A paper presentation by Protima Sharma at ISABS Jaipur OD Conclave on "Building Blocks of Entrepreneurial Organization". Lessons from Culture Cultivation in Startups. Attached is a primer of the paper.

1. Building blocks of entrepreneurial
organization: Lessons from
culture cultivation in startups
Protima Sharma
Managing Partner, PeopleWiz Consulting
December 2016

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Introduction
2
Most organizations begin their
evolution by innovating but tend to
lose the entrepreneurial spirit as
controlling growth takes precedence.
The relationship between innovation
& entrepreneurial culture is well
established in research and practice.
This paper explores the tools that
can be used by a leader to create an
entrepreneurial organization.
An entrepreneurial culture is defined
as a pattern of values, assumptions,
and practices shared within an
organization, that is centrally
concerned with opportunities, where
opportunity is the creation of new
value to society in part or in whole
(Wong, 2014).
Successful startups are able to
stimulate creativity and initiative by
building focus on opportunities, the
essence of an entrepreneurial
culture.
In an era where ‘Differentiation
through innovation’ is a key theme
for businesses (KPMG India CEO
outlook 2016), building an
entrepreneurial culture can provide a
fertile ground for innovative product
or service ideas.
This paper proposes a 5-point
framework of an entrepreneurial
culture based on study of practices,
environment and way of working in
startups.
ISABS OD Conclave

3. START Framework:
Building Blocks of Entrepreneurial Culture
3
designed for
Speed
Technology as
the foundation
Active
Experimentation
collborative
Relationships
Training
through networks
START model provides a framework to understand entrepreneurial culture and insights into how such a
culture can be cultivated. It shows what is valued the most by an entrepreneurial culture which
can be a ready reckoner for a leader trying to cultivate such a culture in his or her organization.
ISABS OD Conclave

4. Implication for large organizations
4
The innovative way of working,
resourcefulness and enterprising nature
of a startup can provide meaningful
lessons to a large company that is trying
to shed its hierarchical legacy for an
entrepreneurial spirit. The following can
be a good start
› Successful startups show us time and again that it's the commercial ingenuity of an idea
based on available technology that creates lasting impact.
› Xerox regularly places marketing people in research and lab managers to understand
customer needs. They train R&D personnel in business management principles to be able to
create managers that know how to commercialize technology
Build a business oriented technology mindset
› Intuit encourages people to take intelligent business risks by rewarding efforts in addition to
results.
› Organizations that inculcate appreciation for taking failure in your stride and attempting again
can create space for innovation to survive.
Along with success, also reward intelligent failure
› Because 3M was founded in the rural Midwest, many early researchers had farming
backgrounds. They had studied science or engineering, but they grew up knowing that if the
tractor broke in the field, you figured out a way to fix it. If you didn’t have the right tool, you
made it.
› Entrepreneurial organizations create empowered and independent employees that
collaborate amongst one another to teach, learn, share and create.
Teach collaboration but breed independence
› If 2 pizzas cannot feed a team, it’s too large to be productive.
› Spin out strategy of Thermo Electron created multiple smaller organizations within a parent
company to give shape and strength to innovative employee ideas.
› Intuit believes in creating multiple smaller decision making divisions to keep innovation alive.
Small is beautiful
ISABS OD Conclave