It is clear that the key to business competitiveness is innovation, but how can it be constantly reflected in products, services and company processes? To answer this question and to avoid business stagnation a new trend is born: intrapreneurship.
WHAT IS IT ABOUT?
The intrapreneur seeks to motivate, support and execute ambitious projects that are born within companies and that can be converted into small internal companies with a business model of their own. It could mean, for example, the creation of a new business unit, the opening of a new distribution channel, the launch of a range of products / services under a different brand, or the implementation of cells: groups dedicated to specific tasks and services within the organization
Both the company and the intrapreneur benefit from this dynamic because they get the best of two worlds: having a motivated and committed employee willing to generate ideas for the company and the use of agile and flexible methodologies to create and validate new business models in a very short time and with a minimum resource consumption. Yes, there are resources!, which most likely wouldn’t be in chase the employee tried to undertake on his or her own.
Companies like Google, Facebook and Apple are strongly committed to the intrapreneurship because they have recognized that this system can obtain the greatest potential of its employees. The birth of the Macintosh is a good example of intrapreneurship, a group of people who went back to the garage and created a great company.
UQBATE is another of the examples just mentioned, an innovation program by Telekom Germany that empowers employees to generate new business ideas. Subsequently, under the innovation context of Telekom, the best projects are evaluated and chosen with the opportunity to be financed and assigned to be led by their own ideators and thus be brought to reality.
HOW TO GET INTRAPRENEURS?
An intrapreneur is not created but is usually identified, they are usually complex to manage profiles but they are one of the most valuable assets of any organization, who are not only able to adapt to change, but to encourage it. They are dynamic, restless and critics, they do not settle for a “it has always been done this way”. They are also enthusiastic, committed and exercise leadership very well.
HOW TO PROMOTE INTRAPRENEURSHIP?
- At SlashMobility we have our own Innovation Lab in which all employees can participate with development ideas or applications. DressApp, the application to carry the closet in your pocket or Kokoro Studio, our B2E product line, they’re all success cases of intrapreneurship.
- With the help of Bloomium, we seek to capitalize on talent in projects, identify it to transform into success stories. This way we integrate to the ideas the whole experience of high level mentors and also the possibility of financing.
- SlashLab is an initiative of SlashMobility through which a dedicated team with the talent to consolidate and to expel the pipeline of digital innovation is aligned with the company’s global strategy and which works in synergy with other intrapreneurs within the organization.
Undoubtedly, the best option for companies to begin with intrapreneurship as strategy for the capitalization of talent and knowledge from within.
