HOW TO SUPPORT
What Queensland’s Chief Entrepreneur
Intrapreneurship
LEANNE KEMP
IN YOUR BUSINESS
Says About
Intrapreneurialism Have you heard of these How Technology can help the
Intrapreneur Meet Silicon Valley’s
INTRAPRENEURS?
Suzan Briganti
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HUMAN HELIUM P
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CREATES INTRAPRENEURS THAT HELP ORGANIZATIONS TO SOAR Did You Know.... There are some very compelling reasons to place emphasis on intrepreneurialism in the workplace. The term intrapreneurialism is about demonstrating the qualities of an entrepreneur - inside an organization. A number of studies have shown that: One Intrapreneurial employee is worth more than multiple engaged employees in terms of the VALUE they bring through innovation and creativity Interpreneurs proactively pursue opportunities for improving business systems and business models from the inside out Bringing an intrapreneurial mind-set to day-to-day workplace activity, can help individuals, teams and organisations achieve their strategic goals and unleash potential.
Intrapreneurialism is a relatively new concept so there is a skills gap in this area. This program addresses that gap. “I love effective processes! So I love the structure that Dr. Irena YashinShaw provides in this program for influencing and implementing innovation and change through intrapreneurialsim.� - W. Boulton, Manager, HPW.
Using a masterful blend of integrated channels and experiences, the Human Helium Program unleashes intrapreneaurial talent to create proactive opportunity-ďŹ nders and problem solvers.
THIS PROGRAM IS IDEAL FOR Leaders
High-potentials
Emerging leaders
Team leaders and supervisors
Aspiring leaders
Anyone who wants to create value and make a positive contribution to their workplace and the clients/ customers/citizens they serve.
Project managers Influencers
HOW WILL YOUR WORKPLACE BENEFIT Proactive thinkers and problemsolvers who are ahead of the curve
People who are opportunity finders for positive change and innovation
Proactive (rather than reactive) decision-making
Strategic thinkers who see the big picture in order to create a future ready organization
People tapping into their talent to become high-performers Entrepreneurial employees who have incrementally developed their skills AND applied them in a real context
Tangible measurable outcomes from a high value project Reskill your workforce for the fourth industrial revolution
Dr. Irena Yashin-Shaw can work with your organization and your people to create an energised, future-ready workplace and workforce. Contact her about the Human Helium Program on + 61 411330301 or irena@drirenayashinshaw.com.
CONTENTS 10
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SUZAN BRIGANTI: TECHNOLOGY AND INTRAPRENEURS
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JESSICA DAY: MAXIMISING INNOVATION EFFICIENCY
18 TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS TO SUPPORT INTRAPRENEURIALISM
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PRAVIN RAJPAL: DRIVING INNOVATION THROUGH INTRAPRENEURSHIP
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TECHNOLOGY, INNOVATION AND INTRAPRENEURIALISM
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30 ANTHONY KUHLMANN: FROM INTRAPRENEUR TO BUSINESS OWNER
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33 EDITORS CHOICE: TOP
INTRAPRENEURS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT
36 LEANNE KEMP:
ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INTRAPREURSHIP
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33 41
HOW TO SUPPORT INTRAPRENEURSHIP IN YOUR BUSINESS
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44 I NTRAPRENEUR TV
IntraPRENEUR Advertising Enquiries
editor@intrapreneurmagazine.com
Published By: READ PUBLISHING Distributed By: READ PUBLISHING Designed By: READ PUBLISHING
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Reference to any specific commercial product, process, or services by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not constitute or imply its endorsement or recommendation by READ PUBLISHING. Links outside of this publication are provided for user convenience and do not constitute or imply endorsement, recommendation, or favouring by READ PUBLISHING. The publisher or any of the editors, writers or contributors will not accept responsibility or liability for the correctness of information or opinions expressed in the publication. All material submitted is at the owners risk and while every care will be taken the publisher does not accept liability for loss or damage. No person, organization or party can copy or re-produce the content on this site and or magazine or any part of this publication without a written consent from the editors’ panel and the author if the content, as applicable. The publisher, authors and contributors reserve their rights with regards to copyright of their work.
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s r o t u b i r t n o C J E S S I C A D AY
Jessica is chief marketing officer and co-founder of Ideascale – a Silicon Valley tech firm providing a platform for crowd sourcing ideas within organisations and facilitating intrapreneurialism. Her career has gone from marketing and communications content creation to content strategy and brand engagement expertise that influences millions of dollars of business each year. Her work with businesses (both large and small) has been an interdisciplinary exercise, developing her skills in social media management, customer relationship management, sales content expertise, SEO strategy, product marketing, digital strategy, copywriting and editing. She has also applied these skills in her not-for-profit volunteer work. Her background in creative writing supports both her generative and strategic endeavours. ideascale.com
Jessica Day
SUZAN BRIGANTI
Suzan Briganti is founder and CEO of Swarmvision a Silicon Valley start up dedicated to finding and releasing intrapreneurial talent. She has over 25 years experience with Fortune 500 clients driving business growth through strategic innovation initiatives, with expertise in product management, software development, business development, innovation management, crowdsourcing, advertising and brand strategy. Her core strength is a deep ability to understand how people think. This helps her develop user-centric products that people love, form and lead great teams, and influence large organizations at the highest level. Suzan thrives in ambiguity and drives constant experimentation while bringing rigor to decisionmaking. swarmvision.com 6
Suzan Briganti
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ANTHONY KUHLMANN
Anthony is a corporate innovator with over 18 years banking experience - working with brands including the ASX, JP Morgan, Citibank Asia Pacific, Royal Bank of Canada, BNP Paribas and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and he completed his MBA with the University of Queensland. He is an innovative and transformative leader, with a unique ability to solve complex business challenges for his clients, through creative and customer centric methodologies. Anthony is an accredited Design Thinking facilitator who loves collaborating with people to develop powerful ideas that will have a positive impact on their organization and their customers’ experience. He is passionate about Queensland and unlocking value in the Circular Economy and will be launching a new social enterprise in 2019. redappleconsultancy.com
