As a follow-up to my previous article on the challenges of “corporate entrepreneurship” (a term inherently loaded with tension), I’d now like to focus on best practices of “getting it right.” If you missed the previous articles, I highly recommend going back to review them. They provide insight to the inherent complexities facing those who embark on this journey, and important context for how to apply the best practices I’ll propose in the coming articles.
In the course of our innovation work over many years we’ve benchmarked and worked with dozens of companies and hundreds of leaders (innovators and entrepreneurs) that have led us to conclude on a set of “7 keys to success.” I’d like to zoom-in on them one-at-a-time in the next few articles.
The first is that the CEO/C-suite must provide “Vision & Championing” for the overall entrepreneurship effort of the enterprise. While it may seem obvious, this is typically where we find significant gaps, and where entrepreneurship initiatives either rise or fall. Why? Let’s break this success-factor it down into specific components … what it looks like, why it’s important and what “Vision & Championing” actually means:
- Protection: entrepreneurship is counter-cultural by nature and therefore has to be protected – it’s a different way of working, often a separate entity, different profiles of people, it must have permission to play by different rules & measure and by different metrics. Because of the “cumulative differences” to most parts of the mainstream, the c-suite must be ready to take on the corporate-antibodies that will otherwise kill these tender new cells.
- Buy-in: entrepreneurship can’t just be “tolerated” or seen as a temporary fad. It has be “their idea” (senior leadership), a “must-have,” with a coherent & strong conviction around a strategic-rationale for its necessity to the future of the company (where it fits, and why we have to do it).
- Commitment/Support: this takes buy-in to the next level by putting skin in the game – resources, brand assets, budgets, great people (not the leftovers), active communication (internal and external), removal of roadblocks, frequent personal/visible attention/presence/interest.
- Courage & Faith: it’s a long, hard road with most seedlings dying along the way and only a few mighty trees surviving over years & years of time. It takes patience, dogged courage and a deep conviction to continue believing – despite frequent failure (which is the name of the game) – to stay committed to see results. Lack of this commitment is the primary reason 80% of corporate incubators fail…because executive leadership simply can’t sustain the above over the long-term to see results (for various reasons – changes in leadership, financial pressures, shifts in strategy, cultural clash, lack of focus, etc.).
While all “best practices” we will review together in the future are interrelated and important, they all rely on “Vision & Championing” as the foundation. With it, almost any obstacle can be overcome and goal achieved. Without it, the “house of entrepreneurship” (no matter how well designed) will eventually crumble.
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