Corporate executives usually want the best of two worlds - the successful simultaneous pursuit of the small-is-beautiful and the bigger-is-better corporate opportunities. This article discusses how they can do so.

Large corporations, if they are lucky, run on two entrepreneurial engines.

Companies like 3M or HP have a long history of successful innovations and new business creation from within their own operating units. Let us call this the small-is-beautiful engine, because of the emphasis on a large number of small bets. Here the real corporate entrepreneurs are the general managers of the operating units and their management teams, with the CEO and the top managers acting as the venture capitalists.

The other engine, call it the bigger-is-better one, is focused on a few very large bets. AT&T's huge bet in cable, Vivendi's in entertainment, GE's in building up GE Capital, and Apple's on iPhone and iPad come to mind when we talk of these kinds of innovations. In these cases, the real corporate entrepreneurs are the CEOs and the corporate top management teams, with the boards of directors as the venture capitalists.

Each entrepreneurial engine has its appeal. The former is best for exploiting the myriad smaller opportunities available to a large corporation; the latter to pursue opportunities that are beyond the ambition or capabilities of any one division.

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