The major source of growth and vitality for a large high-tech company is the spirit of innovation, the energy of explosive growth, and the passion of new ideas. This spirit of innovation enlivens the organization and enables its ongoing success in the marketplace.

Book Notes:
Winning through Innovation: A Practical Guide to Leading Organizational Change and Renewal
by Michael Tushman and Charles O'Reilly III
Harvard Business School Press, 1997.

Large organizations are caught in a paradox. They must simultaneously continue to evolve that which has enabled their success and create revolutionary innovations. Tushman and O'Reilly refer to the successful use of this paradox as building an ambidextrous organization.

On the one hand, managers of an ambidextrous organization are managing in a world of relative stability where incremental change and continuous improvement are viable concepts.

On the other hand, those same managers must offer a compelling vision of a future that is radically different from the past.

Here, the norms and rules of the prevailing large organization must be ignored or over-thrown. Revolutionary change rules the day.

Managing this paradox - being organizationally ambidextrous - is one of the factors enabling innovation.

Fostering a Spirit of Innovation In the Established Organization

This enlivening spirit of innovation, growth, and passion is usually thought of as part of the entrepreneurial spirit of a start-up company. As a leader in a large company, you can create this same vital spirit. The term "intrapreneur" describes this "entrepreneur from within" role.

To better understand what an intrapreneur must do, I'll start with a model of the key factors of start-up stage leadership.( These factors are essential whether the start-up is external or internal. I'll also look at the special challenges of being a "start-up" in the big company setting. Even if your goal is an intrapreneurial spirit rather than a separate organization, these concepts apply.

The foundation of intra- or entre-preneurship is a vision of what could be linked with your passion for making it real. "It" might be an entirely new product or market for your company, or simply a better way of doing something. In any case, if you want to inspire innovation, you must have a vision about which you are passionate.

Your vision and passion fuel one another, and both contribute to your success with customers. Of course, that success is based on more than passion. We'll get to execution in a minute! Your early customers' successes should also be used to add to your understanding of the marketplace, customers, and technology that are part of your vision. The richer that understanding, the more targeted, relevant, and compelling your vision will be.

These same customer successes that fueled your vision through expanding your understanding of your market also contribute to the culture. By sharing the excitement of your early customers' successes, you build on the feeling that "this is a cool place to work." You create a customer-focused, success-oriented culture. And your passion for the vision adds energy and life to that culture.

Being known as an exciting place to work makes recruiting and hiring much easier. In today's tight employment market, this can be the key difference that enables you to attract top talent. As a "start-up" inside a big company, you can't lure employees with pre-public equity positions. And yet the kind of talent you are looking for is often the same as what a start-up is recruiting. So, an exciting culture of successful execution with the resources and security of a big company behind you is your drawing card. Successful hiring (the right people at the right time) drives successful execution.