Anthony Kuhlmann
P R AV I N R AJ P A L
Pravin has coached creative leaders and shaped innovation cultures for multiple fortune 500 companies and leading organizations across the globe. A highly experienced professional with a career spanning over 2 decades, he has developed many different workshop styles and his popular module ‘Innovation Tool Kit’ has empowered minds globally. He has also authored two bestsellers – ‘Achieving Business Excellence’ and ‘Five Thinkings to Win’. Pravin was selected as one among the top 30 leaders in India whose contributions have made India proud by Times of India’s LEAD INDIA campaign. He was also awarded the Global HR Excellence Award for global contribution to training and development by World HRD Congress. pravinrajpal.com
pravin.rajpal
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Pravin Rajpal
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LEANNE KEMP
Leanne is the Founder & CEO of Everledger, a leading emerging technology enterprise that tracks the provenance of high-value assets on a global digital ledger in an authenticated immutable manner. Her leadership role in technology has been recognised, winning awards including the 2018 Advance Australia Award, Innovator of the Year 2018 at the Women in IT Awards (London) as well as being named in UK Business Insider’s 26 Coolest Women in UK Tech 2016. Leanne was named Brummell Magazine’s Top 30 Female Innovators 2016 and is also an IBM Champion for 2018. Leanne is an appointed member of the World Economic Forum’s Blockchain Council and a Co-Chair for the World Trade Board’s Sustainable Trade Action Group and is on the IBM Blockchain Platform Board of Advisors. Leanne Kemp is Queensland’s third and current Chief Entrepreneur. everledger.io
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Leanne Kemp
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Intrapreneur MAGAZINE
FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF DR. IRENA YASHIN-SHAW
It is wonderful to see the traction that Intrapreneur Magazine is getting globally. In this issue, our contributors come from India, Silicon Valley in the U.S., as well as Australia. The theme for this issue is technology and how it enables intrapreneurialism. There are some great ‘next gen’ tech tools that are making it easy for organizations to identify their intrapreneurs, tap into their innovative ideas and then work together collaboratively to bring them to fruition. Our cover story is about Suzan Briganti, the founder and CEO of Swarm Vision a Silicon Valley start-up. Suzan has pioneered a remarkable technology platform and an award-winning profiling tool that is being used globally to bring scientific rigor to identifying, combining and leveraging intrapreneurial talent within organisations. Jessica Day is Chief Marketing Officer and co-founder of another Silicon Valley tech company called Ideascale which is an open innovation platform that is unleashing intrapreneurialism on a massive scale.
We also hear from Pravin Rajpal, global innovation thought leader and founder of InnovatioNext who is driving the innovation renaissance in India where intrapreneurialism is fast gaining traction. From Australia, we are extremely privileged to feature Queensland’s Chief Entrepreneur, Leanne Kemp. Leanne is a force of nature! Her innovative, global company Everledger uses the emerging technology of blockchain to track assets and bring transparency to global supply chains. She shares with us her thoughts about the growing importance of intrapreneurs within our organizations. Also, award winning intrapreneur from Australia, Anthony Kuhlmann gives us his insights into the transition from being an intrapreneur to becoming an entrepreneur. Be sure to watch the interviews in Intrapreneur TV. Remember - do share your stories, contributions, questions and feedback with us. Email me at editorinchief@intrapreneurmagazine.com and my highly capable and talented team will take it from there.
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For female entrepreneurs starting out, it’s a lot about defying expectations and making your own luck happen - Suzan Briganti -
Technology and Intrapreneurs
The Silicon Valley entrepreneur enabling intrapreneurs through technology WITH SUZAN BRIGANTI
B
ig companies around the world are expecting their staff to drive innovation from within, but most workforces weren’t hired for their ability to innovate. This is the conundrum that Suzan Briganti, CEO and founder of Swarm Vision, is helping enterprises to understand and resolve with powerful innovation profiling software. Swarm Vision’s enterprise software platform uses predictive analytics to help leaders uncover hidden innovation talent in their workforce and candidate pools, to drive real business results from innovation.
Swarm Vision was founded in 2016 and is entrepreneur Suzan Briganti’s third start up in the male-dominated world of Silicon Valley. Her second business, an innovation consultancy, used crowdsourcing to access the minds of her global crowd of innovators and provided her Fortune 500 clients with ideas and solutions. As more and more ideas were generated by these external gurus, those clients started to question why their tens of thousands of employees couldn’t innovate in the same way.
Winning the HR Technology Product of the Year award in 2018, Swarm Vision is providing a language and set of behaviours associated with innovation and intrapreneurship that companies have been struggling to articulate.
And, so began the world’s largest study on successful innovators to identify the behaviours, habits and skills most predictive of business results from innovation.
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“Natural innovators are different from the general population. Most organizations focus on continuous improvement and incremental innovation, and have hired accordingly. The ability to succeed in horizon three – disruptive innovation- is very rare.”
Profiler does not discriminate on the basis of gender, ethnicity or age, an effect called adverse selection bias. Organizations can drill into information about their entire workforce to find a person with a particular set of skills.
The study was unique in its focus on the end states we all desire - business results such as profitabiliy, hypergrowth, global expansion and IPO - and the skills required to achieve them. While the ideation phase is critical to innovation, bringing an idea to implementation also relies on team members having persuasion skills, the ability to pivot and adapt when problems arise, the ability to recognise emerging patterns, and to connect with and drive others.
And Suzan’s lifetime in Silicon Valley has taught her all about selection bias. Only 2% of venture capital funds reach female founders, despite female founders generating more revenue per dollar raised (source BCG). So it seems male-dominated VCs continue to ‘pattern match’ with founders, while female founders struggle to catch a break. “Swarm Vision was generating revenue from the start” Suzan confirms, “and we did raise funds. But you have to know where to look, who to go to. For female entrepreneurs starting out, it’s a lot about defying expectations and making your own luck happen.”
