What is your experience of developing / or dealing with an entrepreneur inside an organisation?
Background:
I am writing an article on the subject and am looking for other peoples experiences and perspectives.
My own experiences have been that organisations have not responded well to internal entrepreneurs, and I would love to get an alternative view (or same view!!)
If you are happy to be noted in the article as a source let me know.
I will copy the article to all respondents as a thank you.
Thanks for your input.
Good Answers (1)
Gurprriet S
SVP & Head of Organization Capability and Innovation at Welspun Group
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Hi Liz
To my experience, it is a question of balance. Every organization I consulted with, wanted their people to be entrepreneurial, unable to realize that doing this would involve certain changes to the fabric of the organization itself.
The challenge of course, is that organizations (or their leaders) do not understand what it takes to be an entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurs are fundamentally rule-breakers or challengers. Organizations survive on conformism.
Entrepreneurs are focussed on finding new ways of doing the same things, most large organizations say, follow my way!
Some organizations I worked with experimented with hiring Entrepreneurs and getting them on board as full time employees. That didn't work either.
Over a period of time, after having tried to inculcate entrepreneurism and having experienced some Internal Entrepreneurs, I realized that to be a successful an entrepreneur INSIDE an organization, requires some competencies that are different from a stand-alone entrepreneur. So I am going to respond from the perspective of the Internal Entrepreneur.
Here's a brief note on what I have learned so far:
1. Internal Entrepreneurs (IE for short) need to be more flexible than their standalone counterparts in their ability to work within constraints and systems. They tell themselves that this is a necessary evil and learn to deal with it. Their standalone counterparts reject this reality and either try to change it (which usually fails because the organization culture is stronger than an individual) or quit the system
2. They have an ability to leverage the system against the system
3. They have an acute sensitivity to how much stretch the system they work within can take. And they stretch the system to near-breaking point and then pause there.
4. Networking/Relationships play a critical role in an IE's success. Specifically, their ability to build Allies, to find Executive Sponsors, who in a sense "protect" them while they do some "wild" things, or who give them the legitimacy to do so.
5. IEs have an ability to clearly demonstrate that while their methods may appear to be "illicit" their hearts are in the right place and that they're aligned to the same larger goal of organizational success as everyone else. This is a very powerful process and it leads to a dynamic where most of their detractors begin to see them as necessary allies in getting some things done which would normally not be possible. Kind of like old western towns hiring gunslingers to clean up the town –they didn’t like it, but they knew these guys were needed.
6. They ensure that when they do something outrageous, they have someone "watching their back"
7. They have an acute sense of corporate politics and while they don't get ensnared in it themselves, they understand the minefield and are able to navigate it well
8. Unlike their standalone counterparts, IEs have more patience. They realize that in order to work within the system, radical things might take a little more time. They have a high emotional resilience and an ability to articulate, communicate and market their strategies and ideas - to the appropriate audience! And that's another key differentiator.
I attended a 3 hours session by Prof. Bala Chakravarty of IMD, Laussane, who gave us this awesome example of an IE. He said James Bond represents all the qualities that are needed. The man is part of the British Civil Service – probably one of the most bureaucratic organizations of all time – and yet continues to defy systems, processes and rules, but survives because his commitment to cause and country is unquestionable. And delivers consistent results. I loved the example!
Hope this helps! I enjoyed responding to your question Liz, so glad you put it up. I also think that in today’s day and age when competition is at warp-speed, we need to cultivate IEs and build the necessary culture to enable them to thrive and not just survive!
More Answers (6)
Entrepreneurs are people looking for long term commitments to show long term sustained performance. The core of conflicts could happen between Entrepreneurs and their companies are all about that companies breaking the long term commitments.
If the Top Management in any company knows that they don't need to keep long term commitments they definitely don't need Entrepreneurs in their companies.
And the companies don't respond to them, the more that companies are not willing to strengthen the commitment, or trying to escape from the commitment to that Entrepreneurs.
Kamran N
Economic Growth Specialist
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Liz,
Gurprriet has done a great job of answering this question. I echo his words and would just like to add this.
Internal Entrepreneurs NEED to deliver on their assigned responsibilities as well as take on work, which will benefit the Organization despite the opposition.
Kamran
Anne B
President & CEO, LinsleyConsultingGroup, LLC
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Liz: I've worked with and for many non-profits, where innovators/entrepreneurs are rare and often labeled as "strange" by the rest of the organization. As a result, they leave in frustration OR are fired. Though non-profits desparately need these types (and even advertise for such people when recruiting), they are almost always committing false advertising. Hence, it's never a satisfactory engagement for either party.
