Intrapreneurship Programs: By Raúl del Pozo, CEO of Cink Emprender

Importance of developing programs of Intrapurrecy, both for companies and for employees.

Las Companies are forced to adapt increasingly to a changing environment; commonly this process of adaptation is addressed within the Strategy of Innovation... we think of that phrase made of “renew or die”.

Without taking reason from the previous sentence, one of the approaches that can be used to face this change is to launch a program of Intrapreneurship or corporate entrepreneurship.

Los Intrafrepreneurship programs, are intended to promote and prepare such adaptation to change, but from an internal perspective; taking advantage of the talent, knowledge and their employees' own motivation to improve. We can say that the Intrapreneurship has a focus on “people” of the organization, from its discovery, its maturation until there is an implementation (or not) of its idea or project.

The importance of a program adapted to the company that decides to launch an entrepreneur initiative, could be summarized with the following points:

• It allows companies from a Internal Perspective be aware of potential areas for improvement and innovation.
• It's an opportunity to employee empowerment, making them part of an innovation process.
• Take advantage of the Knowledge and intangible capital of the company.
• It allows you to adopt a Culture of Experimentation in a controlled manner to launch new products and services.
• It favors the adoption of a “lean” philosophy typical of startups and successful entrepreneurs.

Some facts:

According to the study Corporate Entrepreneurship in Spain, 86% of the companies consulted have a program to support Intrapreneurs. The study also highlights the nature of these programs or the activities they pursue, among others, innovation in: products (more than 75%), in processes (more than 50%), organizational (between 40% and 50%) and in business models (between 50% and 84%).

What is important for companies to consider before deciding to launch an entrepreneur program?

It is important not to assume that by launching an entrepreneurship program, an accelerator or an incubator, you will get benefits and innovative ideas that you can put on the market instantly...

Like any business project, the three fundamental restrictions are the economic resources allocated to the program, own resources (personnel) and the time for its implementation. But from our point of view, there are some Extremely important elements:

• To have Clear Objectives when it comes to launching the entrepreneurship program. These must be clear, measurable and feasible.
• El Commitment and Participation of the management of the company; this is not just a matter of an innovation department.
• Los “reward” mechanisms or award within the program, the level of responsibility and trust granted to entrepreneurs.
• The ability to adopt a Culture of “trial and error” through the conduct of pilots or tests. Allowing employees some freedom in that regard.
• To have the Always present customer at the time of starting an entrepreneur program and especially when the “challenges” to be solved by the entrepreneur are discovered.
• Count on the External support and experts to support the launch of the program.
• The process of Internal and external communication it is crucial, both of the program itself, and of the flow of ideas and openness to the results of the program.

When is the best time to launch an entrepreneur program in the company?

Each organization has its own peculiarities and needs according to the industry in which it operates. However, we could say that an propitious moment is when we see a Change in the medium term both in the business model, regulatory environment, and the emergence of new technologies that threaten a specific sector. That is, when the need to innovate is detected out of conviction rather than out of extreme need.

An entrepreneur program is a good tool to start that Innovation-oriented change.

From a business perspective and based on our experience, companies must be aware of the needs in terms of business, markets and financial level that they want to contribute when launching the program.

Some success stories

Gifford Pinchot coined the concept “Intrpreneur” at the end of the 70's, since then there have been worthy cases of being considered successful:

• The first development teams working on the Machintosh They were practically Apple employees working on a project in an “isolated” way.
• One of Google's “star” products, the Gmail email, is a product of Google's own policy of allowing employees to spend 20% of their workday on their own projects.
• Facebook's “Like” button emerged from one of its hackathons.

While these examples do not arise from a Entrepreneurship Program In use, they allow us to see the importance of generating ideas and innovations within the company itself.

Again, citing the study Corporate entrepreneurship in Spain: Elephants and gazelles dance without stepping on each other, 11 cases of programs are cited that can serve as examples to illustrate some good Spanish business practices.

Do you think it's time to start an entrepreneur program in your company?

About the author

Raúl del Pozo is CEO of Cink Emprede. He has more than 15 years of experience managing technological companies. He is a renowned specialist in Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He works advising different companies and startups, getting involved in the definition of strategy, business and implementation of new innovation and management models. Active participant in conferences and seminars related to innovation, computer security, system integration and the implementation of technological solutions and communications.