Why CEOs need to act like entrepreneurs

They said it would take months. I told my team to launch in four days.

Being agile and moving quickly have been keys to success throughout my career. This strategy worked when I was an entrepreneur creating startups and growing businesses. I’m relying on the same approach now as the leader of a company with 30,000 employees.

Waiting until something is perfect before launching or delaying a decision until you have 100 percent of the information are strategies for failure. By the time you act, the opportunity could be gone. Or more nimble competitors could move in and squeeze you out.

That’s why even as the new CEO at Sprint, I still think and act like an entrepreneur. Since beginning last year as the company’s top executive, I’ve been encouraging our employees to adopt a more entrepreneurial approach to their work. I’d encourage anybody else to do the same. Whether you are leading a company, managing a team or simply recharging your career in 2015, we all have a lot to gain by acting like entrepreneurs.

Here are some examples of what I mean. My company introduced leasing to the U.S. wireless industry last October. The Sprint team’s initial reaction was that we needed months to test it in the market and then make sure all of our systems were set up just right.

The wireless industry is hyper-competitive, and we didn’t have the time. I gave the team four days and said we’d figure it out as we went. We could offer consumers value by providing a new way for them to get the latest smartphones. We didn’t need to spend a lot of time and money researching a decision with an obvious benefit. It’s too soon to declare this initiative a definitive success, but the early signs are encouraging.

The fear of failure can be so great within large organizations that many people seem to look for reasons not to do something rather than embracing a great opportunity. That is why I believe we must take calculated risks. When you have at least 70 percent of what you need, go ahead and launch.

Something else that I expect from members of my team is that they know our business. It is critically important to do your homework ahead of time so that you are familiar with your company, your customers, your competitors and your industry. That’s the way to be ready when an opportunity emerges.

When those opportunities do arise, have the confidence to act. Set a goal and pursue it with everything you have. Don’t wait around for encouragement or support from others that may or may not come.

I’ve started businesses that grew to become regional leaders or even the top operations in their industry. I credit these principles for helping to drive the successes I’ve enjoyed and I’ve seen them work well for others I’ve observed.

The entrepreneurs and people in business I admire are those who have big ideas, are passionate about what they do and take bold actions to achieve their dreams. Everything we try won’t always result in a win. It’s only truly a failure, though, if we fail to learn from the experience and then improve.

That’s what an entrepreneur would do. That’s what I do. And that’s what I challenge you to do, too.

This article is published in collaboration with LinkedIn. Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum. 

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Author: Marcelo Claure is President & CEO at Sprint

Image: Workers from the financial sector walk on a tram track. REUTERS/Bobby Yip