Corporate Explorer Fieldbook

CHAPTER 5From Explorer's Insight to Opportunity Story

George Glackin

STARTING POINT

Corporate Explorers face the daunting task of sorting through dozens of ideas on how to create the next blockbuster business. Ideas are easy to come by, but which are the most promising and which truly align both with the Corporate Explorer's passion and with the ambitions of the corporation? No matter how good the idea, you can only make progress when you can persuade others that you have identified an opportunity worth pursuing and motivate them to commit resources to enable you to get started. Although corporations get a bad rap for failing to back good ideas, this challenge is the same for entrepreneurs. Ideas can fail not because they are not worth backing, but because an entrepreneur or Corporate Explorer lacks the ability to persuade others to follow them. This chapter is about how the explorer makes the decision of where to explore and then builds a bridge between that and the stakeholders whose support they need to make progress. I will illustrate with examples from the original Corporate Explorer book, UNIQA Cherrisk and Deloitte Pixel.

EXPLORER'S INSIGHT

Aspiring Corporate Explorers operate within an existing business. Typically, that business is doing well, generating solid top‐ and bottom‐line numbers, and its leaders have forecasted many more promising years ahead. There may even be a portfolio of upgrades and improvements that can be expanded to the market as needed.

What ...