The future is not what it used to be so why chase a pension when there is no guarantee of one?

Far wiser to develop the entrepreneurial passion that will transform your business into an agile, innovative success. Why?

Because although every proactive organisation had its origins in entrepreneurship, such passion has been lost.

Rediscovering such passion will redefine, revitalise and repeatedly ensure future success. Re-instilling the spirit of entrepreneurship into skilled management is the most effective way to reassure all stakeholders, re-energise leaders and recultivate the reward of profitable growth.

Passion v Pension: Developing Corporate Entrepreneurship is the definitive guide to achieving exactly that.

DEVELOPING CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Business too often complicates simplicity

Transform employee-minded managers into entrepreneurial-
minded leaders by instilling a sense of real ownership.

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"THE FUTURE IS NOT WHAT IT USED TO BE"

Though the most important competitive and growth factor is the development of key people, corporations still struggle to meet the challenges increasingly demanded within their industries. This is despite development initiatives and operational restructuring to build commitment, improve communication and generate innovation.

Clearly, entrepreneurial ideas have a greater certainty of being profitable and sustainable when supported by management attributes – though such attributes are often lacking in many organisations. What is not so understood is that executives must develop entrepreneurial thinking – the same attributes instrumental to the founding and successful growth of their business.

This balance of attributes is essential today for re-energising and developing existing valuable talent, maximising value opportunities, growing revenue and ensuring excellent execution of strategies and clear communication of objectives. For the future is not what it used to be; it belongs to those corporations that are friendly yet fearless, experienced yet innovative and established yet entrepreneurial.

CONTENTS

Part I: WARRIORS v WORRIERS

Chapter 1: Recreating the Spirit of Entrepreneurship

• Why Entrepreneurial Organisations?

• Credo & Spirit v Re-engineering

• Cultivating the Basics Harnessing the Pioneering spirit

• Redefining Management

• Defining Entrepreneurship

Chapter 2: Evolving Employeeship to Entrepreneurship

• Making a Strategic DecisionThe Six Core Characteristics

• Applying the essential OILS

• Waiting for the Turning of Tide

• The Student Entrepreneurial Leader

Part 2: PASSION v PENSION

Chapter 3: P.R.I.N.C.I.P.L.E.S. of Entrepreneurial Leadership

• PURPOSEFUL: the real objectives

• RESPONSIBLE: the real accountabilities

• INTEGRITY: the real values

• NONCONFORMITY: the real creativities

• COURAGEOUS: the real strengths

• INTUITIVE: the real choices

• PATIENCE: the real relationships

• LISTEN: the real markets

• ENTHUSIASM: the real communications

• SERVICE: the real actions

Chapter 4: P.R.A.C.T.I.C.E.S. of Entrepreneurial Leadership

• The right: PEOPLE

• The right: ROLE

• The right: ATTITUDE

• The right: COMMUNICATION

• The right: TEAMWORK

• The right: INNOVATION

• The right: CUSTOMER

• The right: ENERGY

• The right: SUPPORT

Part 3: SERVICE v STRUCTURE

Chapter 5: Creating an Entrepreneurial People Culture

• Establishing Entrepreneurial Leadership Learning

• Sponsoring Entrepreneurial Initiatives

• Oiling Decentralised Entrepreneurial Units

• Driving Entrepreneurial Venture Teams

• Rewarding Entrepreneurial Behaviour

Chapter 6: Creating an Entrepreneurial Customer Ethos

• Clarifying the Customer and Market

• Serving Profitably beyond the brief

• Motivating Ambassadorial Alliances

• Building Champion Synergy

• Duplicating and Following Through

Chapter 7: Creating Entrepreneurial Opportunities

• Reviewing how we go to Market

• Using The One-Percent Solution

• Building an Entrepreneurial Network

• Maintaining Entrepreneurial purpose

• Leading the Challenge

• Further Reading

Author’s Note

THE PURPOSE OF THIS BOOK is to show how to develop within established organisations those entrepreneurial attributes that were originally instrumental in founding the business but which have, in the majority of them, been allowed to atrophy. It is not intended for budding entrepreneurs who are seeking to establish their own business. And indeed there is a clear distinction between the start-up entrepreneur and the entrepreneurially-minded leader.