Swarm Vision’s profiling platform enables each employee to be profiled and scored against eight innovation indicators – drive, disrupt, create, connect, control, think, deliver and give. Swarm now provides scalable online training to develop these 8 skills. It also places the individual in one of four horizons – continuous improvement, incremental innovation, adjacent and disruptive innovation, identifying the horizon they are likely to thrive in. While the system is useful at the individual level, its power is in being able to instantly aggregate and analyse data to profile teams, departments and whole organizations. While its first benefit is in helping organisations to uncover and harness existing internal talent. the results can also help organizations to identify recruitment needs and fill missing skillsets. The Swarm Innovation
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Corporates and government agencies are embracing the tool as it brings scale, efficiency and the ability to innovate faster without bias. Swarm Vison’s software allows truly global teams of intrapreneurs to connect and create. Of course as a serial entrepreneur, Suzan’s journey continues into new ventures. She is writing a book about being raised in Silicon Valley, and is partnering with a number of channel partners to grow Swarm Vision globally. In Australia, she is collaborating with Dr Irena Yashin-Shaw, host of the Australian Intrapreneurs Summit.
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MAXIMIZING INNOVATION EFFICIENCY JESSICA DAY
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echnology seems to make the world go ‘round. Tech has become such a fundamental part of modern business life it’s hard to believe that only 30 years ago, entrepreneurs were starting businesses without a computer, smart phone, or even an Internet connection. But new innovations are changing the way we live, and some are even referencing the increase as ‘the fourth industrial revolution.’ With the development of artificial intelligence, the Internet and big data, big businesses need to act quickly, smartly, and efficiently to keep up with the latest innovations and technology. One of the ways older companies can keep up with rapid changes is by enlisting the intrapreneurs within their organization. These individuals incorporate an entrepreneurial mindset within a large, established business and can address new market opportunities, develop new ways of
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operating, and move quickly outside the normal scope of activities. IdeaScale is the largest cloud-based innovation software platform in the world. We spoke to Vice President Jessica Day, about IdeaScale and how large corporations can use their services to better serve and utilise the intrapreneurs within their organization to better keep up with the changing times.
WHAT IS IDEASCALE? Jessica Day: As your readers already know, the fourth industrial revolution has begun. It’s being led by information and innovation, which is changing the future of work for all of us. With technology trends shifting on a daily basis, organizations need a way to act quickly on new ideas that are already being shared at all levels of their organizations. IdeaScale is software that allows organizations to gather ideas from 14
employees or customers or citizens, but then also allows organizations to take scalable actions on those ideas— connecting them to other theories, thought leaders, money, and more. Organizations can then develop these larger concepts into new products or processes that will shape the future. It means that a good idea can come from anyone, anywhere, at any time. It’s funny how we got into all of this, though. A couple of our co-founders were in the market research space, and their survey customers kept talking about how they were only able to gather information on questions they knew to ask. They weren’t able to gather quantitative and qualitative feedback in their blind spots. So we came up with IdeaScale as a way to answer that challenge [and] gather suggestions but [also] get real time feedback and information on those ideas, whether they were on your radar or not.
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HOW DOES THE SOFTWARE AID LARGER COMPANIES IN UTILISING AND REWARDING THEIR INTRAPRENEURS? JD: At our core, we want to change the workplace. We want everyone within an organization to be able to take action on good ideas, regardless of their position, job description or even employment status. We want companies to be able to solve their problems in a transparent, collaborative way that keeps huge organizations aligned and human. So how does that work? Well, if a marketer has a great new product idea, even if he or she is in the marketing department and product development isn’t in their purview, they can share their basic product pitch in an IdeaScale community. Others in the community can then vote and comment on it, which can trigger a decision maker in the product team to review that idea. That little idea becomes an opportunity to invest in the original idea author and bring them into the prototyping, testing, and launching process. Once that product goes live, it offers the company the ability to recognise the idea author for generating millions of dollars in new revenue. Other staff can then see the value they can add to the organization and get excited about sharing their own ideas.
WHAT ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF THE WAYS YOUR CUSTOMERS USE YOUR PROGRAMS? JD: An intrapreneur shares her suggestion in a searchable, always-open idea database for product ideas. Lots of organizations do that – organizing by subject matter or department. They can
search for ideas on a topic any time and reach out to idea authors for more information. Some organizations will run time-limited challenges, asking for help solving a particular problem by a fixed deadline. But most of our customers do a mix of both, with those time-limited challenges delivering on new ideas in short sprints and keeping attention and interest alive, and the always-on database for ongoing idea development that creates a mine of ideas that can be tapped at any time by decision makers. Here’s another example: the City of Atlanta wanted to find a way to save their city and taxpayers’ money, so they asked their employees for new ways to be more efficient or ideas for new programs that would help save money. The top three ideas alone amounted to a potential cost savings of $7.1 million annually. Those ideas include a new work release program for blighted city properties, a pay-as-youthrow waste management program, and e-records for all city communications. All those program ideas came from uncommon places in response to this one time-limited challenge set by the city and weren’t being explored by the existing business unit. It was the intrapreneurs who had this vision.
DO DIFFERENT COMPANIES HAVE DIFFERENT WAYS OF IDENTIFYING AND DEFINING AN INTRAPRENEUR? JD: Oh my gosh, yes! Some are looking for continuous improvement ideas and some are looking for true disruptors. Some companies simply want an idea
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and others want to mentor and nurture the idea author. I will say our customers, that invest in training and celebrating their intrapreneurs, generally enjoy better long-term performance and higher delivery rates on good ideas.
HAVE YOUR CUSTOMERS TAUGHT YOU ANYTHING ABOUT BUILDING A SUCCESSFUL INTRAPRENEURIAL PROGRAM? JD: Definitely. I’ve learned that for talented intrapreneurs to succeed, they need a strong intrapreneurial culture. Think of Kodak, where one of their intrapreneurs invented the first digital camera, but Kodak failed to deliver on it. Or, a more recent example from our customers: Reyanne Mustafa and Kristian Krugman were working at a large restaurant chain where they noticed pounds and pounds of nutritious grains, such as brown rice and quinoa, were being thrown away every night. These weren’t the scraps on customer’s plates, these were unserved grains straight from the rice cookers. At first, they went to their restaurant leadership, proposing that the restaurant up-cycle the unused grains to create new saleable food products. But when the restaurant didn’t take action to that idea, Mustafa and Krugman quit their jobs and founded their own company, and they now sell that product back to their former employer. Both of these stories underscore the potential loss for businesses that don’t invest in intrapreneurs: obsolescence and disruption, or eventually paying for the thing that you failed to invent. And, the failure wasn’t for the lack of ideas, but 16
because of the inability to recognise, act on, and celebrate change.
