Page 177 - ENTREPRENEURSHIP Innovation and entrepreneurship

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170 THE PRACTICE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP

management. But both kept to themselves the entrepreneurial respon-
sibility within their companies. Both depended on the “entrepreneur-
ial personality” and did not embed the entrepreneurial spirit in specif-
ic policies and practices. Within a few years after the death of these
men, their companies had become stodgy, backward-looking, timid,
and defensive.
Companies that have built entrepreneurial management into their
structure—Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Marks and
Spencer—continue to be innovators and entrepreneurial leaders
decade after decade, irrespective of changes in chief executives or
economic conditions.

VI

STAFFING

How should the existing business staff for entrepreneurship and
innovation? Are there such people as “entrepreneurs”? Are they a spe-
cial breed?
The literature is full of discussions of these questions; full of sto-
ries of the “entrepreneurial personality” and of people who will never
do anything but innovate. In the light of our experience—and it is
considerable—these discussions are pointless. By and large, people
who do not feel comfortable as innovators or as entrepreneurs will not
volunteer for such jobs; the gross misfits eliminate themselves. The
others can learn the practice of innovation. Our experience shows that
an executive who has performed in other assignments will do a decent
job as an entrepreneur. In successful entrepreneurial businesses,
nobody seems to worry whether a given person is likely to do a good
job of development or not. People of all kinds of temperaments and
backgrounds apparently do equally well. Any young engineer in 3M
who comes to top management with an idea that makes sense is
expected to take on its development.
Equally, there is no reason to worry where the successful entrepre-
neur will end up. To be sure, there are some people who only want to
work on new projects and never want to run anything. When most
English families still had nannies, many did not want to stay after
“their” baby got to the stage when it began to walk and talk—in other
words, when it was no longer a baby. But many were perfectly content