The rise of the Intrapreneur
Guennael Delorme
VP/GM, Global Trade-In @ Allstate Protection Plans (SquareTrade) | Co-chair, CTIA Grading Standards | Intrapreneur
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"This is not the way we do business around here"
"That stuff won't work"
"How about you do your job instead"
"Sure, this could work, I guess - but not in our company"
"I'm too busy"
Sound familiar? If you ever suggested? a new business opportunity or even just a new way of looking at things, I bet you heard some of these pushbacks. We all have. How many would-be intrapreneurs gave up at that point? Might as well push a wall and expect it to fall right? Or so the story goes...
We are at the beginning of a long article, so you may have guessed that I disagree. Besides, there is "intrapreneur" in my profile headline so my position should be pretty clear.
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Indeed, there are ways to effectively drive change from the inside of a large corporation. There are even some great theoretical frameworks out there. I will detail here the most accepted among them. Then, I will address some common misconceptions and share practical tips.
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Today, I want to recap a few successful and ideal structures to foster big company innovation. No credit to me here, I am borrowing heavily from giants in the field.
Next, we will review tactical and actionable recommendations to bridge the gap between theory and practice. Odds are, you work in a structure that doesn't really believe in change - no matter what the official storyline is.? After all, the current opportunity may look small or unprofitable at first. Current customers may not even want this. Most current employees aren't incentivized to see it succeed.?
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Theory - the ideal structure
So, what is the ideal structure? No need to reinvent the wheel here. In his timeless " The Innovator's Dilemma", Clayton Christensen explained that the perfect innovative structure requires a few specific characteristics:
?1. Create a new, independent entity to focus exclusively on the opportunity
?2. Incentivize that new entity's staff to succeed and free them from incumbent interference
?3. Allow the new entity to take risks, fail and pivot frequently as its understanding of the new market develops. To do that, it must start with some amount of capital obviously, but also not bet it all on just one option. This is the "Fire bullets, then Cannonballs" concept that Jim Collins developed in his book "Great by Choice". Conor O'Neill also described it well in a video (link below): you may have to fire multiple bullets until you hear the 'ping' suggesting you hit the target. Only then should you bring in the heavy artillery and go for broke. Tactically, this means an intrapreneur needs to be ready to try and fail many times before hitting on the 'perfect' solution to scale
?4. Last but not least, the new entity should be able to draw on the incumbent's resources when needed. What good is it to be affiliated with a dominant player if you can't get some benefit out of it?
?Ok, so that is the theory. At this point, I suspect you are getting discouraged: "Yes all this would be nice, but that's not the world I live in. Come on G, you are wasting my time!".
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Practice - making it happen in the real world
I'll admit, this isn't a world I've ever lived in either:
- Not when I was working for the leading electricity retailer in Texas
- Not when I worked for the largest consumer electronics manufacturer in the world
- Not at my clients when I advised on business development and program creation
- Not even today in spite of my current employer's outstanding track record of market disruption. Yes, this latest environment is the best I've seen yet but still not textbook perfect.
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The truth is, 'perfect' doesn't exist and you will always have limitations imposed on you. This is still no excuse to not go out and build something great. We've seen the theory above. You know the saying: "In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is". So what if your current environment looks nothing like what Prof. Christensen suggested?
Here are actual steps I have followed in the past to get around limitations and build new and successful business models:
?- First obviously, make sure your idea makes sense. Think through it, discuss it with your team, peers, mentors... anyone who will listen and poke holes into it. Even if they don't give you much feedback, it will force you to crystallize your thinking and learn to present the concept better
?- Second, you will have to create a business case. Depending on the setting, this might go from simple back of the envelope logic to the full blown PowerPoint presentations. I hope for you the former will suffice, but you need to be ready for the latter. I'm a former consultant, so you'd think I love PowerPoint right? Wrong, I can't stand decks. I will begrudgingly admit decks are amazing to crystallize your thinking though. I am no Steve Jobs, you are no Steve Jobs either -> some of us need decks to think straight. Oh well!
?- Third, remember your company is risk averse and mid-level managers are more concerned with not rocking the boat than with hitting a home run. That's ok, they are human, this is what we all do: the sting of loss is more powerful than the joy of win. To paraphrase the old saying, no-one ever got fired for saying no to a risky project. Finance, Credit, Legal... all these guys & gals are here to protect the company. Defaulting to "no" may be part of their job description. They are still good people. You still need to make them your allies.? Odds are, they sincerely care and wish you the best.? They don't want to approve an ambitious project? The answer is simple, propose a pilot: small,? low investment, time bound, clear objectives. The idea here is not to bet the house but to develop a proof of concept. You want something that cannot fail: Best case, it succeeds. Worst case, it leads to an actionable insight that will itself form the basis of a successful pilot in the future
?- Fourth,? run another pilot right away. An intrapreneur has to be hypothesis driven, but also must accept not knowing as well as occasionally often being wrong. That's ok. Just iterate until you find the right model. You must never stop learning and refining the initial idea. After each iteration, bring in more people to your vision and make them dream of the end state
?- Fifth,? once you ran a pilot that worked, make sure to get all the learning from it that you can. Be liberal with the thanks also: many colleagues and bosses had a role in this. I hope you already gave them regular updates. Now, remember to include them in that success
?- Sixth, once you hear the ping of the bullet hitting the target, you are ready to go big. By now, some of the decision makers (often but not necessarily executives) will have bought into your vision and be ready to support it. They already got some of the credit (point above). Make sure they continue to get tangible benefits from your project as it scales
?- Bonus seventh point: at this point, you may find yourself struggling to keep ownership of the project. Its sheer potential may be attracting interest from other teams and ambitious careerists. Hopefully by now, you have developed the internal credibility and recognition required to keep ownership of this successful new thing. Even if someone else takes it from you, remember you are officially an intrapreneur. No-one can ever take that away. You've developed the skills and track records. Congratulations! Now go build something even bigger...
Sources:
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Boeing Business Development F-15 Sustainment & Training/175 MXG Deputy Group Commander
3 年Great read Guennael, thanks for sharing your perspective. I’ve hit many of the speed bumps you’ve mentioned in my efforts through the years, and it can be maddening at times knowing there are new better solutions out there. Sometimes I succeed, and sometimes I fail, but I always keep trying. FYI I hate PowerPoint decks as well. They can be a useful and powerful tool, but are far too often unnecessary.
Wishing all the best ????
Retired
3 年A recent survey on LinkedIn asked sales people what was the biggest obstacle to closing a deal - and the majority stated it was “the customer deciding not to make a change”. ?If you can’t find a champion or intrapreneur, then the project is dead. As you rightly point out, a pilot is critical to proving the idea.?As a CEO once told me, “It’s OK to fail but make sure you fail quickly and cheaply”.?So structure your pilot with a defined period in mind with targets that have to be met in order to continue.?Nothing worse for your personal brand than to be in charge of a failing proof of concept that is limping and dragging on. Collecting feedback is important to get approval to move forward but don’t forget to seed your idea with executives who will make the ultimate decision.?If your company is managed by consensus - the team has to meet officially and the majority decide to move forward - then meet one-on-one with those members and get them onboard beforehand.?That reduces the risk that one or more of them will decide to do nothing. ?If your CEO/COO is firmly in charge as the sole decision maker, then figure out their motivation for approving a pilot. Build your business case based on what they will want to hear. Great post G!