Companies need entrepreneurs but tapping such talent difficult

Donahue pointed out that many forces are increasing the value of internal entrepreneurs, particularly in technology-intensive companies. Among them are the poor recent track record for traditional in-house R&D, a scarcity of longer-term resources among publicly traded companies fixated on quarter-to-quarter results and a need for more flexible development of new technologies.

While many companies pay lip service to identifying entrepreneurial managers, few have been successful at tapping such talent. Donahue says one reason is that the most powerful talents of these entrepreneurs are also the ones that make them difficult to work with in a traditional organization. Hearing this from…