On the other hand, I've consulted with and worked for the for-profit world as well. There I've seen a handful of IE's. I wish I could say they fair much better, but my experience is that it's only marginally better for them. I find it's all about the organizational leadership. There is such a dearth of good leadership in this world that most organizations can't handle the IE, and the IE peers eat the individual for lunch. However, I have seen one success story with a 15-year run inside an organization. Not only that, the IE was a female! I would attribute her success to her strong mentor and leader. Evidence of that is that she departed the (for-profit) organization when her leader retired. She went on to self-employment....something most of these types end of doing. Let's face it, it's just so much easier to convince the boss when self-employed!
Helene F
Strategic Development – Business Branding :: :: :: :: :: Brand Vision – Culture – Experience :: :: :: :: ::
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As an entrepreneur I had the opportunity to experience many configurations, and I must say that I especially thrive in entrepreneurial environments or environments that value entrepreneurship. Organizations that don’t value entrepreneurship tend to expect people to fit the mold and follow behavioral patterns where rules and processes prevail and where the system cannot be questioned for improvement. As a consequence they tend to misuse the skills of the entrepreneur and tame his entrepreneurial qualities, or worse let him tilt at windmills like Don Quixotte...
Liz, you enquired about innovators in another question, but I prefer this formulation. Entrepreneurs are probably the best positioned to bring innovation about because they positively challenge status quo and roll up their sleeves to get things done. I am totally with Gurprriet and Anne here: to keep on top in an increasingly competitive and changing world, organizations need to foster internal entrepreneurship and provide a culture where they will thrive.
Here are some of my real life experiences to illustrate what entrepreneurs deal with in various kinds of organizations.
Working for an entrepreneur in the packaging industry who hired young entrepreneurs to manage and grow the business was a fulfilling experience. I was in charge of marketing, and two other 25 to 30 year-old entrepreneurs were managing sales and operations. When we started, there was no marketing department, and a first production facility had just been acquired. As a team, we learnt by doing, moved the company forward and accomplished great results with limited resources and time. The founder eventually brought in an OD consultancy to assess the structure in view of future growth. Part of their conclusion: too many young and impetuous managers that needed senior managers above them. Needless to say nobody was hired to create an additional echelon of hierarchy between the boss and his entrepreneurial team. This of course didn’t prevent a five fold increase of sales in ten years, attainment of leadership position, and the strongest profitability in the sector, as well as the recruitment of more young entrepreneurs… The OD consultants had missed something of the company’s culture based on lean, flat and agile organization ahead of time. They perceived the strong personalities and the somewhat “loose” or flexible structure where people were taking and given initiative to improve things as a liability. It was indeed difficult to follow at times, but this was also our strength, and quite unusual in the industrial world. This type of organization however can only function if the leader fully backs the internal entrepreneurs and is fully supported by his shareholders. Something relatively easy when the leader is the owner as in the present case, or when you call yourself Google and base your strategy on an entrepreneurial model.
Leaders of entrepreneurial companies also need to state a clear vision and strategy to point their entrepreneurial teams in the right direction. Many entrepreneurs usually “see” where they want to go in a very pragmatic way, and concentrate on the doing. They imagine everyone understands the strategy and its inflections even without a thorough formulation or reformulation. This was a common trait I noticed in startups during the internet/technology boom. Very often too fast a growth would blur the vision and strategy or make it obsolete. I consulted a few startups were each member of the management team had a different idea of where the business should go, and what the competitive advantage was. The entrepreneurial culture was there, but the “power of entrepreneurs” was not channeled. There has to be a beacon, set by the founding visionary or collectively by the management team.
As my original answer was longer than 4000 characters, I have continued on my blog. Link below.
Links:
FRANK F
—►CEO NorthStar —►Strategic Futurist ex-Banker = "A Future You Can Bank On!" —►Keynote Speaker
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Every division and department head needs to be entrepreneurial in their approach. It is the best way to keep the organization in a mode of continuous innovation.
However, you need to instill change management skills, and also you need to have careful checks and balances in terms of risk taking, otherwise change can happen too fast and you can easily get derailed or have some nasty crashes or wipe outs.
But with the proper framework in place, being entrepreneurial is the best way to go.
Make sure there is a good, well balanced and strong team around them and rein them in when it comes to staff meetings and customers!!!
However, find a safe way to allow them to "prod" and "poke" and challenge the status quo so that the organisation does not stagnate.
