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Keywords Corporate entrepreneurialism, Management development, Training, Business development, Innovation
Abstract In good and bad economic times, innovation is a requisite for companies seeking to remain competitive especially in uncertain and turbulent times. Many organizations are increasingly looking to "corporate entrepreneurship" as a way of combating the lethargy and bureaucracy that often accompany size. But can mangers, who are expected to act like entrepreneurs really be trained to do so? The purpose of this study, then, was to determine whether large companies, through management education and action learning projects, could indeed turn mangers into corporate entrepreneurs. Four large organizations, that had embarked on formalized "corporate entrepreneurship" management development programs formed the basis for this field research Results indicate that many managers can indeed be trained to act like entrepreneurs and that these actions can result in significant new value creation. However, companies who embark on corporate entrepreneurial development programs also need to be aware of the pitfalLs and problems that can happen, when newly trained corporate entrepreneurs re-enter the organization.
Introduction
In the last decade, we have seen unprecedented organizational transformation, especially in North America and Europe. Global competition has forced many large companies to adopt the Jack Welch model at GE of becoming "lean and agile". "Restructuring", "reengineering", "downsizing", "rightsizing", "delayering", etc., these are the business "buzz words" and processes that we have all become familiar with, both in the literature and the realities of life in a large corporation.
In the late 1980s, large companies like IBM DEC, Siemens and others found it increasingly difficult to compete with the multitude of smaller, faster, more opportunistic companies challenging them in the market place, with lower prices, faster service, newer designs, and faster product development This phenomenon of the smaller feeding on the larger has not been confined solely to the high-tech industry alone. Although the declines of some of these large companies were more dramatic in this industry, the assault of smaller, more agile competitors has also affected manufacturing and finance as well. Many large banks had to buy their smaller rivals in order to survive, and manufacturing in the USA had to reinvent itself in order to compete on worldwide bases.
The competitive pressures on large companies to become lean and agile...