IF SOMEONE WANTED TO TRY LAUNCHING AN INTRAPRENEURIAL PROGRAM AT THEIR ORGANIZATION, WHAT WOULD YOU TELL THEM? JD: I’d say prototype, test, and iterate like you would with any other new idea. Start by creating a community where people can share ideas. Start with one specific problem and a few hundred people. Use that to identify where you need help. Is it communications to get people involved, or matching good ideas to the decision makers with resources? Then, roll it out to a larger group working on a larger
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software to solve larger problems with more complicated new technologies, but they have 12,000 people who feel they are part of a larger plan and purpose. They got there because they were able to start small.
DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF AN INTRAPRENEUR? JD: I think everyone employed in a startup is inherently an intrapreneur. You encounter challenges all day long, and you have to find a solution for them even if it’s not in your job description. It’s what I love about IdeaScale. On any given day, I can be working on product updates, helping to pilot a new customer service process, or collaborating on the vision for our company. It happens all the time with our employees.
problem. One of my favorite stories is from one of our healthcare customers. They made innovation part of everyone’s job, requiring everyone at their organization to share and implement one new idea within the year – all 12,000 employees. It could be a simple idea – a way to time hand washing or a new product that could cost the company less. The result is that the innovation team received ideas large and small that saved the company millions of dollars by the end of the year. But even more importantly, they achieved 100 percent participation and created the expectation that everyone at the company could be an intrapreneur and solve problems. Now, they’re using our
One of our innovation advisors, Ben Bronsther brought on a new client, using a customized welcome video message from our CEO. Ben’s job didn’t relate to onboarding or video creation, but it was a great way to welcome that customer. Now we do this whenever we can for clients who want that sort of personalized experience. I do think it’s easier to be an intrapreneur at a start-up though... where the challenges of connecting ideas to other natively occurring ideas or finding new resources to test a concept is a matter of a few conversations with easilyidentifiable people. This is easy to do at IdeaScale where there are 50 of us. This type of challenge is different at an organization of 5,000+ people. That’s why systems like IdeaScale help to maximise innovation efficiency.
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TECHNOLOGY APPLICATIONS TO SUPPORT
INTRAPRENEURIALISM
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aving an entrepreneurial mindset within an organization can be frustrating if you don’t have the freedom and support to create new products and systems. Large enterprises are traditionally plagued with bureaucracy and red tape, leading to an inability to innovate, make decisions and adapt to the current environment. Intrapreneurs can be constantly frustrated by silo thinking,
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laborious approval processes and inflexible systems. Fortunately, support technologies are emerging that can help intrapreneurs to collaborate, innovate and implement whatever the organization. Cloud technology and innovation software programs provide one central location for people from around the world to participate in all project phases. Here are five that are hot right now.
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IDEASCALE SWARM VISION Swarm Vision’s enterprise software platform uses predictive analytics to help leaders uncover hidden innovation talent in their workforce and candidate pools, to drive real business results from innovation. Swarm Vision’s profiling platform enables each employee to be profiled and scored against eight innovation indicators – drive, disrupt, create, connect, control, think, deliver and give. It also places the individual in one of four horizons – continuous improvement, incremental innovation, adjacent and disruptive innovation, identifying the horizon they are likely to thrive in. The platform’s power is in being able to instantly aggregate and analyse individuals’ data to profile teams, departments and whole organizations, helping organisations to uncover and harness existing internal talent
Idea management systems collect ideas from all areas of the organisation and encourage employees to capture all of their ideas, rather than losing their “eurakas!” forever. Idea management tools help employees to share ideas, comment on, add to and further improve each others ideas, and acquire knowledge by viewing others’ ideas. Ideascale’s community members collaborate with one another as they suggest ideas while voting and commenting on the ideas of others. Integrations lower participation boundaries and make the experience more natural for all participants. The platform supports all phases of a project including idea submission, idea merge, gamification, campaign management, voting and commenting, as well as social media integration.
ATLASSIAN Atlassian, headquartered in Sydney Australia, is the number one software development tool used by agile teams, providing tools to help every team unleash their full potential. There are a number of solutions throughout every stage of development - plan, track and support, collaborate, code build and ship, security and identity. Two stand out solutions are Jira and Trello. Jira Software allows every member of a software team to plan, track, and release great software. Teams can choose from a selection of out-of-the-box workflows, or customise their own. Trello is a visual collaboration tool. All project team members can see the big picture, or dive into the details, all on one Trello board.
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GOOGLE DRIVE While all file sharing platforms such as One Drive, Box and Dropbox can more than adequately do the job, Google Drive provides the best bang for the buck, offering 15GB of free storage, and 100GB of storage for $2/month. Syncing files among multiple users is easy, and setting permissions is a straightforward process. Your choice of file sharing solutions may be determined by your preferred file type. Google Drive works best with Google products (such as Google docs and sheets) while OneDrive works best with Microsoft products such as Word Online and Excel Online.
ASANA Like Trello, Asana is a collaborative project management tool that is simple to learn and use to organise tasks and projects. Asana tends to be better for larger, more complex projects with longer timelines and more details to capture. Asana’s timeline feature allows you to map out the project plan, clearly see deadlines, identify conflicts and dependencies, and share the plan with the whole team. The visual boards help everyone to see where the project stands, while the document management capability ensures all information is held securely in one place.
FILEMAKER The FileMaker platform is one of the most flexible and rapid ways to create applications that will set your business apart. You can either build a custom app yourself, or choose a trusted partner to help you. Building your application professionally ensures it can grow and evolve with your business and will be an integral part of your business for a very long time, making your business more efficient, more consistent, more scalable and innovative.
