Corporate entrepreneurship and innovation are often a function of different departments or business units, or even enterprises, set up specifically to address the need for corporate entrepreneurship and innovation.
Some fail and some succeed, with the best example of success possibly being 3M. They drive this need for corporate entrepreneurship and innovation, by setting turnover goals linked to new product development. However, there are few known examples of this strategy working well.
Another strategy, used by Cisco, is designed to take advantage of the fact that entrepreneurs are often drivers of innovation. Cisco has a strategy that specifically avoids large scale Research and Development (R&D) and drives innovation through the acquisition of entrepreneurially driven SMEs. What is not clear is whether Cisco attempt to keep these entrepreneurs in house, or whether they allow them, consciously or unconsciously, to depart Cisco, hopefully to drive the innovation process once again in a new field.
These are two very different approaches. The first is much more difficult to achieve in a large business, and requires s special kind of management team and a deep culture of entrepreneurship. The second is a lot easier, and poses the dilemna of what to do with the entrepreneurs once you have them, particularly when you have limited R&D efforts on an ongoing basis.
Would you be able to choose the best strategy for your enterprise?
No comments:
Post a Comment