Calling all intrapreneurs: this is your time to shine

These are testing times for all of us. The pandemic has put many companies under pressure, especially those that aren’t geared towards virtual operations or e-commerce.

This is why there has never been a better time to encourage intrapreneurship. We need our brilliant colleagues to start thinking outside the box and coming up with new solutions to the challenges we face.

Many of us are working from home, which creates more time in the day.

Workloads may be lighter: projects paused or deadlines extended. It would be all too easy to rest on our laurels and fall behind on innovation.

If Britain’s firms are to survive this crisis, they will need every single person within the organisation to do their bit. The lockdown is likely to continue for a while longer. We need to work together to ensure our businesses are sustainable and resilient, both in the short-term, and in preparation for the recovery.

My daughter was the inspiration for this post. She doesn’t work at BigChange but has been coming up with some amazing ideas for the business, nonetheless. It was she who suggested we launch a programme of online tutorials and seminars for customers, helping them to get even more comfortable with our software and learn about new features.

These virtual events have been extremely popular and I’m so grateful to her for making the suggestion.

I want to hear more of these ideas and encourage my incredible team to get creative. This is why I am introducing a new initiative at BigChange.

This week, I am excited to launch our BigChange Virtual Pitch. The ‘Dragons’ Den’ style pitching competition will take place over the web, judged by me and two other colleagues from different areas of the business. People must form teams in order to enter. Those who wish to take part can contact our social coordinator for more details. The pitch event will take place virtually within the next 3 weeks.

I want to hear clever ideas, improvements and solutions from every team: customer service to finance, operations to sales. These don't have to be massive changes, they can be small tweaks that will have a lasting impact or make life a little bit easier for colleagues or customers including cost saving ideas.

I know that my team will come up with some new and refreshing ideas through this process and I can’t wait to hear them. The winning team – or teams – will have the chance to make their idea happen, as I will be investing in their vision.

This isn’t the first time I’ve run a pitching event like this one. At my last company, Masternaut, we held a similar competition. The winning team put forward an idea for a social club to host events for the whole company. We implemented their ideas and saw morale and staff retention soar.

Those were different times, however. Some of my team will struggle to find the thinking space to innovate right now; it’s a big ask. Many of us are grappling with anxiety and worry over loved ones. We are working alone, and missing our routines and colleagues. We are no longer in our workplaces, and it can be tough to focus at home – especially when there are kids around. But we must try.

We all need to utilise the extra time in our working day right now. And this is also a great activity for furloughed employees, who are allowed to take part in training and social activities.

I encourage other businesses to follow my lead and focus on intrapreneurship. It’s all too easy to start introducing frivolous new schemes to boost morale. I should know: I've launched a bake-off competition here at BigChange. It’s a light-hearted way to showcase the culinary skills of my team but we must all guard against distracting our colleagues – and ourselves – from the very real challenges we face.

I’m not offering a cash prize or other incentives as part of the BigChange Virtual Pitch. This was a conscious decision. Entering is optional – of course – but I believe that innovating, and helping your employer to move towards a more sustainable future – securing your career – is its own reward.