"Every Person, Every Idea Counts: Respecting the individual and valuing contributions of each employee." Essentially, corporate entrepreneurship is very important to GE. Corporate Entrepreneurship is a function which, if supported within an organization, can create many benefits for a firm. The idea behind corporate entrepreneurship is employees, if properly inspired, will throughout their daily activity think of new ideas and methods of doing things. These ideas could possibly be new groundbreaking products, beneficial features for existing products, or even more efficient or cost-savings ways of conduction operations.
Corporate entrepreneurship is not without its hurdles. An employee can not simply propose a project and expect it to be accepted within the firm. Employees must push their proposals, and possibly find people to champion them in order to overcome corporate culture and the status-quo of management. Finding the most influential individuals in the organization is very important to an idea succeeding. More often than not, employees who feel strongly for their ideas and follow through with their proposals succeed in having them implemented within the firm. Important discoveries such as the development of Lexan by GE chemist Daniel W. Fox, were created from his own desire to find a better enamel for wires. (GE SITE***) It was not GE which drove the innovation, but rather Mr. Fox. .
Under Jack Welsh, GE was well known for its drive for employee involvement. His management philosophy was that employees should be seen and heard, not just participate in their daily activities. Work should be "a place of ideas, not a place of position." Under his leadership, many powerful innovations were developed such as the first fiber optic conduits, Lexan optical discs, many automotive plastic implementations, and space exploration bots such as the Mars Observer. In order for these programs to have been implemented, they had to be carefully thought out and organized.
