Time and again, over several posts, we have deliberated aspects of nurturing leadership within our people. We have considered the importance of managers transitioning from a player to coach; the need to transfer ownership of change; and the irrelevance of ‘the boss’. These are all different aspects of ‘intrapreneurship’ – the spirit of entrepreneurship inside an organisation.
At the recent Summer Davos in Tianjin, one of the themes discussed was the importance of “intrapreneurship” in achieving growth through innovation – and why large organisations typically struggle on this front.
What is required at an organisational level to encourage intrapreneurship? Would the Star Organisation that I proposed in an earlier post make conducive ground for encouraging intrapreneurship? It might. But there is no one way. So, the more we listen to new points of view on this topic, the more fascinating it gets.
At Tianjin, I was delighted to come across the thought provoking ideas of Tim Brown, CEO, IDEO. I’d like to share with you here a brief video in which Tim explores why enabling intrapreneurship is often considered the Holy Grail of large organisations and offers some thoughts on what they need to do to encourage a higher level of new ideas.
He argues that, at a fundamental level, the problem lies in the fact that organisations focus more on optimising of the business machine rather than creating value. He believes that intrapreneurship requires a strong vision within an organisation and a bed rock of enabling structures, processes and methodologies as well as the right cultural values.
The topic is very close to my heart as this lies at the very root of the Employee First philosophy. When employees begin to take ownership for value, growth and change, they are essentially performing the role of an entrepreneur. And hundreds or thousands of mini-entrepreneurs within an organisation can collectively make magic. Don’t you think so? I would love to read your points of view on the subject after you listen to Tim’s comments.