The former involves one or more individuals that seek out opportunity in the free-enterprise market. The latter is not so concerned about finding opportunities, than creating an organisation that stimulates entrepreneurial thinking and specific follow-through action as a matter of course. The former will seldom risk their own capital on their ventures and indeed the majority of new start-up businesses continue to close with losses to venture capitalists and other various stakeholders. Those that do succeed, however, seem to do so because they engage certain entrepreneurial characteristics while at the same time following proven business principles that actually stimulate innovation. These characteristics, that are clearly essential for future organisational leaders, are detailed within this book.

It is now accepted that the most important competitive and growth factor that a corporation possesses is the development of its people. Yet, few organisations have been fully able to embrace what is required. Consequently, they are still struggling to meet the challenges that local and global markets increasingly demand. This is despite their various well-meaning development initiatives to improve innovation, communication and effectiveness and, above all, to instil a sense of ownership and customer service ethos.

It is also accepted that entrepreneurs today have a far greater certainty that the development of their ideas will be both profitable and sustainable when they acquire management skills, than those entrepreneurs who do not acquire such skills. It is not accepted, however, that senior executives with major organisational responsibilities must in turn acquire entrepreneurial attributes. Such a balance of attributes is essential today for capitalising on previously overlooked, as well as new, opportunities; to winning more business and increasing market share. Most organisations, however, severely lack this balance, to their detriment.

Creating entrepreneurial leadership within a structured and seemingly stable environment, such as an established organisation, may sound like a contradiction in terms. But it is upon such paradoxes that future organisations will rely, for the degree to which entrepreneurial leadership exists within organisations will be in direct proportion to the organisation’s growth. Though many organisations may enjoy success today, they will quite simply not survive in the increasingly competitive global market of tomorrow. Size and brand may allow the opportunity to be capitalised on but such opportunity arrives usually on a plate and involves only a small amount of people potential and organisational resources. Unless an organisation seeks to release all of its potential and utilise effectively its resources, it will not be successfully fulfilling its purpose even though it has the capabilities to do so.

Throughout my career, the research I have undertaken has persistently interacted with my practical business experience to uncover what causes some individuals to lack the confidence to succeed while others are confident of success, despite enduring failure; what motivates individuals to become employees, employers, managers, entrepreneurs and leaders; and what makes certain people achieve and innovate more than other colleagues, relatives or partners.

My observations and study have revealed certain insights. The very foundation of personal success is through continuous self-development, though seldom are we aware of the essential tools required for such an important challenge. Similarly, the very foundation of business success is through understanding, developing and practicing entrepreneurial characteristics. Indeed every small business and large organisation owes its original existence to entrepreneurship. Furthermore entrepreneurship offers by far the best way to develop individuals. Confident, self-assured individuals able to align what they do with who they are ensure both personal and business success.

Having had the opportunity to study, write, research, advise, consult and learn with some of the world’s leading organisations, and to have also experienced building a few multi-million dollar entrepreneurial enterprises from start-up, there are three further points to share. First, my personal passion continues to be one of inspiring others to fulfil their potential. I believe wholehearted in the principle that the best way to serve yourself, to strive to be the best you can be, is through serving others. Our formative years, where we have the opportunity to learn to serve others, be creative, lead others, and finish what we start, are sadly lost in learning how to get by, rather than how to get on.

Perhaps the most critically important time of our developmental growth is exactly that – critical. All too often we become experts in spotting what is wrong with an argument rather than what is right. And because we habitually strive to behave in a manner that is consistent with what we are most comfortable with, we apply the same critical eye with regard to new ideas, new innovations and creativity. Any form of ‘entrepreneurial thinking’ or ‘innovative leadership’ is, in our conditioned opinion, probably best avoided.

This lack of entrepreneurial thinking leads to the second point. For 30 years I have increasingly observed that the organisational world is basically comprised of a series of meetings, far too many of which achieve absolutely nothing. Many large organisations today, incredible as it may sound, seem to be successful in spite of themselves. But when we define success in terms of how much they fully utilise their assets and fulfil their potential, then many, by definition, are not succeeding.

Even more amazing is that, in sharing this with executive boards, senior management conferences, and academic institutions, few have ever challenged it. Indeed, on the contrary, most have agreed. From small, but essential (yet not followed through and therefore lost forever), actions discussed in a team meeting to major strategic messages delivered at expensive conferences (but not passed on and therefore remaining un-communicated), too many highly trained and experienced movers of business think and therefore act simply as a hired hand. Such people only do what they believe their brief, remit, role or job responsibility expects of them – by their own perception of course. One of the major precepts of this book is to learn how to think entrepreneurially instead of employee-rially.

