Developing Entrepreneurial Managers

• More organizations need to innovate faster in order to compete effectively.
• Innovation is a bottom up process - entrepreneurial types need space.
• No use selecting entrepreneurial managers and putting them into a bureaucratic culture.
• Begin by defining the specific entrepreneurial competencies you most want to select people for: innovativeness, risk taking, opportunism, commercial astuteness, etc.
• Do you want your entrepreneurial managers to be personally innovative, or rather to be able to foster entrepreneurship in others? Or both?
• Can you afford to have a few entrepreneurs at the top who don't create an entrepreneurial culture throughout the organization?
• What is the right balance for you of entrepreneurship and efficiency?
• Bear in mind that both requirements must be met if you are to achieve today's profits and tomorrow's growth. It's just a question of what is the best balance for you.
• Develop an assessment process based on simulations of entrepreneurial activities and suitable personality inventories.
• Assess candidates.
• Provide full induction into your particular entrepreneurial culture.
• Developing entrepreneurial managers involves creating the right culture and a coaching process to stimulate entrepreneurial behaviour.
• See also thought leadership and organic leadership. And the Entrepreneurial Organization.