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“EDUCATION IS THE ROOT AND THE BACKBONE FOR THE PROGRESS OF ANY NATION. I BELIEVE ONCE WE HAVE GONE TO THE ROOTS, CREATED A FERTILE LAND AND NURTURED IT WELL, IT WILL RESULT INTO A STRONG TREE WITH MANY FRUITS.”
Driving innovation through
intrapreneurship WITH PRAVIN RAJPAL
P
ravin Rajpal and his team at InnovatioNext, India, are leading the way in fostering technology-driven intrapreneurship in the next generation. As well as being a respected thoughtleader and champion of innovation in his own right, Pravin has successfully brought the notion of collaboration and intrapreneurship into the spotlight through his cutting-edge programs and tailored solutions for a range of industries.
Most notably is his recent development of integrated innovation Centres of Excellence within universities and corporates in India. At last count, 21 Centres have been set up, with many more on the horizon, and the results are extraordinary. They have seen up to 100 per cent employment rates in participating universities, unprecedented business growth in collaborating companies and
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rise in patents across the board. His movement has sparked a global interest in intrapreneurship – and this is just the beginning. “Education is the root and the backbone for the progress of any nation. I believe once we have gone to the roots, created a fertile land and nurtured it well, it will result into a strong tree with many fruits. By bringing these changes into the mindset of the students, we are developing a very strong culture and large-scale innovation capacities focused on the faster growth of businesses, industry, government and education,” Pravin said. “I believe that the pressure on the human mind to create and innovate new products is more intense than ever before. The world has changed and organisations seek to grow exponentially. That is why we set out to empower minds with the most advanced ideation tools, technology apps, ready to use mind maps, innovation health assessment software and more to develop the next generation intrapreneur who can help build high impact businesses for the new world of the fourth industrial revolution.” The Centres are based on industryacademia collaboration methodology, where students select the industry they are passionate about and work through specially-designed internships over four years. They can focus on the critical challenges faced by the organisation they are working within and discover innovative solutions for business growth. Students are trained to understand the specific needs within the corporate arena and the key problems faced in the areas of operations, business, resources, 22
customers and future needs. They are offered holistic and multi-dimensional exposure to intrapreneurship strategies so they can glean a greater understanding of the innovation ecosystem and how to create faster growth and / or productivity in industry, government and society sectors. “Any big change has to come from within. A forced change can never become successful. We therefore ignited the torch of innovation to ignite passions, minds and a spirit of innovation. The torch of innovation is passed on by us to the professors, from the professors to the students and from the students to the industry,” Pravin said. “Our new model has democratised the intrapreneurship movement, because universities and industry have realised that the concepts of the students can only become great when the ideas in early business/product stages are supported with management experience, financial support and marketing infrastructure of the industry.” Intrapreneurship has become a critical component of any business due to the speed at which competition and innovation is now forced to move. By training and then harnessing a new wave of thought leaders, coupled with the driving force of technological advancement, there is mass potential for unrivalled growth within companies large and small. “Organizations looking to grow and innovate at a faster pace, need to harness the ideas of their intrapreneurs. With the age of open innovation, collaboration assumes great importance.
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“INTRAPRENEURS BRING IN TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS, NEW BUSINESS IDEAS, MARKET GROWTH IDEAS AND NEW SOLUTIONS FOR THE ORGANIZATIONS.”
R&D is replaced by C&D (Connect and Develop) everywhere.” “Intrapreneurs bring in technology solutions, new business ideas, market growth ideas and new solutions for the organizations. An organization can truly embark on the exponential growth journey with a culture of intrapreneurship.” For the businesses involved, there are many benefits. By encouraging passionate, committed students to drive innovative programs and solve problems, people-power, money, risk and time investments can be reduced. InnovatioNext’s centres have received incredible support from large companies across India, including the country’s number one bank, HDFC Bank. They have partnered with the Centres to develop Fin-tech innovations and agreed to fund mentoring opportunities for students. Top conglomerates TATA Group and Aditya Birla Group are also on board, offering their challenges for innovation projects and mentoring. In addition, the Centres have worked with names such as Samsung, Dell, Amazon, Ford Motors and Citibank.
Another brilliant aspect of InnovatioNext’s programs is that innovation is not just enabled, but talent and need is fully utilised through ‘Industry Connect’. Pravin noted that many intrapreneurs in the past were unable to successfully connect with appropriate companies, and likewise business owners looking to broaden their innovation were hard-pressed to discover the right people to help. “We make sure that the ideas of students are brought to light for scaleup by connecting them with the relevant industries. We help the students to market their ideas through our vast industry network of Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) as we are their innovation knowledge partners. CII has more than 10000 industry members,” he said. They also work the other way, connecting companies with specific challenges with students who can solve them. The Corporate Challenge Connect app cleverly utilised technology to quickly and easily link up business needs and innovators for mutual benefit. “This ensures that each student works on the innovation projects of the leading
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companies and strives to resolve their challenges. They can directly post their ideas and even win many rewards, including monetary. We therefore create an eco-system where the innovation seekers meet the innovation providers at various universities,” Pravin explained. “We also provide the career links of the top MNCs (Multinational Corporations) and most innovative companies looking for ideas, solutions, creative talent and innovations from the students. After developing their concepts, the students can directly connect with these organizations to share their ideas for excellent career opportunities. This helps in bridging the big talent and ideas gap which the top companies are looking for.” With a rapidly changing world, Pravin believes embracing technology and intrapreneurship is the only way forward.
