But Krushel, at General Electric, and Kaul, at Hanover Direct, worked inside behemoths that fit the description. Nor does GE have the patience to feed and nurture start-ups.
Losses are too intensive, the outcome too risky.
Hanover Direct, a catalog retailer, likewise has to worry about cultural issues. It also suffers from a languishing stock price that leaves it with the tiniest fraction of GE's resources. Yet both Krushel and Kaul have succeeded. GE's NBC unit, where Krushel was until recently senior vice president of strategy, avoided GE's constraints by doing its innovating outside corporate walls. NBC is at the forefront as broadcasters try to figure out how to use the Internet to develop new relationships with their core audience and reinvent their threatened core business.