Entrepreneurs inside your company

Is it possible to have entrepreneurs inside large corporations? That's an interesting question.
I think the answer is YES.

Then, the next question is, are they going to last?. Mmm, that's a different story and how to make it happen is a very interesting managerial challenge.

In a recent conversation with someone who knows the technology industry very well, he mentioned: "this company is much more entrepreneurial than that other one.." Can an entrepreneurial culture retain entrepreneurs inside?

The fact of the matter is that entrepreneurs, at least my understanding of entrepreneurs, are motivated by two things: following their guts to transform reality and make money with it. Many companies with the so called "entrepreneurial spirit" can provide the freedom to do the first. But very few companies will also provide the second element.

One could argue that if you want to make money, you should go out and run the risk. True. However, I think there's a balance to be achieved here. It's in the interest of the company to identify and invest in new areas and to do that, they will be better off leveraging the entrepreneurial skills of employees. However, these will only be interested in pursuing the opportunity, if the associated compensation reflects the risks in their careers.

There is opportunity for creating the mechanisms that can recognize contribution to business growth through new endeavours inside large organizations. This recognition should come in the form of higher monetary premium. Of course, the risk-reward equation cannot be the same as if the opportunity was pursued outside the company. The same opportunity outside the umbrella of a large organization, should provide higher upside, simply because it also encompasses a higher downside.

The question then is: how many companies have the internal mechanisms that discriminate compensation according to achievements? Are successful entrepreneurs inside large companies capturing a bigger premium than their more static peers?

As Jack Welch has tirelessly explained, top performers should be making x2 or x3 what your average performers are doing. For enterprise entrepreneurs, that should be x10.