Identifying entrepreneurial talent in a corporate setting.

Being entrepreneurial is "in vogue" right now. Is that the only way to be successful - absolutely not. But for getting something new and different off the ground, selling the story, scaling and turning it into "the new normal", entrepreneurial mindset is a must.

Early stage venture capitalist, for instance, have the highest weighing on the team when they decide where to make their bets. They also believe that starting up is a "team" play. Statistics show that the perfect number of co-founders is 2.09, with many arguing that the perfect number for effective decision making (the fuel behind fast and iterative shipping of product) is 3. In corporate setting, many of the intrapreneurship processes have often to be orchestrated, guided by coaches and a special focused methodology. Different companies run this in a different ways, e.g. Goldman Sachs in GS Accelerate, and Deutsche Bahn with DB Intrapreneurs invite teams to apply with to their programme with ideas. Other corporates just invite entrepreneurial employees to apply, whether or not they have ideas, and then form them into teams and assign a strategically important client-facing innovation challenge to that team to solve. For such cases, the design thinking connoisseurs such as IDEO recommend a team size of 5-7. Let us agree that 6 is the perfect starting point, so that you can further split the group into sub-teams to divide and conquer the tasks. Here I will focus on the latter: how to identify entrepreneurial DNA in employees of an organisation and form them into a team set for success.

Let's jump straight to it.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that success of intrapreneurial teams comes from diversity. Diversity of backgrounds, age, organisational and social roles, hard skills, hobbies, characters. Thus it is best to cast your net wide and aim to attract talent from all parts of your organisation. Please avoid a grave mistake of thinking that only the subject matter experts can find a good solution to a certain problem, you will thus shoot yourself in the foot. Cross-pollination between departments, functions, geographies is the best that can happen for intrapreneurship. The heavyweights of the industries, with long histories and global presence in theory are set to succeed in innovating from within, they just need to tear down the walls of internal silos. So the Takeaway #1 is: everyone should be invited to express interest in being an intrapreneur, you need to have a large funnel to be able to pick those from all parts of your organisation, even when trying to solve for a small local problem.

Finding entrepreneurial talent is one thing, making them excited about being part of your programme - is another. Usually these bright and capable people are doing pretty well, are on an ambitious career path, and probably already juggling a few projects professionally and personally. So it is incredibly important to make the process equally valuable for them, in order to save time later on motivation, it is worth putting all the effort in making them excited and awaken their inner drive. This can be achieved by making transparent the impact they can have on the future of the organisation, the exposure and network they will reach, as well as the learnings they will take out even when the new idea does not see the light of day. But often this also comes just from raising the difficulty bar on getting into the programme (#hack). It does not have to be the 12 labours like Hercules experienced, but McKinsey's favourite number 3 for the stages of evaluation will do much better that just a quick intro coffee chat or an internal referral. Takeaway #2: the process you set up for identifying and attracting intrapreneurs is as important for you as it is for them, make it efficient, flawless, tough.

You probably wonder: having agreed that all the backgrounds are welcome, what is there to evaluate? I tell you: soft skills, mindset, motivation, availability. The word "Entrepreneurial" comes from the french "entreprendre" (to undertake), and the sanscrit "anthaprena" (self-motivation). This gives us curious seekers of adventure, learning, opportunity, people who are more comfortable with risk, driven by the need to own projects, products, initiatives, who are natural salespeople. When we also want to add "successful" to the word "entrepreneurial" we should throw in two more adjectives, i.e. "persevering", or not taking no for an answer and doing well when life serves lemons, and "focused". Okay then, lets now go find those people in the wealth of your company!

Recruiting is one of the hardest jobs out there, close to cold calling. Chapeaux! to all those involved in it. Here are a few tips for an effective 3 step (hey, McKinsey!) process to make this work for intrapreneurs.

1. The application round. Open up the application window for people to apply to be part of a team to solve an innovation challenge / client problem you want to tackle. Invite the candidate to answer several questions that can indicate her personal fit, aspirations, values. These should follow some of the main characteristics of intrapreneurial work - taking ownership, working out-of-the-comfort zone, perceived main achievements and biggest failures. Giving soft instructions often helps additionally: does the applicant notice and follow those (e.g. the word limit for each question)? This can talk a lot about their character, diligence, focus, quality of delivery.
2. The test-drive round. After screening the applications and deciding who to take into the next round (decisions are based on your judgement, hard to advise on those but try reading The hard thing about the hard things by Ben Horowitz), it's time to invite the candidates to meet you. Here we have two good opportunities that we should not miss, aka the test-drive. 1. Ask the candidate to solve a generic business case, without giving too many instructions. This helps a lot to see how they structure and approach an unknown problem, how they prepare and communicate the answer, as well as let you see their real motivation (how much effort do they put into this task, do they ask follow up questions?). Use a case out of your business scope, e.g. if you work in a toy manufacturing company like LEGO, offer a case on wifi in Starbucks cafes. 2. Ask the candidate to schedule their own interview, and take notice of what slot they book - is it the last slot available (I hate this), or the one as soon as possible, to sensibly allow to prepare the case, is it during the work hours or outside of those (shows attitude to innovation as part of work and capacity to expand their scope), how is the invite worded, are the case solution documents sent in advance. Takeaway #3: best way to identify character traits is to do a test-drive.
3. Next step - the interview round! Everything is important here! Remember, entrepreneurial traits show high level of ownership, in pretty much everything. This translates in appearing on time, making sure that the technology works in advance, so that virtual calls are not delayed, bringing print-outs or prototypes where possible, coming armed with questions, and potentially background checks on the programme and the interviewers. I was once asked why I stopped writing my Medium blog, which took me by surprise, but confirmed the high motivation of the gentleman in front of me. Here of course we see how well the case was prepared, but also check how nimble on their feet is the candidate by jumping between different themes with our questions. You can ask about the best digital product that the candidate has experienced "out there", then move on to enquire what was the hardest feedback he has ever gotten and what did he do with that information, and then move on to ask what the candidate does for fun. Such approach shows self confidence, and comfort "selling" themself as an individual. And by the way, it would be great if you have a 2-to-1 setting, so that it is even more of a performance on the one hand, and on another that you always have a chance to compare the notes with your interview partners. Sometimes two interview rounds are necessary, when the teams are being formed, but that is really up to your taste and level of confidence. And please lead by example and make sure that the interviewers are well prepped themselves - having read the original application answers, researched the bio of the person, and have fitting questions ready to go.

Evaluation. For entrepreneurship I do not believe in numerical approach (e.g. 1-10) as it is very subjective and narrow minded. I do believe in writing down the answers I heard, and making comments on things that grab my attention outside of pure chatting (being on time, sending a thank you note, and a follow up on the question I asked, being relaxed, track record of trying new things, and learning from those regardless of work or hobby wise, well shaped story of a case covered by supporting material would be examples of some of those). It is important to remember that as we aim to have a wide funnel, we should also not evaluate all people similarly, but look at their potential. A junior will not have as much experience as a head of the department but will bring a fresh view and energy. A senior might not have as much time and have a lower risk appetite but will add a wealth of war stories.

The best team is composed of a mix of all, with one constant goal: to build something new for the future of your organisation and open enough to try new things. That is the final Takeaway.