The Role of the Corporate Catalyst
As companies have decentralized strategic and innovation
activities, promoting agility, they have
become increasingly hospitable to catalysts—those
mission-driven leaders who corral corporate resources
that are outside their traditional span of control
to address sprawling challenges. They form networks
or coalitions within and outside the company
and are motivated by the desire to solve big—often
global—problems.
Healthy Heart, for example, could not exist without
the Medtronic catalyst Keyne Monson. In 2008
the head of the company’s international arm asked
Monson to devise a business model that would
increase its presence in India. Monson launched
the effort without a single direct report. He found
advocates within Medtronic’s Indian organization
and worked with external enablers including David
Green, of Ashoka (which backs social entrepreneurs),
to develop a case for broader investment. He
drew in outside partners early in the process, and
he engaged leadership by highlighting stories about
individual patients whom Medtronic could help.
(Mission-driven by nature, Monson was inspired
by his work in India to set up a separate nonprofit
company called Elevita, through which developedeconomy
consumers can buy goods made by developing-country
artisans.) Monson’s early efforts
earned him the support of regional leaders—notably
Milind Shah, Medtronic’s India country head, and
Shamik Dasgupta, the regional head of Medtronic’s
pacemaker and defibrillator business, both of whom
played critical roles in designing, staffing, and executing
the pilot and expanding the program.