Six Keys to Release Ideas for Profitable Growth

As the recession fades, corporate leaders need to switch from crisis mode to thinking more seriously about how to grow revenues and create value once again. Corporate entrepreneurship -- the creation of new businesses inside established corporations -- offers a strategy for profitable growth, and serves as an attractive alternative to old, acquisition-led, inorganic growth strategies. Based on the author's work collaborating with companies to help them create new business units, this article highlights six key questions to help senior executives reflect on where they currently stand in relation to corporate entrepreneurship. It also draws on the real-life experiences of corporate entrepreneurs to suggest better ways of boosting buy-in for their new business ideas. By considering state-of-the-art practices and learning how Silicon Valley entrepreneurs operate, the author reveals smarter ways for customer-facing managers and employees to generate ideas, assess their potential and measure their progress -- so that the start-up spirit finds free expression in the corporate world at a time when it is greatly needed.