Lead Like an Entrepreneur

In some organizations, it is possible to meet people who seem to have a gift for energizing others. Full of pep, always ready to defend their ideas against the majority or their boss, able to get results, skillful in finding leeway within the rules – or sometimes going around them when they feel necessary – entrepreneurial employees represent a precious fountain of youth. This book attempts to understand who these people are, how to create more of them, and how to help them express their full potential.
The book starts by underlining the need to remove obstacles that prevent the entrepreneurial spirit from expressing itself. Chapter one offers a list of these obstacles, and the test presented in chapter 12 can be used to assess to what degree they limit initiative at your company.
One of the central themes of the book is that there is not one, but four entrepreneurial profiles. The distinction between internally or externally oriented entrepreneurs, on the one hand, and activists or catalysts, on the other, is covered in chapter 4. Chapters 5 and 8 provide a more detailed analysis on each profile and propose many suggestions on helping them express themselves more fully, using examples such as Siemens Medical, VariTrust and Geisinger.
The author also emphasizes the potential to stimulate the emergence of entrepreneurial profiles, not through a global culture change program, but by encouraging the launching of concrete projects designed and managed by employees on a voluntary basis. Chapters 2 and 3 provide hints as to the personality traits to look for, while chapters 9 to 11 describe how to set up an appropriate training program, using real-life examples, such as that of Corning.