Full Summary
Corporate Entrepreneurship
Document made to be studied at 150-180% zoom (do this for best experience)
,Lecture 1: Introduction into corporate entrepreneurship
What is corporate entrepreneurship
An entrepreneur = somebody setting up and scaling a new business, taking most of the risk and
benefits (craft of doing this is called entrepreneurship).
An intrapreneur = somebody who acts like an entrepreneurs in an established organization (within,
without taking substantial personal risks and also is rewarded by limited benefits)
An corporate entrepreneur = an organizational state in which an established organization acts on
opportunities in an entrepreneurial way
➢ practitioners advising large corporations on how to perform in the field of entrepreneurship
in a strategic, structural and cultural way
o Goes beyond innovation. Corporate venturing (new business units) & strategic
entrepreneurship (mix between strategic management & new value/markets)
Porsche reinvented itself but kept strong focus & heritage on sports cars
Beetle car = act of corporate entrepreneurship, then bought up lots of brands (entrepreneurial by
acquisition)
Why is it important?
Creative destruction is a term publicized by Joseph Schumpeter (innovation gives capitalism its
dynamics)
➢ Nokia was a case of creative destruction, coming from the inside
➢ The waves make the old way/wave redundant/less important/a commodity
➢ Nokia, Blackberry and Kodak did not want to disrupt their own cashcow
New product development needs to take
account of the entire value chain
Invest in R&D
Be careful, the costs are expenses (for material with no alternative future)
o R costs are in current, D can be carried forward
o Capitalize if there is an alternative future and amortization, then depreciate
A concept is not a prototype (show cars to get a response from the public)
, ➢ Italdesign, Audi & Airbus with Popup flying car, searching for alliance in different industries.
Example of a PDP (Project Development Process) for automotive, chemical, pharma, etc.
Brand extensions
For brand extensions have to still draw on the power/connection (tech/customer base) of the brand
Data levels
Tutorial 5: The myth of the “Silicon Valley Business Model” and beyond
Combines Bomber Offensive
Frederick Terman (innovation is not only about companies, but also people,
starting silicon valley)
➢ Was a map leaked by a Belgian Agent and past to the British in 1942.
The Harvard Radio Research Lab (RRL) had the objective to shield US/UK
bombers and jam German Radar (Frederick Terman, the first electronic war).
He then returned to Stanford and changed rules
Changing rules at Stanford University (end of the Ivory Tower)
Terman received large scale funding from the military but did not want to do military production in
the University, so he wanted to create an environment, which collaborates, but with split roles;
o Research in the University & Production in companies
Change of university rules, under Terman, include;
o Encourage students to start companies instead of pursuing PhDs
o Encourage professors to consult companies and spin off commercial enterprises from their
academic results
o Professors take board seats in other Universities and companies
o Practical work is good for academic career
Microwave valley during the cold war (valley becomes a system integrator in the 1950s/60s)
- Project Melody used soviet missile tracking radar reflections for nuclear intelligence
- Oxcart (A-12), Mach 3.3 stealth, CIA spy plane program
- Project Grab launches the first intelligence satellite ELINT
The rise of private capital
“You promised me Mars Colonies. Instead I got Facebook”
➢ American Research & Development (founded 1946, George Doriot) perhaps first VC company
o First Valley companies go public in the 1950s
o Angels investing in companies were coming from family offices in the 1950s
, o SBIC Act (1978) cuts capital gains tax from 49.5 % to 28 % and opens conditions
under which pension funds can invest up to 10 % of their assets
Early attempts to copy Silicon Valley (build
the conditions and they will come approach)
➢ Academic excellence, open
innovation culture, diversity,
facilities, support functions, financial
incentives, venture funding, good
living conditions (“nice weather”)
Examples of copy attempts
o Sophia Antipolis (first European High Tech and Science Park)
• In 1969 in the rural hinterland of Nice (Cambridge on the Côte d’Azur)
• Attracted big companies like Cisco, IBM, Microsoft, SAP, Siemens, Thales
• Biggest employer: Amadeus (travel system specialist), only small number of startups
• No academic center, occupancy dropped dramatically after the dot-com crisis
• “Relaunch” in 2013
o Bangalore (centre of Indian IT)
• Most famous for its role in IT, known as Silicon Valley of India (also other industries)
• Contains high quality science and engineering academic institutions
• Highly corrupt government and business environment
• Deficits in academic integrity
o Estonia (in the 1990 in Estonia, barely anybody has a telephone at home)
• Brutalized by empires (spirit of survival was shaped long before Soviet Occupation)
• Leaving Estonia, but: “If you don’t have many citizen, you have to make sure the
country has many users” (small domestic market, no significant resources, excellent
academic institutions, technical competence, high cultural value of education across
faculties, smart and efficient government (e.g. e-residence))
o Israel (competition taken to an extreme)
• Small domestic market and going global from day 1, excellent academic institutions,
military funding for science and technology, civil funding, protection of IP,
combination of academic and practical skills, dynamic range
• Secret of Israel entrepreneurs: make the best out of the few things we have, we are
surrounded by enemies and ruled by idiots
o Berlin (youngest capital of the old world)
• High influx of skilled workers, drawing on the whole entrepreneurial capabilities of
Europe, academic excellence and education across borders, cheap rents, diversity,
Berlin culture and sub-culture
Lecture x: Strategy and Agility in the Automotive industry
Metaphors for the weird morning greeting in 2004 in screens of Shanghai VW employees
o Large oil tankers use scale effects, by can’t change direction quickly
o The Eurofighter typhoon is designed aerodynamically unstable to maximize agility
• But big difference, one reacts slow and plans long term the other the opposite
• Agility (ability to move quickly and easily) vs scale effects
Why did VW engineers not develop something like the Tesla S?
Engineers actually know how to develop a car even better, so why did they not do it?
➢ Also, Tesla uses a modular structure, just like iPhone, good to develop other products with
➢ Change of BM for Tesla (no dealerships & repairs)
