From idea to reality: Nine first-hand corporate innovation struggles

It was an exhausting afternoon, spent in managing and sometimes even fighting during internal meetings. An hour was spent explaining to our internal communication department the need to change the tone as we were facing a new market from the one we are used to. Budget negotiation and resource allocation were also on the agenda and specifying our minimum viable product (MVP) priorities. This last battle I lost, and in this exhaustion, at 4 pm, got a message from a friend.

This friend told me that she needed a break to which I expressed the same sentiments. At the coffee break, she said; you look pretty tired, Juana. She added, "I guess it is quite a challenge to launch a B2C (business to consumer) product within a B2B (business to business) company, as customers don't know who we are?" I smiled and answered, "You will be surprised to know that the biggest challenge is not at the customer level. The biggest challenge is within the organization itself."

Today's ever-changing world demands companies to remain agile, seek innovation, and have a forward-thinking approach towards problem-solving. Intrapreneurial projects pose a high number of risks, despite presenting a significant opportunity for the company as a whole. Employees could see such projects as job eliminators, and this change can lead to many new processes, resulting in resource reallocation. The uncertainty associated with this change poses a fear factor that inhibits its adoption.

Managing an intrapreneurship project within a corporate organization's confines can be a tricky business as change always faces resistance. Some people may understand that a shift is needed, but implementing this change can be a challenge for several reasons.

In this article, I would like to share nine of these experienced first-hand challenges as an intrapreneur and that every company may face.

1. Strategy misalignments and their pitfalls

Intrapreneurs usually start by identifying a new or previously missed opportunity for their organizations. They then manage to pull together all the resources required to capture such an opportunity. The initiatives are diverse and not limited to the company's core business areas. The positive effects of such new ventures could be more engagement, streamlines processes, excellent customer service, etc.

Change always demands a cohesive approach amongst the organization, especially between the higher-ups and the intrapreneurs. Sometimes the two entities may be on the same page, yet the nature of product development is such that it is a rare occurrence that the envisioned product gets to the market without any changes.

For example, in one of my projects, we wanted to enhance our hardware business by offering a device to store and access data on the cloud securely. Once we got down to the product's brass-tacks and assessed user-feedback, we eventually settled on a solution that allowed data to sync across multiple platforms and could, therefore, be accessed at any time. This decision resulted from a holistic strategy that understood that the "job-to-be-done" was not secure hardware access but data access across multiple devices.

The process of implementing an intrapreneurial mindset faces stiff opposition within an organization. However, as the above example tells us, it is wise to give the team a measure of freedom to accomplish the necessary change.

2. Leadership conflicts

During an exchange with a regional director regarding a new project, the director expressed intrigue and skepticism. The skepticism about the project was that it resembled a project from another business unit. Upon speaking to a person from that business unit, I found out this was true. We were looking at launching a similar product but got bogged down by leadership conflicts about project ownership. Leadership is an issue that can make any project impossible from its onset.

Intrapreneurship requires managing diverse stakeholders simultaneously, be it internal or external. Furthermore, a decentralized setup with separate functional groups such as business development and design further slows down the progress. Team members can easily get confused due to multiple leaders with different priorities and mindsets. This confusion adds to the frustration of the employees that hinders future progress.

Only a visionary leader that can drive and motivate others can successfully steer an intrapreneurship project. Without this leader's direction, the team goes static and resorts to the old, tried, and tested extremely slow methods.

3. Finding the right talent for your pool

An intrapreneur is not your one-stop solution to everything. Instead, the intrapreneur hones in on skills that make innovation possible. Cultivating these skills requires patience and guidance and cannot be achieved overnight. Sometimes, people are trusted responsibility to innovate, they become intrapreneurs, but this is not ideal.

Creating a list of highly motivated individuals who carry the apparent zeal to innovate is a good idea to recruit intrapreneurs. Events and conducting regular pieces of training help bring such potential recruits together.

It is critical to have the right people with the requisite skills to add value to your project. It is also essential to have people from the areas in which you are looking to innovate.

4. Innovation requires constant motivation.

An innate passion for working for an idea or a belief isn't always an employee's forte. Working towards a company's success requires constant motivation, and this has to be nurtured from within the employee's mind. Innovators want security and the flexibility to implement their ideas without any oversight.

They have the option to pick between the security of multinational giants or the flexibility afforded by startups in implementing their ideas. Another option for such individuals is to start their own company.

Intrapreneurship may sound cool, but for the average, it also amounts to more work. For this reason, incentivizing intrapreneurs is the key to innovation. Moreover, financial incentives should be combined with the professional freedom to get the best results.

5. The resources bottleneck

Resources and funding can be the make or break factor in any project's completion. Intrapreneurship projects especially face this problem as they require somewhat flexible capital. The traditional cash-flows of organizations are only useful when the company is thriving. Stability is often sought when a company suffers losses to the detriment of innovative projects.

