Corporate entrepreneurship.
Reading it sounds like an oxymoron, no? Like “Military intelligence” or “Trance Music”.
But what does it actually mean and how can it improve any organization ?
Someone who exercises initiative by organizing a venture to take benefit of an opportunity and, as the decision maker,
decides what, how, and how much of a good or service will be produced.
Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/entrepreneur.html
I would like to focus more on the first part which is the main motivator for a corporate entrepreneur.
That is to say, anyone on any level can do it and push for change in his organization. True, the more “power” you have enables you to remove more obstacles in your way but even small steps on any level can result in compounding effects of change for the better.
A Corporate Entrepreneur (from this point on let’s call it a CE) does just that only in on a corporate scale — “Exercises initiative by organizing a venture to take benefit of an opprotunity”. This is true on a team level, group level and basically goes on and on depending on how good your idea is, how much you are willing to push it and the company readiness for change.
I believe that corporate entrepreneurs are the catalysts of change and are a vital part of the growth of a company (moving from start-up to medium sized to enterprise).
On the WIINFM side — I think CE is also a drive for change in you, enables you to push your boundaries and challenge yourself and as a result you grow from it.
when you are a force for positive change (we’ll talk more below on understanding when to push for change) another possible effect is recognition.
So What does a corporate entrepreneur do?
I think the main wording in the question is do.
Yes, people think what is the change they want to bring, they research about it (see more below in CE rules) and they plan what they want to achieve.
But then it stops.
The corporate entrepreneur DOES. He doesn’t talk a long time about what he wants to achieve, he doesn’t research it for months only to run out of steam, he experiments, he challenges, HE MAKES IT HAPPEN.
I believe that its better to execute a thought-out move than plan and re-plan it to perfection. The experiment requires some level of planning because an experiment is based on having some “model of reality”, making a hypothesis about something that emerges from that “model of reality”, planning an experiment to prove or disprove the hypothesis and then doing it. Its important to have just enough planning and not just to run ahead and experiment because it will backlash when you come to scale your experiment.
Better to have an experiment that fails and learn from it than no experiment at all. We all fail sometimes, its learning from our mistakes and executing them better next time that counts.
Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned.
— Peter Marshall
A CE is disruptive, he finds the places that can do better and challenges them — The process, the standard, the mindset.
Like Marshall says — it could be small things — doing a retrospective better or changing the way the team thinks of code reviews up to larger things like company culture and even new products. Start small, think BIG.
Corporate Entrepreneur Rules
I found this post https://medium.com/the-mission/these-11-rules-will-change-your-life-forever-c2e4af244087#.n36zzof9e articulates some of my ideas well so I got some insights from it.
- Challenge the status quo. Just because something is that way since always doesn’t mean that is the most effective way to do that. Perhaps for the given time that was decided, that was the best option available, but surroundings change and sometimes so do we. Challenge the process and thought, have DISRUPTIVE thoughts.
- Question yourself and your narrative. Just because you believe something and think that is the best option don’t rush into things.
- Consult your manager and hear other thoughts before moving forward.
- Don’t make assumptions, test ideas and follow the evidence. Test your basic assumptions (“Do people do X because of Y?”), understand what you are actually trying to improve.
- Start small, think BIG. What is your endgame? Place that into your frame of mind but start from a smaller unit to test ideas and get early feedback.
- Everybody does the best they can. The thumb rule in interacting with people is that they are doing the best they can with what they have. Operating with that mindset greatly reduced my frustration at times and in improved my relationships.
- Operate with good intentions — remember that like you they are doing the best they can and have other constraints of their own.
- You can be wrong. Maybe your venture failed. ITS OK, its always one of the possible outcomes. Don’t let that deter you from your next idea. Learn what you can from it and MOVE ON.
There is a lot more that can be written on this but if there is one thing I want you to take from this is:
Hit me up in the comments with ideas you have or pushed and let’s share them around.
