{"id":555,"date":"2014-01-31T17:22:14","date_gmt":"2014-01-31T17:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.modomodoagency.com\/blog\/?p=555"},"modified":"2014-01-31T17:22:14","modified_gmt":"2014-01-31T17:22:14","slug":"an-astronaut-a-miner-a-daredevil-a-navigator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modomodoagency.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/an-astronaut-a-miner-a-daredevil-a-navigator\/","title":{"rendered":"An astronaut, a miner, a daredevil & a navigator…"},"content":{"rendered":"

…walk into a big Corporation. It\u2019s the corporate version of the New Year\u2019s Resolution \u2014 only this \u201cbattle of the bulge\u201d is a quest to become a nimble entrepreneurial organization, one that\u2019s better able to quickly respond to change and break new ground. The scenario plays out something like this: Massive global corporation, long respected as a market leader, feels the threat of \u201cdisruptive\u201d new interlopers encroaching into their space. Corporation decides it needs fresh thinking and less rigidity so it decides to spin off a subsidiary that can behave like a startup and yield the kind of magic that seems to only occur in open, wall-less office suites teeming with casually dressed people who don\u2019t have defined job titles.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve seen these kinds of spin-offs recently at IBM and with Coca-Cola\u2019s incubator efforts. Other companies have taken a less dramatic approach, declaring R&D as the entrepreneurial side of the house while the rest of the organization plods along as it always has. But these \u201csolutions\u201d (which often fail) really only cover up the symptoms, and don\u2019t get to the heart of why large corporate organizations can\u2019t seem to cultivate a holistic \u201cintrapreneurial\u201d spirit.<\/p>\n

The problem is that companies traditionally behave in a manner that\u2019s counter to how entrepreneurs view the world. Many of the key attributes that have made game-changers like Facebook highly successful are characteristics that companies shy away from \u2014 risk-taking and speed in particular. Like large corporations, entrepreneurs are highly focused on the trinity of Reward, Results and Growth, but there are some critical personality traits that get them there. In other words, to develop \u201cintrapreneurship,\u201d companies need to have more of the following on board throughout the organization \u2014 not just in R&D:<\/p>\n