Director: Dr. Marcus Disselkamp

Center of Entrepreneurship

A company needs people who do something. Who don’t wait until someone tells them what to do. Who actively use their freedom of action and contribute their own ideas and impulses for the good of the company. This gives rise to a number of theses that we would like to comment on in more detail below:

Theses

• Usually there are many good business ideas and no or few intrapreneurs who can turn ideas into business.
• Entrepreneurship is too rare a skill.
• Lack of entrepreneurship is one of the most important obstacles to growth.
• Being entrepreneurial is not a status, but is based on skills that can be developed and trained.
• Not everyone is suited to be an intrapreneur. But many entrepreneurial talents remain undiscovered.
• The task of an entrepreneurially thinking and acting manager is to consciously promote entrepreneurship and to train entrepreneurs within the company.

Core competence entrepreneurship

How many people in your immediate professional circle do you know who could build a successful business from a business idea and a million in start-up capital? Who in your own area of ​​responsibility do you think has this ability? And what if the honest answer – as is so often the case – is: no one? It’s high time to look at entrepreneurship as a core competency.

Entrepreneurship: an attempt to define the term

Entrepreneurship should not be understood here as a status. So not: I am an entrepreneur, but rather: “I act entrepreneurially”. Employees and managers who think and act entrepreneurially differ from all other types of employees:

• Administrator:
  The biggest difference is the administrator type. This person carries out a predetermined and pre-structured task and primarily manages what already exists. New impulses, new concepts and major changes are firstly undesirable and secondly not his thing.
• Manager:
  The manager optimizes results. He does not give much thought to meaningfulness, basic vision and overall strategy. Or if he does, he usually keeps it to himself. He accepts values ​​set from above and the overall strategic direction as guidelines within which he wants to achieve his results. However, he does this with all his might, guided by targets, planning, budgets, management reports, balanced scorecards, etc.
• Leader:
  The leader wants to achieve top performance and knows that he can only do this with highly motivated employees. He knows how to align them with common goals, ignite a fire of enthusiasm and thus reduce resistance to change and new things. This also enables him to handle difficult situations or turnarounds and to master discontinuities.

Entrepreneurship:

However, entrepreneurship goes further. Very specific qualities are required:

• Innovative power
  Entrepreneurs are restless spirits, never satisfied with the status quo, constantly looking for improvements and new business ideas.
• Ability to realize
  Entrepreneurs take the bull by the horns. Once they are convinced of an idea, they do everything they can to implement it. Mistakes are there to learn and do better the next time. If the first attempt fails, you can succeed on the second or third.
• System thinking
  Entrepreneurs think in a networked and holistic way. They want to increase profits without stifling investments in the future. They want to optimize day-to-day business without neglecting strategically important tasks. They develop young talent, inspire them with visions and goals, and take care of culture, structures and processes.
• Social and environmental thinking
  Real entrepreneurs take their social responsibility seriously. They do not see business as a money-making machine and set ethical/moral standards.
• Value thinking
  Entrepreneurs want to increase the value of their company. Not speculatively in the short term, but sustainably.
• Cell division
  The most important skill of entrepreneurs, however, is to regularly produce further entrepreneurs in the company according to the principle of cell division. These intrapreneurs provide the opportunity for further growth. They are the ones who are needed to build businesses from new ideas. And unfortunately, they are the ones who are not there in many companies, or are too few in number.

Entrapreneurship: Entrepreneurship in the company

Let’s go back to the original question: “How many entrepreneurs are there in your company or management area?” The answer in advance: Of the approximately 200 well-known companies that we have been able to advise over the course of around 35 years, barely 10% had a satisfactory answer to this question. Here are a few sobering examples in brief:

Example1:

A major consumer goods manufacturer hires around 60 to 100 university graduates every year. In order to recruit the best candidates, 6,000 pre-selected applicants are put through sophisticated assessments. One in a hundred is then hired. And yet, when it comes to finding a project manager with entrepreneurial talent for a specific project, there is no one more suitable. Sad, considering so much effort and brilliant people. The criterion of “entrepreneurial talent” was forgotten in the assessment criteria.

Example 2:

The management of a business unit of a service company wants to develop a business strategy. This must be presented and defended at a company meeting. When differences of opinion arise and the project stalls, those responsible begin to withdraw from the project. The official reason: urgent day-to-day business. However, since they want to shine at the company meeting, external consultants are commissioned to “write” the strategy. Is this how entrepreneurs act?

The list of examples could be extended indefinitely. Entrepreneurship is not a gift but a skill that must be specifically developed.

Questions that shake things up

Even if it is uncomfortable: As a manager you are responsible for the development of entrepreneurship. Here are a few questions:

• Are we unable to realize growth opportunities because we lack suitable intrapreneurs?
• Do we regularly have good business ideas but no implementers?
• What do I do as a manager to train young leaders with entrepreneurial qualities?
• Do I create experimental fields for young people to learn entrepreneurship?
• Are our management development programs focused on developing entrepreneurial talent?

If it is true that employees with above-average performance also want to be challenged above average, then these questions should be answered with yes. And if it is true that it is not brilliant minds but capable intrapreneurs who achieve top results, then the core competence of “entrepreneurship” should be increasingly managed and developed.