When I left IBM in 1990, I thought it would be a relatively easy transition to work for a more entrepreneurial company like Whittman-Hart. It wasn’t. I thought that many of my IBM customers would do business with me again at Whittman-Hart. They didn’t.
I found out that many of them were doing business with IBM (the company) rather than with me (the person). This was a rude awakening. Back then, a favorite expression in the industry was that “no one gets fired for choosing IBM”. For some people, doing business with a smaller company like Whittman-Hart was just too risky.
The transition from intrapreneur at a corporation to entrepreneur on your own is a common yet difficult transformation. Many business people who have operated as leaders within large corporations spin off into their own start-up at some point.
“Intrapreneurs are people who are success driven and who measure their success by any number of metrics–whether it’s money, job title or performance relative to peers,” said Bob Okabe of Illinois Partners. “Those people may still have that drive later on in their lives but their career has in fact slowed down because the pyramid gets more narrow. These are success-oriented people who believe that an entrepreneurial adventure is the best way to make their own personal metrics of success.”
What often propels intrapreneurs into starting their own businesses is they want to do more things they are passionate about. What intrapreneurs find in the transition to a start-up or a small business is that they are doing a lot more of not what they know but what they don’t know. As an entrepreneur, everything becomes included in your job description.
“The biggest challenge for somebody stepping out of a large business is that they now have to do all those things they took for granted. These can include an HR function, a health plan, a payroll system, unjamming the copier and selecting a telephone provider,” Okabe said. “You probably didn?t realize the cost of all those little things.”
An important characteristic of an entrepreneur is to know what many people do not know. You need to have a grasp on what you’re good at and what you’re not. You can ask me to sell or market anything but don’t ask me to run the warehouse. Nothing would ever get shipped! It is particularly challenging for many of us to realize and let go of the things at which we aren’t proficient.
At some point, entrepreneurs need to hire others who complement what they do not know. How entrepreneurs hire has a profound impact on whether or not they will succeed.
Okabe believes that most people hire for skills first, personality second and culture last. He added: “The boat moves as fast as the slowest rower. If somebody isn’t motivated and isn’t interested, I don’t care how physically able he is. He’s not going to row well.”
It doesn’t always work out for the person who comes from a large corporation and starts a new company. Many people who exited in the Internet frenzy are now seeking to go back to an established corporation.
A good example of this is Jim Lichtenstein. He was a managing editor at CBS 2 Chicago who left his position in October 2000 to launch and run AssignmentEditor.com full time. Two years later, he sold it when the business value of his company didn’t grow the way he had hoped. Once an entrepreneur, he is now looking to return to the newsroom.
“It is hard. At some point, I’ll go back and work for somebody again,” Lichtenstein said. “Starting the business was getting it out of my system, too.
“Years ago, I wanted to be a movie producer. I went and did that. Then I wanted to work in entertainment television. I did that. Then I thought it would be cool to start a business. I did that. Now, well, is there anything else I really want to do or do I just want to go some place and have good health insurance and a stock plan and all that stuff? That doesn’t look so bad any more.”