Championing New Ventures

Creating a new corporate venture occurs in a number of contexts, but in all of them it needs a champion—that is, an advocate, someone who will fight for it and push forward to continue to promote its potential while the market and its possibilities are explored. New ventures do not happen by accident, and even the most brilliant ideas will not be adopted effortlessly. Championing a new venture often requires taking on a leadership role even when one is not the organization's leader. At the same time it is not the same role as that of the traditional manager, whose role is defined more by overseeing the performance of established business processes than by exploring and discovering the best expression and implementation of a new ...