EVALUATING CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP AT FACEBOOK INC

EVALUATING CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP AT FACEBOOK INC
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Introduction
One issue that is usually in the minds of CEOs of various firms is organizational growth. Markets, on the other hand, demand growth. However, attaining profitable corporate growth in multiple institutions has become a hard nut to crack. Normally organizational growth in organizations stagnates immediately after the primary business begins to flag. Numerous studies have found out that less than 5% of business organizations hardly regain 1 % organizational growth after flagging. To avert this vice, most successful businesses have resorted to establishing corporate entrepreneurship to continue surging up in terms of organizational growth. Creating successful corporate entrepreneurs in an already existing business has equally proven to a difficult task as most companies such as Enron Corporation failed terribly in the quest to attain the same. This paper will discuss the four major models of corporate entrepreneurship broadly and observe which one of them played a significant role in the success of Facebook’s growth.
Understanding Corporate Entrepreneurship
Before getting to understand how corporate entrepreneurship works, it is essential to understand what corporate entrepreneurship means in the first place. The term corporate entrepreneurship has several definitions. For instance, according to Sharma and Chrisman (2007), corporate entrepreneurship entails collaboration between an organization and individuals or teams to create a new business within the existing organization. Nevertheless, the definition that seems interesting is that which refers to corporate entrepreneurship as a process whereby teams within a given organization conceive, foster, launch, and manage a different business from the parent institution (Walcott and Lippits, 2007). However, the new business should still leverage the assets and other resources from the parent company.
In most cases, people do confuse corporate entrepreneurship with corporate venture capital. This is because the two initiatives look similar in that they both involve external partners. However, unlike corporate venture capital, where organizations put financial investments in a different company, corporate entrepreneurship utilizes resources from the parent company, and above all, the new business is managed by members from the parent organization.
Models of Corporate Entrepreneurship
According to Walcott and Lippitz (2007), the major mistake that various organizations made in the past while, establishing corporate entrepreneurship was the emulation of innovation leaders. This procedure failed since it limited the team members of the various organizations from maximizing their potentials, as they were not given the freedom to try new things. To come up with successful corporate entrepreneurship, organizations need to consider two significant dimensions, which are the organization ownership and the resource authority within the organization. The two aspects, in return, lead the creation of the four major models of corporate entrepreneurship, namely opportunist, enabler, advocate, and producer models. In summary, the opportunist model is a process where organizational growth is encouraged when the ownership of the project is diffused but with no dedicated resources. This model works well in organizations where the top leadership is fond of speaking in one voice.
Enabler, model, on the other hand, work in organizations that have dedicated funds for organizational growth and provides the freedom for a diffused leadership of the project. This model has proven to be of great success for companies such as Google, Whirlpool Corp, and Boeing Co. Though the model seems to be fitting many organizations that value innovation, it should be handled with caution to avoid wastage of funds. The advocate model of corporate entrepreneurship is when ownership of the project is focused, and there are no dedicated funds. Finally, the producer model takes place when the new plan is developed with a dedicated fund while the ownership of the project is focused on a dedicated team. This model has also proven to be a success in many organizations, including IBM. However, it does not fall short of challenges as it consumes more resources and presents difficulty in the integration of successful projects into the parent company.
Background of Facebook Inc,
Facebook is one of the largest companies in the world that provides online social networking services. A Harvard student named Mark Zuckerberg, who is the current CEO, founded the company in 2004 (Hall, 2017). Initially, students were the only users of the online platform. However, in 2006, the company broke its boundaries as it allowed non-students to register in its online platform. Today, Facebook boasts of 2.45 billion active users every month around the world, surprising some of the pioneers of online networking companies such as MySpace, among others (Hall, 2017). The platform allows its users to create their online account free of charge. The users can also post and share their pictures with friends.
Recently, Facebook added some exciting features in its platform to promote customer satisfaction as well as to ensure that it remains relevant in the social networking industries. The notable features that Facebook recently added in its platforms include the news feed feature, the live broadcast feature. Today, Facebook is not only being used for casual interactions alone as various kinds of people use the platform to push a diverse agenda. For instance, during the 2008 political period before the U.S. Presidential election, more than 1000 groups were used to drum support for the two frontrunners in that election. The platform was also used during the 2011 uprising in Egypt in the quest to dethrone Hosni Mubarak from power. However, the primary source of income for Facebook Incorporation is the revenue from an advertisement that companies pay to market their products and service. As of 3rd December 2019 stood at $ 566.98 billion (Ycharts, 2019). All these progress and growth of the company has been enabled by exemplary innovation and investment in corporate entrepreneurship. The section below will observe the strategy used by Facebook that is associated with its success in as far as corporate entrepreneurship is concerned. Additionally, the article will also highlight some of the challenges that come with the strategy used on Facebook.
Analysis of Facebook’s Corporate Entrepreneurship Strategy
Facebook's strategy of establishing corporate entrepreneurship is more or less the same as Google. This is to say that most of the employees at Facebook are encouraged to keep on conceiving and trying new ideas. This way, the company gets to be more advanced as far as innovation is concerned. As their CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, puts it. He would rather fail in the quest for innovation when trying a new thing than missing an opportunity that could have moved the company forward (Clifford, 2017). This argument by Facebooks's CEO is, therefore, a clear indication that the organization is open to new ideas, and the employees themselves conceive the ideas majorly.
Secondly, Facebook Incorporation’s leadership embraces risk-taking. The above argument by the company's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, that his employees should not be afraid of failing is a clear indication that a culture of risk-taking is encouraged within the organization. Risk-taking is also something that companies should not shy away from since it is the only way they can either make a breakthrough if the project succeeds. On the contrary, should the project fail to materialize, then the failure serves as a learning experience. On the same, Mark Zuckerberg claims that trying and failing makes employees better in the coming days (Clifford, 2017).
Additionally, the culture of quick learning is also associated with success in Facebook's organizational growth. Zuckerberg claims that being a dynamic industry that it is, the online social networking industry needs a strategy that encourages employees to learn as quickly as ...