IIT’s BIC, Business Innovation Conference
“CE, Corporate Entrepreneurship, is the strategy and practice of conceiving, fostering, launching, and managing new business –not just products or services- that are distinct from but make significant use of a company’s current core assets, market position, or capabilities (…) A company that does not innovate to create new growth opportunities will be reduced to a purveyor of commodity products and services on its way to oblivion.”
Grow From Within by Robert Wolcott and Michael Lippitz.
Yesterday I managed to attend a couple of the talks delivered at IIT’s BIC:
- Grow From Within: Mastering Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation by Michael J. Lippitz
- Raising Money for Innovations by Nik Rokop
Michael’s talk discussed four models addressing corporate entrepreneurship, three of which are captured by the below table which was published by MIT Sloan Management Review back in 2007:
The missing fourth model is “the opportunist.” This means there is no formal corporate entrepreneurship program in place, yet the company manages to innovate. However, the opportunist’s ad-hoc approach is hardly a recommended model for corporations looking into enabling a serial innovation practice.
Nik talked about IIT’s KNAPP Entrepreneurship Center which provides resources to help create and grow new ventures. This initiative taps into a wealth of talent involving IIT’s students, professors, staff and Chicagoland’s entrepreneurial community. The Knapp Center assists entrepreneurs at every stage of development and growth:
The following video is not related to BIC but I it is about entrepreneurial innovation and is worth including in this post. Aaron Patzer shares what it took Mint, a start-up that Intuit acquired for $170M, to get off the ground. This presentation was delivered at Juice Pitcher, a startup competition event held by TheFunded and Vator.tv on the Microsoft campus.
J. de Francisco blogging from Chicago on Oct 8
Thanks for summarizing Mike’s comments on our book. The primary point is that companies need to be crystal clear about their objectives for an innovation program or programs. If they are, they can create the RIGHT team, tools and processes to achieve the objective. Many, unfortunately, are not clear, so they end up trying to do to many different things and end up falling short.
I’ll be sure to check in at your blog from time to time. Great summaries. Thanks again!
Robert C. Wolcott
October 11, 2009 at 1:27 pm