Page 157 - ENTREPRENEURSHIP Innovation and entrepreneurship

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150 THE PRACTICE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP

of existing large and fair-sized businesses that are also successful entre-
preneurs and innovators. These businesses show that the obstacle of suc-
cess, the obstacle of the existing, can be overcome. And it can be over-
come in such a way that both the existing and the new, the mature and
the infant, benefit and prosper. The large companies that are successful
entrepreneurs and innovators—Johnson & Johnson, Hoechst, ASEA,
3M, or the one hundred middle-sized “growth” companies—clearly
know how to do it.
Where the conventional wisdom goes wrong is in its assumption
that entrepreneurship and innovation are natural, creative, or sponta-
neous. If entrepreneurship and innovation do not well up in an organ-
ization, something must be stifling them. That only a minority of
existing successful businesses are entrepreneurial and innovative is
thus seen as conclusive evidence that existing businesses quench the
entrepreneurial spirit.
But entrepreneurship is not “natural”; it is not “creative.” It is
work. Hence, the correct conclusion from the evidence is the opposite
of the one commonly reached. That a substantial number of existing
businesses, and among them a goodly number of fair-sized, big, and
very big ones, succeed as entrepreneurs and innovators indicates that
entrepreneurship and innovation can be achieved by any business.
But they must be consciously striven for. They can be learned, but it
requires effort. Entrepreneurial businesses treat entrepreneurship as a
duty. They are disciplined about it … they work at it … they practice
it.

Specifically, entrepreneurial management requires policies and
practices in four major areas.
First, the organization must be made receptive to innovation and
willing to perceive change as an opportunity rather than a threat. It
must be organized to do the hard work of the entrepreneur. Policies
and practices are needed to create the entrepreneurial climate.
Second, systematic measurement or at least appraisal of a compa-
ny’s performance as entrepreneur and innovator is mandatory, as well
as built-in learning to improve performance.
Third, entrepreneurial management requires specilic practices per-
taming to organizational structure, to stalling and managing, and to
compensation, incentives, and rewards.
Fourth, there are some “dont’s”: things not to do in entrepreneur-
ial management.