The third point is that I have been astounded over the years at the responses I have received to the simple question posed to bright graduates and highly experienced managers alike: ‘Why does an organisation employ you?’ Varying from: ‘Because I have a good CV / MBA / degree / experience / education / background etc.,’ to: ‘I can manage people effectively / administrate / control systems etc.,' most responses refer to normal requirements. An organisation does not, should not at any rate, employ highly qualified or experienced personnel because of qualifications or experience. That is what may attract them to you, but heaven help both them and you if that is their sole motivation. The only reason that should count is because of the added value you are able to bring to an organisation.

A business operates successfully when it makes measurable and incremental returns for its products or services. Corporate success demands seven skills from an ‘in’-coming executive:

1. Insight for what the future will be;
2. Intuition for making right decisions;
3. Initiative for acting effectively;
4. Innovation for creating differently;
5. Integrity for following through correctly;
6. Individuality for accepting ownership; and
7. Interdependence for applying the above as a colleague within a team.

An organisation should choose personnel so that it can be more successful, to work with them in common focus towards a shared vision. Those corporations that choose to perceive personnel as operators to established processes; and those ‘employees’ who continue to perceive what they do as a reward for their qualification or experience, will in both cases continue to get by, rather than on, until the need for survival forces them to change.

Change is constant, coined Disraeli, yet few established organisations embrace the full meaning of the expression, even though change budgets are often larger than the revenue of some small countries. Professional complacency, lack of innovation and avoidance of ownership can no longer be allowed to be as rife as it is in business today. Those organisations seeking to generate positive growth for all their involved stakeholders will have to develop a real equilibrium between entrepreneurial thinking and their established structure. In the global-local-global business arena few business models are today relevant.

Perhaps the most appropriate model is the working gyroscope because of its ability to stay in balance irrespective of its angle or direction. Such a model, for example, positively ensures that our own planet maintains perfect universal balance. Conversely a gyroscope’s negative feedback keeps a projectile in balance and focused on target. Such a constant, yet ever-moving, model is the perfect metaphor for creating the entrepreneurial culture within the established organisation. With each strategic direction the whole company moves while still maintaining balance.

Passion v Pension is the third in a trilogy. When Born to Succeed, the first in the trilogy, went on to be published in some 25 languages including reaching no 1 in Japan, it became clear that the message the book carried inspired many individuals to set up their own businesses and many organisations to develop their people. Adhering to the Principle that we cannot complain about the street until first our own house is in order, the book clearly laid a path for releasing potential in the individual.

The second of the trilogy, The Eureka Principle, shared how to actually align what we personally are, with what we professionally do. Through the blending of eastern philosophy with contemporary western experience into a practical format it sought to provide those ingredients vital for organisational change. Again the demand was clear. I received many enquiries from diverse corporations as to how the philosophy and ideas I expounded could be further developed, in established and hierarchal structures, to create an entrepreneurial organisation. It was this evolving demand that motivated me to research and write Passion v Pension. The fact is that in each of our hearts we have a passion to chase. Yet, we become far too concerned about securing our pension. There is infinitely more security, however, in chasing our passion than worrying about our pension. And when we express ourselves within the business arena both individual and corporate potential are released.

In the East there is wise aphorism that the best master never loses his passion for learning. For the moment he stops being a student he brings his evolution to a standstill and can no longer lead others. In the West there is an increasing understanding that the best organisations must be places of learning or they will not progress. Both these factors are vital for success because the best way to learn is to teach. Leaders must therefore be students and teachers making certain that their organisations are environments conducive to developing people-potential to the full.

Without doubt the successful organisation tomorrow will develop entrepreneurial leadership today and the following chapters sequentially show how to create such corporate entrepreneurship. For the future is not what it used to be; it belongs to those organisations that are friendly yet fearless, experienced yet innovative and established yet entrepreneurial.

Colin Turner

Prof Colin Turner is the author of 15 bestsellers published in 30 languages, including the Japan no 1: Born to Succeed; and the executive coaching series: The Teachings of Billionaire Yen Tzu. Described by Time as ‘a leading authority on business, lifestyle & management’; he advises FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 Companies and is a thought-provoking keynote speaker at conferences. He can be contacted through: turner@theseus.fr

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