Keys to Fostering Intrapreneurship in Large Corporations
In a context in which digital transformation is a fundamental requirement for the evolution of companies, innovation takes on an increasingly strategic role. But taking innovation from aspiration to practice requires a cultural change, new roles and leadership, the real implementation of digital transformation. In other words, innovation is built by entrepreneurship, which is why it is so important to promote intra-entrepreneurship in organizations. In this post we will see what are the keys to achieving this effectively.
What is Intrapurrecy?
Entrepreneurship is usually related to the start-up of companies and organizations from the ground up. However, this activity can also be carried out within companies that already exist, to create, under their support, new products and services. This is what is known as Intrapurrecy, also called internal entrepreneurship.
Intrapreneurship brings many benefits to companies. The main one is that, in addition to their contractual obligations in the company, workers develop innovations that can have a positive impact on the business, providing value and providing differentiation.
Intrapreneurs are able to detect and promote new business ideas for the organization, but to carry them out, they need the support of the company and its leaders. In fact, the latter must collaborate with employees on strategies and provide them with the necessary resources for the development of their proposals.
For these strategies to be carried out, it is essential to transmit a feeling of security and trust, even if the proposed projects do not end their development, so that workers do not lose motivation and it is still possible to promote intra-entrepreneurship.
What are the 5 keys to fostering intra-entrepreneurship within a company?
1. Promote active listening to employees' ideas
Entrepreneurship, even if it seems obvious, always starts with develop and exercise the ability to listen to employees: listen to their ideas on how to improve processes, address new markets, develop new products or services or renew existing ones.
Active listening on the part of the organization requires enable and provide transparent, safe and inclusive spaces to share any idea, rewarding the person responsible for each initiative and giving everyone who shows interest the possibility of getting involved.
Open communication spaces provide companies with that supportive environment in which employees feel confident enough and able to “go beyond” their mere assigned job functions.
2. Actively involve leaders and senior management
As with any other corporate process, encouraging intra-entrepreneurship involves the involvement of the leaders of certain departments, and then the senior management is involved.
Una acceptance and express support on the part of the management layers is essential to motivate, inspire, encourage and encourage employee participation.
If managers are not part of this process, workers will not consider it “favorable” to dedicate part of their working time to proposing and developing new ideas or to any task that goes beyond the functions of their position. For this reason, executive support must be present from the first phase of the start-up of an intra-entrepreneurial project.
In fact, it is particularly attractive for employees to submit projects that can be considered and approved by the organization's main decision makers, and not just by their superiors.
3. Adequate structuring of the entrepreneur process
Another key to encouraging intra-entrepreneurship in an organization is define the structure, the rules to follow. A basic structure consists of:
· A first stage of idea generation: here companies can define areas for improvement, or open communication channels so that employees can freely express their ideas without any restrictions. They can even directly enable an application portal for employees to participate in the entrepreneurship project.
· The second stage is that of triage: Department leaders, with or without the supervision of senior management, choose those ideas put forward by employees that can bring the most value to the business, or they select the workers they consider most suitable to be part of the entrepreneurship program. To this end, it is important to take into account not only the training of candidates, but also other personal abilities and abilities such as creativity, proactivity, adaptability or the ability to lead or make decisions, among others.
· And the last stage of rendition: in this phase, companies must have a defined methodology and a work process that allows the selected employees to develop these ideas during the working day, without this penalizing productivity in everyday tasks.
4. Incorporate incentive mechanisms for entrepreneurs
When employees have a space at their disposal in which to freely contribute ideas, they know that management is involved and they are aware that the company offers the possibility of carrying out these projects, all the elements are in place for the best entrepreneurship initiatives to emerge within the organization.
However, even with all this, it is important celebrate and reward the culture of entrepreneurship, because if employees benefit from the success of an idea, they will be more motivated to continue contributing.
Therefore, it is necessary create and define an incentive system well. These don't have to be economic, but they can be public recognition, promotion in the program or any type of reward.
Although it should be noted that, as a general rule, the greatest reward for entrepreneurs is having the possibility of participating in a program of these characteristics. It is a unique way of meeting other people, collaborating with workers from different departments to better understand how the company works and, above all, to experience a positive developments both in the professional and personal spheres.
5. Anticipate and prepare entrepreneurs for failure (when necessary)
Finally, there is the possibility that many intra-entrepreneurial projects do not lead to the creation of new products or services, to a greater market share or to an increase in productivity and profitability. This is why it is important to structure the program development process well, but also Recognize the work merit of employees, even if it does not give the expected result.
This strategy of “extracting” the positive side instead of focusing on the negative result, will prevent other entrepreneurs from feeling discouraged when it comes to making their ideas public. In this way, the company makes its employees understand that any idea is welcome, even if it doesn't really fit the business model.
The Santalucía Impulsa program to promote entrepreneurship
For Santalucía Impulsa, the great advantage of intra-entrepreneurship is the cultural change brought about by entrepreneurs, who apply knowledge and everything learned in the program to their jobs.
Grupo Santalucía is a company with 10,000 employees, of whom between 200 and 300 apply each year to Santalucía Impulsa Empleados, the company's entrepreneurship program. Of all of them, 24 workers are selected based on their digital and entrepreneurial capabilities, and also on their performance management, experience in the company, etc.
Currently, 5 editions have been held, and they all have something in common: people who want to learn, to develop, to contribute to the organization from another perspective.
Those selected are divided into four groups of six members each, and are assigned a strategic challenge. Throughout the program, they are mentalized, accompanied and trained in innovation to solve this challenge. During the incubation phase, the teams develop a minimum viable product, and only those selected by a jury made up of the Management Committee go to the acceleration phase to carry out a pilot test.
7th edition of Santalucía Impulsa Empleados
Currently, and as a result of the program's success in previous years, Santalucía Impulsa Empleados has started its 7th edition, where employees of the group are developing solutions that respond to three challenges proposed by the company: home, finance and seniors. Right now they are in the incubation phase, but within a few months they could be implementing their products in the company.
With the experience of Santalucía Impulsa in the field of intra-entrepreneurship, we can say that this is not an easy path, but it always turns out to be a win-win for both the company and the workers. Employees are motivated and become more efficient, and companies gain the opportunity to improve and develop disruptive products and services by making the most of internal talent.
Because the objective of any company should not only be to build customer loyalty, but also to its employees, as these are the main asset of any organization.