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Technologies are disrupting traditional business models. Digitization, e-commerce, apps and unconventional approaches have resulted in the closure of many businesses. Only 52 per cent of the companies which appeared in the Fortune 500 listing in the year 2000 exist today. Intrapreneurship can help organizations to survive, sustain and grow in the future.” “The face of intrapreneurship is emerging as the next mega trend for the innovationdriven growth economy.” Find out more about Pravin Rajpal’s work: www.innovationext.in www.pravinrajpal.com www.youtube.com/watch?v=y GuQNzEjvXs&feature=youtu.be
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T E C H N O L O G Y, I N N O V A T I O N A N D
INTRAPRENEURIALISM I
ntrapreneurialism could be described as a behaviour or a state of mind – the ability to work within an established business with an entrepreneurial flair. Intrapreneurs are disruptors, mavericks and trailblazers. They are agile, innovative, and committed to progress. Bringing the intrepreneurial mindset to traditional organizations isn’t easy. Intrapreneurs often have to fight for vital changes. They can only act within the confines of their role and authority, usually having to go through internal approval and decision-making processes. Business cases and budget constraints can be the enemy of the intrapreneur’s passion for change. Intrapreneurs naturally want to innovate, however, some organisations have many people who don’t know how to or are uncomfortable with challenging the status quo. Organizations that are resistant to change will find it harder and harder to compete with innovative businesses. Customer expectations are changing
as they become more accustomed to dealing with businesses that go out of their way to provide the best customer experience. Many businesses operate in silos. Each silo has their own budget, their own targets and they don’t naturally collaborate. Silo thinking uses outdated processes and methodologies, which can get in the way of a seamless customer experience. Often the enabler to innovation and improving the customer experience is technology. This could be from how the customer interacts with the business (such as ordering and support systems) or how well the business runs its internal day to day processes. Technology can support innovation in allowing teams of any size, in any location, to collaborate, capture ideas, create visibility throughout the business and to track progress. Creating a culture of innovation requires commitment from leaders to
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empower others to be creative, and take risks. Innovation thrives on collaboration – whether through face to face brainstorming or using cloud solutions, such as idea management platforms and project boards. Any function of the business has scope for innovation, and an organisation that encourages and rewards innovation across all teams will suffer less from silo thinking and process paralysis. For businesses to truly innovate, the key is looking at how to create efficiencies and harness ideas internally, and to constantly look for new ways to engage with customers in order to better understand their needs and expectations. Technology, such as apps and social media, allow businesses to easily and cheaply engage with customers. Entrepreneurs listen closely to customers, and their agile business processes allow them to pivot easily to react to customer feedback and requests. This is harder to do on a large scale, but the concept can be adapted to the inevitable hurdle jumping required in the corporate world. Again,
technology enables this to happen in large organisations - capturing and analysing real time data allows intrapreneurs to keep their finger on the pulse, for example being able to see customer reactions to new products and services, and being able to respond quickly. Technology allows communication and idea sharing across the organization – if a team in one location innovates successfully, their ideas can be shared and adapted in other parts of the organization. Intrapreneurial thinkers can spot issues, see opportunity, and seize it. However, large organisations can sometimes slow down the implementation of innovative ideas because of approval processes or bureaucratic procedures. Technology, on the other hand, can help to speed up processes by providing current accurate data to support decisions, file sharing platforms to share information across the organisation, giving individuals transparency, ability to give feedback, and automated approval processes. Clearly, technology can be a great friend to intrapreneurs.
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One Day Workshop CREATING INTRAPRENEURS BRISBANE - Tuesday, 17 September 2019 Organizations today, are transforming themselves in order to rise to the complex challenges of the 21st century. INTRAPRENEURS can be the driving force behind this transformation!
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN! What it means to be an intrapreneur and why it is so important Why nurturing your intrapreneurial abilities is the BEST investment you can make in yourself, career and workplace How to be intrapreneurial inside a large organisation How to spot innovation opportunities and capitalise on them A proven pathway for developing your confidence and influence as an
“Developing our intrapreneurial skills with Dr. Irena has been hugely beneficial for changing the way we think about our business problems and their solutions.” — K. Dyble. Manager. QSA.
agent of positive change Ways of quantifying the impact of intrapreneurial activities Processes for developing business acumen How to overcome barriers to intrapreneurialism The intrapreneurial mindset and skillset and how to use them to turbocharge intrapreneurial and transformation efforts!
“Great program! I have used the central model as a reference in developing my own change strategy.” — I. MacDonald. A/Manager. Digital Archiving Program.
One Day Public Workshop Package CREATING INTRAPRENEURS
BENEFITS • Find ways of addressing key organisational challenges such as: • • • • • •
Cutting red tape ‘De-siloing’ Transforming legacy systems Streamlining bureaucratic outdated processes Transitioning to digitisation Finding clever ways to reclaim tens of thousands of dollars of lost productivity within your workplace!
• Inspire participation and collaboration to address complex challenges.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND? Leaders, emerging leaders, aspiring leaders and influencers at ALL LEVELS who want to create positive and meaningful change while developing their intrapreneurial skills. Ideal for people and teams tasked with driving, catalysing and championing innovation. If your area is undergoing change, this is your opportunity to help shape that.
REGISTER TODAY Cost pp: Corporate (4 or more) $790 incl. GST Full Registration $890 incl. GST Location: Royal on the Park, 152 Alice St. Brisbane. Date & Time: Tuesday, 17th September 2019, 9:00am – 4:30pm
Dr Irena Yashin-Shaw PhD
Liberating Innovation Creativity & Leadership
With a PhD in Creative Problem-Solving and a Master’s Degree in Adult Education, Dr. Irena is a highly experienced corporate educator adept at helping people to liberate their creativity and intrapreneurial thinking to solve problems and drive innovation. As one of Australia’s leading authorities on intrapreneurialism, she understands what works and why when it comes to helping people, teams and organisations learn, transform and evolve to be future-ready.
Inclusions: All catering + comprehensive manual + on-boarding pack + 10-week post-program email follow-up + 14-week on-line program to embed learning + Q & A webinar + Dr. Irena’s book INTRAPRENEUR!
USE THIS LINK TO REGISTER AND PAY https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/creating-intrapreneurs-oneday-public-workshop-bne-september-2019-tickets-63315941686 Contact Tania at admin@drirenayashinshaw.com or 07 3849 5003 if you have any questions or require alternative payment methods.
