Organizational culture implies and progressively dictates the practices, etiquette and behaviors that would be embraced as instrumental or those that would be detrimental to a firm’s evolution. Organizational DNA represents the definition of processes, structure, systems and people capability which can—paradoxically—act as obstacles to enabling an organizational culture that fosters entrepreneurship. This paper provides insights to top level management on how to evoke a more entrepreneurial culture by recognizing activities that exist within the boundaries and often underneath the corporate radar. It does so by outlining three main challenges adopted from a compelling framework for strategic innovations.

Within the confines of any organizational system there exists a unique, homogenous mode of conduct which is ubiquitously called ‘culture’ in the business domain. It is culture that acts as a ‘control system’ which operates unconsciously and institutionalizes values and assumptions that dominate organizational DNA. It is culture that could also, as research suggests, influence the degree of competitive advantage derived from innovation, team cohesiveness and consistent alignment of operations against high employee morale. Within this domain, the term ‘entrepreneurial culture’ titillates the corporate agenda towards embracing major change initiatives that aim to reengineer organizational DNA in an attempt to combat inertia, but which can potentially, especially in the case of large corporations, create many subcultures which might overlap and contradict each other. The purpose of such change initiatives and reengineering practices is aimed at empowering employees to think beyond their jobs and begin to understand their role in contributing to the greater organizational goal. Whilst everyone can appreciate that entrepreneurs in general rarely come from business schools and instead emanate from diverse fields such as mathematics, biology, arts and engineering, it is imperative that top level management consider the various contingencies in entrepreneurial activities that may be brewing within the confines of the organization or even from customers who are ensconced through a process of co-creation. This viewpoint was conceptualized when Steve Jobs proclaimed during his 2010 iPad release that “It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough. It’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities which yields the results that make our hearts sing.”

So how can management firstly identify the various types of entrepreneurial activity that could potentially be at play internally? In answering that—we must understand that in the current highly integrated, globalized and dynamic corporate environment—entrepreneurs actually inhabit the hidden spaces in between, amongst and across organizations. An article entitled “Virtual Entrepreneurship”, by Image5 LLC Principal Ray Symmes, summates these as Entrepreneur, Intrapreneur, Interpreneur and Extrapreneur. The purpose of this paper is to recognize that the individual characteristics defining these types of risk takers can be ensconced as a microcosm for the corporate enterprise in an attempt to influence an entrepreneurial culture.

Effective Executive Magazine, Sustaining Success, Idealistic Notion, Financial Fraud, Future Implications, Second-Hand People, Integrity Maintainence, Economic Swings, Dot-com Bubble Mania, Financial Breakdown, Technological Revolution.