Learn how to successfully launch innovative ideas within a corporate environment and how to deal with challenges along the way.

March 27-28, 2026 | 2 days | English | Vienna

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What to expect

Corporate entrepreneurship between core business and new growth paths

Today, experienced managers are expected to identify new business areas and steer innovation initiatives while ensuring stable operating results. The challenge: innovation requires a different logic than existing business.

Many are confronted with conflicting expectations: minimize risks and think entrepreneurially. Secure structures and open up space for experimentation. In practice, cultural barriers, political resistance, and conflicting goals arise. Corporate venturing units compete with established divisions for customers and resources.


The question is: How do you shape corporate entrepreneurship so that new business units emerge, grow, and remain relevant in the market?

A structured approach to corporate entrepreneurship in established organizations  

This seminar provides a clear framework for systematically shaping corporate entrepreneurship. You will work with concepts such as the corporate venturing lifecycle, ambidextrous logic, and governance design for new business units. The program combines theoretically sound models with a consistent focus on practical application.  

The focus is on your own challenges. You will analyze existing structures, incentive systems, and decision-making processes in your organization. On this basis, you will develop concrete levers for promoting intrapreneurship, designing venture units, and securing top management commitment. 

Case-based teaching, current examples from the business press, and contributions from guest speakers highlight typical stumbling blocks and effective points of intervention. In exchange with other experienced executives, you will sharpen your perspective on organizational resistance, political dynamics, and growth paths for new business areas.  

Your Benefits at a Glance

  • You will gain a structured framework for strategically, organizationally, and culturally classifying corporate entrepreneurship.  
  • You will develop approaches to specifically address organizational resistance, conflicting goals, and political dynamics.  
  • You will learn to plan and manage new business units from the initial idea to scaling.  
  • You will develop a personal approach for corporate venturing initiatives in your specific business context.  

Target audience: Who will particularly benefit from this seminar

Woman sitting on office table talking

© Gemini

  • International specialists and executives in middle and upper management
  • Division and department heads for strategy, innovation, and corporate development
  • Project managers for innovation, transformation, and new business development
  • Those responsible for corporate venturing and internal ventures
  • Management consultants with a focus on innovation and strategy  

Program Overview & Methods

  1. Fundamentals and objectives of corporate entrepreneurship
    You clarify terms, objectives, and typical misunderstandings. You discuss how corporate entrepreneurship is embedded in strategy, portfolio, and governance.
  2. Framework conditions for intrapreneurship and idea generation
    You analyze cultural barriers, incentive systems, and structures. You develop levers to enable and protect internal entrepreneurship activities.  
  3. Evaluating ideas, technologies, and market opportunities
    You work with criteria and processes for evaluating new business ideas. You address uncertainty, resource scarcity, and different risk logics.  
  4. Developing and validating business models for new units
    You structure new business models, test market assumptions, and define appropriate validation steps along the venture lifecycle.  
  5. Shaping organizational resistance and conflicts 
    You consider political and social resistance, conflicts with the core business, and governance issues. You develop intervention options and escalation paths.  
  6. Establishing, managing, and scaling venture units
    You discuss structural variants, management logics, and interfaces with the core business. You address growth, integration, and possible divestment paths. 

  • You will gain a clear overview of the concepts, structures, and control logic of corporate entrepreneurship in established companies.
  • You will learn to systematically identify and evaluate new business areas and translate them into viable business models.
  • You will develop concrete strategies for constructively addressing organizational resistance, political dynamics, and conflicting goals.
  • You will be able to plan corporate venturing initiatives from the initial idea to scaling in a reflective manner and anchor them in your corporate context.  

  • Case-based teaching on real corporate venturing projects
  • Work on your own practical cases with structured collegial case consultation
  • Discussion of current corporate examples from the international business press
  • Insights from current research on ambidexterity, path dependency, and organizational competencies  
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Your Trainer

Arne Keller

Postdoctoral Researcher | Research Group Leadership & Strategy, TU Wien 

Dr. Arne Keller conducts research on complex change processes, organizational path dependency, and the development and reconfiguration of organizational competencies. In his doctoral thesis, he analyzed Leica Camera's transformation from analog to digital photography and the associated strategic decisions. His work on ambidexterity, strategic alliances, and governance issues provides a sound framework for reflecting on corporate entrepreneurship and venturing in a practical way. 

Dates & Registration

Next date:March 27+28, 2026, 09:00–17:00 each day
Registration deadline:March 22, 2026
Price*:€ 1,590 (incl. course materials, refreshments, certificate)
Early Bird Price:€1,390 for registration by January 25, 2026
Additional dates:Autumn 2026

Prerequisites: Professional experience in technical/business functions. No academic degree required.
*: Further price reductions for members of the TU Wien Community. Details upon registration.
 

Certificate

After successful participation in both seminar days, you will receive a certificate from TU Wien Academy.

Presence and active participation in group exercises is required. For credit toward further MBA programs, a reflection or transfer task can optionally be submitted as a short written report.

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Questions?

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