WANT TO RUN THIS WORKSHOP IN-HOUSE? P: 07 3849 5003
M: 0411 330301
admin@drirenayashinshaw.com
admin@drirenayashinshaw.com www.drirenayashinshaw.com ABN 78074422775
ANTHONY KUHLMANN:
FROM INTRAPRENEUR TO BUSINESS OWNER T IPS TO B U I L D I N G YOU R OW N SU CCESS F U L E NT E R P R I S E
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nthony Kuhlmann has always been interested in business. At just five years of age, he started his very first small business doing odd jobs around the community – and he hasn’t stopped since. After completing school, Anthony landed his opening corporate role with JP Morgan Bank at just 17 years of age. He had found his niche in the financial services sector and took every opportunity possible to learn and grow. From here, work opened up at
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the Australian Stock Exchange where he welcomed the chance to learn from the very heart of the market. “I was perpetually curious about the concept of ‘value’ (both intrinsic and extrinsic) and the role that this plays in economies all over the world. I was always fascinated by different business models,” Anthony said. Throughout the early part of his career, Anthony embraced an intrapreneurial spirit to build the skills and confidence required to achieve his dream of
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owning his own business. In 2016 he became Director, Transaction Banking Solutions (for the Institutional Banking Team) in the CBA Innovation Labs. Here he created his own unique innovative project for a competition called ‘The Intrapreneur’ in 2017. This competition called on employees to enter ideas for assisting customers in some way. Anthony’s commitment to helping small business became the spark for his project dubbed ‘Post Code’, for which he ultimately won first place. However, while his work to date had effectively opened his mind to new ways of thinking and learning, it was as a coach and mentor for local businesses in the Queensland StartUp Ecosystem that his passion for helping SMEs was reignited. He was ready to move from Intrapreneur, to entrepreneur. “I was lucky enough to help some clients triple and quadruple their sales in a very short period, and I thought ‘I would love to just do this full-time’ and that’s how it all really began!” he said. Earlier this year, Red Apple Consultancy entered the market, designed to help business owners accelerate their enterprise through sales, strategy and business revenue optimisation. The response to Red Apple’s launch has been phenomenal, solidifying the hard work, learning and ambition to consistently innovate that Anthony has demonstrated throughout his career.
“DON’T GO TOO BIG TOO SOON, GET THE BASICS RIGHT FROM THE START, FOCUS ON YOUR ‘CORE COMPETENCY’ AND GET SPECIALIST ADVICE OUTSIDE OF THIS”
“I just started texting people and asking ‘hypothetically, if I were to start a consultancy business, would you have any work available?’ and I got a lot of positive responses and we were literally booked out just 12 days after launching,” he said. “In one of our first client engagements, we were able to increase our clients’ sales figures by over 500 per cent in less than 10 weeks – and that was just by working with them for two days per week. The best part was that we didn’t change the product itself, just the way in which it was marketed to their customers – it has everything to do with the way in which the product is represented.” Anthony credits much of his success to his intrapreneurial pursuits, which taught him the importance of exploring each idea through divergent thinking, then narrowing the focus to a complete, specialised and expert product. For others wishing to step out of intrapreneurism and apply their experience and learning to the world of
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business, Anthony recommends three things: Make sure that your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is super competitive. Focus on a niche (e.g. If you are a web designer – be the number one web designer for cafes). Understand your customer acquisition cost (CAC) to lifetime value of customer (LTV) ratios. The other recommendation he offers is to not focus on scaling a business first, but monetise as a priority. “The ‘Silicon Valley’ culture tends to talk about scale first, then monetise, but unless you’re building the next LinkedIn, Uber, Facebook, SnapChat… it’s so much easier to monetise, then scale. The best part is that you can literally get on the phones today and broker some deals to achieve that!” he said.
Starting your own business can be overwhelming, but always remember that you do not have to do it on your own. Just as collaboration is important within the intrapreneurial realm, it is vital to successful business too. Reaching out and connecting with other business owners who can offer skills to complement your own is an effective and smart way to grow. “Don’t go too big too soon, get the basics right from the start, focus on your ‘core competency’ and get specialist advice outside of this,” “Use your networks to make connections and to meet like-minded business people. The irony/paradox is that most other business owners are going through similar challenges, so if you can structure genuine ‘win-win’ deals that work for all parties, then you’re already off to a good start!” redappleconsultancy.com Anthony Kuhlmann
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TOP INTRAPRENEURS
YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT
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f you ask anyone around a dinner table to name some of the worlds most inspiring entrapreneurs, chances are, they would have no problem reeling off an endless list of people from Warren Buffett or Bill Gates to Mark Zuckerberg or Sheryl Sandberg. Ask them, however, to name some of the worlds most inspiring intrapreneurs and you might find that they struggle. Despite the fact that these intrapreneurs, are the brains behind many of the products and services that we all take for granted and use on a daily basis, the world doesn’t know their names. So let’s take a look at some of the world ‘s top intrapreneurs that you have probably never heard of….
KEN KUTARAGI Sony, The Sony PlayStation Ken Kutaragi was a relatively junior employee at Sony Enterprises when he realised the potential that existed within the world of intrapreneurmagazine.com
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video games. It was the late 1980s and Kutaragi spent hours tinkering with his daughters Nintendo looking at ways to improve it, coming up with the idea of a sound chip. In an environment where Sony was averse to entering the gaming market, Kutaragi was able to convince Sony’s CEO Norio Ohga to back his idea and the results of his efforts was a device called the “PlayStation”. Several years later, despite continued hostility within the Sony Company towards video games, the original PlayStation was released. This was followed by a series of PlayStation devices all a step ahead of their predecessors. The commercial success of the PlayStation franchise makes the Sony Computer Entertainment the most profitable business division of Sony. Despite all his doubters, Kutaragi 34
proved them all wrong and went on to become CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America!
DAVE MYERS, W.L. GORE Elixir Guitar Strings Dave Myers was an employee working for Gore-Tex fabric innovator W.L. Gore when one day he was taking advantage of the company’s 10% daily allotment of ‘creative time’ to tinker with some new ideas. He began to explore how their existing products, which where used to coat push-pull cables, could actually be adapted to make guitar strings more comfortable and user-friendly. What Myers discovered, was that although the coated guitar strings were only
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marginally more comfortable to use, they were able to keep their clear tones longer than the existing guitar strings on the market. Gore was quick to back Myers’ invention and launched their own brand of guitar strings – ELIXER strings, which is now the top selling acoustic guitar string on the market. Myers’ invention propelled W.L. Gore into an entirely new product market and shows the world just how valuable ‘creative time’ can be.
and tell them to put more adhesive on it!” Drew went back to the drawing board, tweaking his invention, and creating not only an improved version of the masking tape, but also the world’s first transparent tape. The nickname stuck, hence the term Scotch tape! These three incredible visionaries are only a few examples of some of the world’s greatest intrapreneurs.
