Last week, I participated in a panel discussion about entrepreneurship with executives from Royal Mail, Eon and Procter & Gamble. Each explained how their company keenly promotes such behaviour, how they encourage their management to think entrepreneurially, and how they embrace risk. Except that I didn't believe a word of it. Their pitches reminded me of the elderly vicar trying to get on down with the kids on the dance floor - somehow embarrassing and deeply ineffective.
It is in the nature of capitalism that, despite all their resources, large corporates cannot replicate what entrepreneurs do. That is why small, founder-run companies tend to be so much more innovative and giant institutional-style companies are at heart conservative.
Over the years various management consultants, academics and authors have made handsome profits by feeding the illusion that "intrapreneurship" is a viable strategy. But mature companies are almost invariably chiefly concerned with protecting what they have rather than pursuing growth at all costs. This innate priority of preservation - which may well be a rational philosophy - militates against the radical moves that can create new opportunities. Which manager really wants to risk their chances of promotion by shaking things up? And, without a champion, who is there to lead the charge into the unknown?