Managing Corporate Culture, Innovation, and Intrapreneurship

To succeed in the global marketplace for new goods and services, American corporations must learn how to innovate and develop new businesses better and faster than their competition. To do this requires a special culture--one that is much different from the traditional culture of American business. Oden’s unique book looks for the first time at the relationships among these elements--innovation, intrapreneurship, and corporate culture--and points out how these three elements can be integrated to achieve the maximum advantage in global competition. A concise but comprehensive, readable text and resource for corporate management, professionals involved in product development, and teachers and students with special interest in organizational development, innovation, and intrapreneurship.

Oden first looks at the actions that corporations must take to create a culture that is conducive to the venturing process. He makes clear that corporations must have not only a culture that supports innovation and intrapreneurship, but an organization and work force that can adapt quickly to exigencies. Also required is a well-structured venturing process. He describes this process in the second part of the book, breaking it down into three phases: concept development, technical development, and business development. Concept development is concerned only with product ideas, while hardware and software are developed in the technical phase. Business development concludes the process by assuring that the product succeeds in the marketplace. Written in a practical, non-technical style, Oden’s book will prove to be a hands-on, action-oriented manual for improving the corporate venturing process and its output.

HOWARD W. ODEN was Associate Professor of Management at Nichols College. He served 25 years as a Naval Officer, the first 15 years in submarines and the last 10 as a manager of new product development. After retiring as a Captain in 1977, he taught and consulted in product development and operations management and earned a doctorate in business administration. He wrote over 40 technical papers and the book Handbook of Material and Capacity Planning (1993).