Created by tunnel-visioned corporate types, the small business career trap puts a strangle hold on re-entry to the corporate world once a corporate employee has “defected” to take a shot at running her or his own business.  It’s like deportation.  Or shunning!

The reason for the tunnel visioned label has to do with the corporate assumption that you can only play football or baseball, not both.  And once you switch sports, you can nevermore recapture credibility in the field you left behind. 

   It’s a pretty ridiculous, close-minded approach in theory and on paper, but nonetheless stands as the unspoken rule in the reality of many, if not most, large companies.  “This guy couldn’t hack it with his own business and now he wants back in; he’ll only screw things up here too!”  Or: “She doesn’t know how to think like a corporate executive anymore.  Her entrepreneur instincts and mindset will only wreak havoc in our organization!” 

     Wait a minute!  You mean there’s no wealth of unique contributions a small business-experienced individual can make to stimulate the prevailing lethargy of so much corporate life?  An example?  Sure.  Banks.  Hospitals.  Publishers.  Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to start a list of losers here.  Let’s try that again.  An example?  Sure.  Show me a successful small business owner who lacks energy, or who will agreeably waste away untold hours of daily meetings that have little or no bearing on his or her responsibilities in order to play company politics!  Just one.  Show me just one!

     And isn’t it interesting food for thought that the corporation exists in the first place because the entrepreneur(s) responsible for its launch had no tolerance for the time-consuming, energy-and-resource-wasting behaviors that bog down and abort serious business growth and development, which may define the company’s current problem? 

     So, okay, maybe there aren’t lines of entrepreneurs banging down your company’s HR door, but if you can accept that small business thinking and acting could fill an important catalyst role in your organization, you might consider specialized training. 

     Watch here for future commentary on Hal Alpiar’s

“Corporate Entrepreneurship”(c) management

training programs . . . teaching corporate executives

how to think and act more like small business owners

. . . to produce increased sales and revenue streams,

enhanced customer relations, more responsive and

more responsible attitudes, and to meet and exceed

the charges of their mission statements.    

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Hal@Businessworks.US     931.854.0474

 OPEN MINDS OPEN DOORS