Drivers, explorers, crusaders and captains: identifying and nurturing four types of entrepreneurial business builders

Purpose Brian Leavy interviews Chris Kuenne and John Danner about research into entrepreneurial personality published in their new book Built for Growth: How Builder Personality Shapes Your Business, Your Team, and Your Ability to Win Corporate. Design/methodology/approach By studying personality types, executives can learn how different types of successful entrepreneurs function, how they’re wired, motivated, lead and manage. Findings Using Kuenne’s and Danner’s“Builder Personality Discovery” instrument, corporations can begin to recognize which types of potential entrepreneurs they have, and then how best to support and reward their efforts in creating new business value. Practical implications Each typically interacts differently to five major dynamic challenges that every business builder faces, the “solution dynamic,” the “team dynamic,” the “customer dynamic,” the “sponsor dynamic” and the ‘scale dynamic.’ Originality/value Essential insights for corporate leaders championing entrepreneurial business builders in their firms and for assessing leaders of potential acquisitions.