Shifting priorities of an organization also don't bode well for such entrepreneurial projects. In his interview, Russell Rogers explained that today there is a backlog of ideas that people want to implement by the end of the first quarter; many have already busted most of their allocated budget. Consequently, if something comes up in the following quarters, there will be missed opportunities due to a lack of funding. As a result, you need to run a very agile budgeting and funding process.

The uncertainty that shrouds innovation makes it a difficult proposition for companies to invest. Companies usually invest in profit-making ventures; hence funding innovation takes a back seat.

However, test projects are an excellent way to invest. Intrapreneurs can achieve the concept of minimum viable products, with smaller grants, and showcase their innovations on a scale. Building a prototype takes less time and money than the real thing, and it is an excellent barometer to check whether the product will capture the market's interest.

6. Half-hearted effort

Starting a new service at a big firm doesn't happen the same way innovation occurs at startups. The big companies are often guilty of treating these innovative ideas as afterthoughts, thereby assigning limited resources and time. A business can't thrive unless is given proper attention and big firms are guilty of starting several new things without focusing on only one.

Innovation should be handled differently, and a concerted effort must be made to allocate resources and time to these projects. Maj-Britt Kj?r S?rensen mentioned in her interview, 

"Some years back, when I was in charge of the marketing department. I was asked to take over innovation alongside my current marketing responsibilities. Therefore, it was always a half-hearted effort, not because I did not want to do it, but because I never had the time or resources to fulfill both tasks".

7. Sticking to the traditional ways

Probably the greatest obstacle to innovate is the attitude of "if it isn't broken, don't fix it." The SSIR, in its article, mentions this resistance to change as a "corporate immune system" because it fights externalities rather than the inner inertia of the organization. Company representatives focus on expanding existing products and services instead of finding new solutions. 

The change in approach towards conducting business is a hard thing to master. Often people realize the need to change a bit too late and hence cannot adjust to the new requirements until the opportunity is gone. Once they're bleeding money and resources, even innovative ideas are hard to come by as they require resources.

Evolution takes time as well as educating that the old ways are harmful to the company's health. People with resistance to the changing needs of the time need training regarding the importance of innovation for businesses' survival.

8. The inertial resistance against change

Change is often met with resentment at the start as it points to a newer way of working that may or may not include the old guard. The old guard is hence wary of the innovators and intrapreneurs.

Intrapreneurship projects have different strategies, as well as expectations. A large firm's benefits, such as reputation and market access, could be useless for innovative endeavors. These intrapreneurship projects are akin to paddle boats that face constant resistance to its flow from the old business methods.

The solution to this resistance is to keep all stakeholders involved yet keep your project insulated from the larger organization. As Russell Rogers brought up,

"It is less and less about tech, it is about collaboration."

9. Bridging the gap between ideas and their implementation

A company may have all the right ingredients to get the most innovative ideas, but it is also essential that they possess the willpower to implement them.

The organization should educate intrapreneurs on how to implement their ideas via training and mentorship programs. Innovators must be equipped with tools to implement their ideas, such as managing stakeholders, dealing with financial matters, and launching products.

Bridging the gap between thinking ideas to their implementation is easy if you can equip the intrapreneurs with the requisite skills. The passion for seeing their ideas come to fruition is already in them; hence there's the need to educate them on the implementation side. The SSIR article tells us the example of the Barclays team and how they empowered their intrapreneurs. The team attended an Intrapreneur Lab to impart skills such as leadership, resilience, and understanding the development process.

An added advantage of training the intrapreneurs is that they can impart their skills and knowledge to the next generation apart from implanting their ideas to fruition. As Britt said, "Innovation is not just about good ideas."

Conclusion

Intrapreneurs are a rare breed as they require a unique skill set to thrive, including creativity, intrinsic motivation, and willpower to change things.

A carefully crafted strategy, communication, and stakeholder support can relieve you from most of the challenges mentioned above. Companies that have open and inclusive communication lines thrive concerning innovation. When stakeholders are taken into confidence regarding plans and their grievance met periodically, the innovation process is strengthened.

Avoiding the pitfalls mentioned requires a concerted effort to change the company's employees' mindset and embrace innovation. It would be wise to invest in relation-building and training young intrapreneurs to effect this change.

We have highlighted a few challenges faced by intrapreneurs and organizations alike.

We would like to hear your experiences regarding problems that innovators are facing today?.

References

The Stanford Social Innovation Review 

Britt, serial Intra and entrepreneur up-close and upfront on how she is managing change and innovation

Russell Rogers, innovation trailblazer taught us how to thrive in the corporate world by sharing stories, keeping momentum, and collaborating