CHAPTER 7
The Personal Enterprise
If you want a track team to win the high jump, you find one person who can jump seven feet, not seven people who can each jump one foot.
—Terman’s Law of Innovation
Terman’s Law of Innovation is true enough—but not if you are running in a relay race. In the Personal Enterprise, the focus is on the person in charge, the chief. Think of an entrepreneurial company or a social enterprise run by its founder, a new government department that needs focused management to get established, even a hospital in crisis. Someone may have to take full charge, as the center of a hub from which to exercise direct supervision to get things done.
We shall use a team sport to illustrate each of the forms. Which do you think applies ...
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