INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT BANGALORE

Corporate Growth in an Entrepreneurial Environment

(3 credits)

PGPEM Quarter 8 (2019-2020)

Instructor: K. Kumar

Office: E-006 Phone: 26993277 E Mail: kumark@iimb.ernet.in

Course Objective and Background

This course aims to sensitize the participants about the challenges involved in
achieving corporate growth by promoting and managing new businesses within large,
established firms. The course will discuss the concepts and practices involved in
entrepreneurially converting new ideas into new businesses, in a corporate setting.

The relevance of the course to the participants stems from the fact that in a fast
changing world, organizations need to constantly nurture new and innovative ideas and
grow them into viable businesses to ensure long term growth and survival. Students who
choose a corporate career are also likely find themselves in roles and situations where they
are expected to develop new and profitable revenue streams for the organization, in the
backdrop of extreme uncertainty that characterize the entrepreneurial environment . The
content of this course will help them to appreciate the challenges involved in generating
innovative ideas and opportunities, and equip them to understand the different approaches
that could be adopted to overcome constraints and transform these opportunities into real
profitable businesses for the corporation.

Course Design and Requirements

The course comprises twenty sessions. Lectures will be supplemented with case analysis.
The course will also have a guest lecture from a practitioner to get a real world perspective
of the concepts discussed.

The experiential learning in the course will be achieved through a project, which will be
carried out by a group of a maximum of four members. The subject of the project will be
the study of a corporate organization that has successfully demonstrated a growth trajectory
in its performance by employing one or many of the entrepreneurial strategies and
approaches discussed in the course. The scope and deliverables of the project will be
specified through a note at the beginning of the course. There are intermediate deliverables
involved in the project and the final presentation has to be made to the class. The project
proposals will have to be submitted before assigned date and the instructor would
communicate the acceptance of the proposal within a few days thereafter. The instructor’s
decision on approval of the project proposal is final and binding on the participants.
The learning from the course for the participants is dependent totally on class participation
and discussions. The participants are expected to come thoroughly prepared with the
readings and cases scheduled for each session. If in the judgment of the instructor, the class
as a whole is not adequately prepared for a particular session, then that session is liable to
be shortened or cancelled and no make-up session will be offered in its place.

Course Evaluation

The course will be graded on the basis of the following components:

Class Participation : 25%
Mid-term exam : 35%
Project or End Term : 40%

Minor adjustments can be made to the evaluation components and weights after
discussion with participants during the first week of the course.

Course Schedule

1. Sessions 1&2:

Corporate Growth and Entrepreneurship Concepts

• Introduction to entrepreneurship concepts

• What is corporate entrepreneurship?
• The strategic imperatives for corporate entrepreneurship
• Forms of corporate entrepreneurship.
• Case: Piramal Patents a Pharma Formula, BusinessWorld, 7-21 July 1998

Read: 1. Corporate entrepreneurship and the pursuit of competitive advantage

Jeffery G. Covin and Morgan P. Miles, ETP, Spring 1999
2. Innovation and Growth: How Business Contributes to Society
David Ahlstrom, Academy of Management Perspectives, August 2010
3. A Perspective on Entrepreneurship
H.H. Stevenson , HBS Note 9-384-131

2. Sessions 3&4:

Challenges to Entrepreneurship and innovation in corporate settings

• Case: 3M Optical Systems

Read: 1.Creativity and Innovation in Organizations

Teresa M. Amabile, HBS Note 9-396-239
2. The Motivation for Creativity in Organizations
Teresa M. Amabile, HBS Note 9-396-240
3. Managing for Creativity
 Teresa M. Amabile, HBS Note 9-396-271
4. The Discipline of Innovation
Peter F. Drucker HBR August 2002 Reprint 0208F

3. Sessions 5&6:

Creating and Managing the Internal Corporate Venturing Process

• Strategic and organizational imperatives for internal corporate venturing

strategy
• Aligning the internal venturing process with the venturing strategy
• Entrepreneurial Leadership
• Case: Corporate New Ventures at Procter and Gamble
• Case: Lucent Technologies New Ventures Group

Read: 1. The advantage chain: Antecedents to rents from internal corporate ventures
R.G. McGrath, I. MacMillan and S. Venkataraman, JBV, Vol 9.
2. The Most Important Job- Entrepreneurial Leadership
Chapter 12 in Rita G McGrath and Ian MacMillon, “The Entrepreneurial
Mindset”, HBS Press, 2009
3. Managing Growth through Corporate Venturing
Ian Macmillan and Rita McGrath
4.Extracting Value from Corporate Venturing
R. G. McGrath et al. Sloan Management Review Vol 48 (1)

4. Sessions 7&8:

Corporate Venturing through External Vehicles

• Strategic logic of external vehicles for venturing

• Issues in managing external ventures
• Case: Knight Ridder Digital

Read: 1. Exploring the practice of corporate venturing: Some common forms and their
organizational implications
M. P. Miles and J.G. Covin,ETP Spring 2002
5. Sessions 9&10:

The Venture Capital Model for promoting corporate ventures

• Issues in venturing with corporate venture capital

• Case: Xerox Technology ventures

Read:
1. Designing corporate ventures in the shadow of private venture capital
H. Chesbrough, CMR Vol 42 (3)
2. Corporate Venturing
J. Lerner, HBR, October 2013

6. Sessions 11&12:

Evaluation and selection of venturing opportunities

• Developing criteria for evaluation
• Case: CISCO India (A&B)
• Case: Intel NBI: MXP Digital Media Processor

Read: 1. Corporate Initiatives

Chapter 5 in A.V. Bhide “The Origin and Evolution of New Businesses”

7. Sessions 13 &14:

Planning, monitoring and divesting a venture

• When and how to jettison a venture?

• Discovery driven planning approach
• Case: Hewlett-Packard: The flight of Kittyhawk

Read: 1. Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave

J.L.Bower and C.M. Christensen, HBR Jan-Feb 1995
2. Discovery Driven Planning
R.G.McGrath and I.C. MacMillan, HBR Jul-Aug 1995
3. The Role of Senior Executives in Leading New Growth
Chapter 10 in C.M.Christensen “Innovator’s Solution”
8. Sessions 15&16:

Championing and managing the corporate venture

• Roles of venture champion and venture manager

• The art and craft of sustaining support for the venture
• Case: Internal Entrepreneurship at the Dow Chemical Company

Read: 1. Strategic Stories: How 3M is Rewriting Business Planning

G. Shaw, HBR May-Jun 1998
2.Meeting the Challenge of Corporate Venturing
D.A.Garvin and L.C. Levesque HBR Reprint R0610G

9. Sessions 17&18:

Real Options Approach to Corporate Venturing

• The concept of real options applied in corporate new venture settings

• Guest Lecture

Read: 1. Introduction to Real Options, IVEY Note 905N15

2.Making Real Options Really Work
A.B. van Putten and I.C. MacMillan, HBR Reprint R0412K

10. Sessions 19&20:

• Project Presentations/ course summary