies also generally know how
to do what they do quite well, and that’s the problem: they
know how to do what they already do. They know how to
enhance margins, tweak market position, respond to the

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