F. Scott Fitzgerald was credited with saying, “The test of first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” My mind is being tested currently with the concept of intrapreneurship. Until about a week or so ago, I was convinced that the concepts of entrepreneurship could (and should) be applied on a daily basis within any organization…large or small. This was my line of thought until recently when…:
- While attending the AoM conference in Boston, I was lucky enough to hear Jay Barney speak during a discussion on the topic of innovation within larger companies. He prefaced his comments by telling us that he was going to be the “curmudgeon” on the topic and then proceeded to state large companies should stick to what they are good at and that is “exploiting economies of scale”. Innovating, from his perspective, should be left to the smaller and more agile companies that are built to do it.
- I read an article by Dan Schawbel titled “How Big Companies are Becoming Entrepreneurial”. In it Dan provides several examples of large organizations striving to re-ignite the entrepreneurial flame
- Then this morning, I read “The myth of the ‘entrepreneurial’ employee” by Kathleen Reynolds Lewis and she brought up the “culture” issue and rightly so because that is the core of the argument…I think?
I am not sure exactly what I think at this point but I can tell you what I believe. The foundations of entrepreneurship should be employed by folks each and every day and if we all did that (regardless of the size of the company we worked in), our economy would not be in the mess it is.
What are your thoughts?