Firestarters!: Igniting the Entrepreneurial Organization

In the past, managers put out fires. In the future, managers will light the fires of enterprise. On the innovation frontier, ideas, talent and capital move in perpetual free-flow. They move where the money can be made or will be made at some time in the future. But in traditional companies, ideas, talent and capital can ossify rather than multiply. Despite the rise and fall of the dot.com sideshow, the days of the traditional corporate model size, central control and no stake for the talented look numbered when it comes to creating and delivering value from new ventures. Business needs to get better at starting the fires of enterprise. Firestarters examines the best of the start-up and corporate worlds to describe an organization where entrepreneurial zeal lives and where resources flow quickly and profitably to the best new ideas. Firestarter organizations create entrepreneurialism through motivation and context. They work like this: New models: They explore new organizational models. They are not stuck in the past of military or mechanistic models. The empty organization: They realize that they need to be lean and efficient. They outsource. They focus on what they excel at. Launch and learn: They are adept at moving quickly with ideas, making them happen, now. Networked: They are networked, internally and externally. They continually seek out new network partners. Local area networks: And they network intimately with those in their geographic area. They turn neighborhoods into networks. Work with meaning: They provide values and meaning for all those who work with them. Entrepreneurial: In a word Firestarter Inc. glows with entrepreneurial purpose.