HERE ARE A FEW OTHERS...
RICHARD (DICK) DREW 3M, Scotch Tape Most of us use sticky tape, masking tape or Scotch tape on a daily basis but have you ever thought of who and how it was invented? The clever time saving sticking solution was invented back in the 1920s by Dick Drew whilst he was working for 3M, back when they where the modest manufacturers of sandpaper. Drew was testing the companies new “Wetdry” sandpaper with auto mechanics when he became interested in how the two-tone paint jobs, which were so popular at the time, were difficult to manage due to the border between the two colours. Whilst pondering the problem, Drew came up with the idea of a two-inch wide adhesive backed paper strip – the world’s first masking tape! But like most new inventions, the tape was not without its own design challenges. Whilst the first prototype was being tested, it literally fell off the cars because the tape was only adhesive on the edges. As a result, the auto painters yelled at him, “take this tape back to those Scotch bosses of yours
Patrick Naughton and James Gosling, Sun Microsystems, Java Dr Spence Silver, 3M, Post-it-Notes Paul Buchheit, Google, Gmail Larry Hornbeck, Texas Instruments, Digital Micromirror Device Scott Gatz, Yahoo, Sponsored search engine Kathy Hollenhurst, Caribou Coffee, Customer loyalty program
We would love to hear about your favourite examples of intrapreneurialism. Send us your thoughts and look out for them in our next edition. editorinchief@ intrapreneurmagazine.com
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INTRAPRENEURSHIP WITH QUEENSLAND’S CHIEF ENTREPRENEUR, LEANNE KEMP
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t’s an exciting time to be an entrepreneur, intrapreneur and innovator. New technologies and new ways of thinking are creating opportunities for industries to leverage existing strengths, delivering significant improvements in operations. Innovation is the process of turning new ideas into value, in the form of new products, services, or ways of doing things. Innovation is a deceptively complex activity that goes beyond creativity and invention to include the practical steps necessary for adoption. New innovations tend to build on earlier versions and, in turn, lay a foundation for others to be built on top of them. It is now widely accepted that innovation fuels the majority of the world’s longterm productivity and economic growth – and that innovative firms significantly outperform noninnovators, in terms of both revenue and employment growth. Queensland has a strong community of entrepreneurs and that innovation
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is encouraged and championed by the Queensland Government. As recently appointed Queensland Chief Entrepreneur, I am fortunate to work with so many diverse businesses, entrepreneurs, startups, scale-ups and innovators from around the state. It’s my role to champion the already dedicated innovators and start-ups, to mentor those who are starting out or scaling up and to guide Queensland entrepreneurs in thinking and transacting globally. Within contemporary society, entrepreneurship is feted as a pathway to self-efficacy, independence and innovation, whilst also creating employment and generating wealth. Further, it is presumed to be an open site of opportunity as there are no barriers to entry. In my experience, entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs are very similar: what connects us is that we are all innovators! Whether you are innovating from within an organisation (as an intrapreneur) or by yourself in your own business (an entrepreneur), the important element is the ability to look at what’s happening, to find, analyse and capitalise on
opportunities and challenges you are presented with, alongside a desire to solve the problems you see to create a better world. Typically, large corporations are very slow, lack creativity, and are excessively process-driven. Oftentimes, they are much too focused on exploiting existing opportunities, which diminishes their ability to explore new ones. What’s really exciting is a paradigm shift in understanding value creation; at the moment bigger organizations and companies, governments, universities are not just understanding the value of innovation but they are taking steps to embed and champion innovation and design thinking within their organizations. It’s a big culture change. And the bigger the organization, the slower the culture is to change, but it is happening. The Queensland Government is committed to encouraging innovation from within the public service. Initiatives such as the Innovation Champions Network – a whole-of-government network of close to 250 public servants, is instrumental in providing a platform for intrapreneurs,
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or perhaps “Govpreneurs”, to connect, share ideas, learn about new ways of doing things and finding opportunities for collaboration. The Champions come from all government agencies, sectors and backgrounds and together have created a diverse network which helps Government to identify areas for improvement, test ideas and take action to operationalise those ideas from within the public service. For some people, innovating from within an organisation feels right. Not everyone is prepared to take the risks associated with being an entrepreneur – financially, emotionally and timewise – and so innovating from within a bigger organization suits them in that they are being creative and innovative, but they’re not fully exposed to the risks. With unencumbered financial risk, some people can actually be more creative. However, for some, having a hierarchical structure above them might limit their creativity and innovation. Systems and corporate executives are mostly focused on defending and expanding existing businesses, rather than starting new ones. Another problem is the opportunity cost of investment. Innovation is never a sure thing, and uncertainty can feel even greater when companies are innovating to break into underdeveloped markets. Other investment opportunities may look more attractive. Others still might want the platform and security of a big organisation to test new ideas – there are many resources that big organizations offer, and which are often difficult to establish when you are starting out by yourself with just an idea, vision and aspirational desire. Generationally, I think younger people in the workforce – millennials and GenZ – 38
both digital natives, have arrived with a new optimism, a desire for honesty and integrity, and a sense of shared destiny that transcends borders. They cultivate a mindset of change and innovation. Numerous reports talk about “a sense of purpose” as key to retaining these generations in the workplace. So in some cases it may actually be in the best interests of organizations to encourage people within their ranks to innovate both as a retention policy and also a way of drawing on creativity and new thinking. The World Economic Forum released a report in 2016 that says those who innovate within organizations actually tend to create more jobs than those who start their own business. There is a surging trend globally, where businesses are considering sustainability, environment and climate. A nexus where businesses meets sustainable development, there is a new kind of hero: the social intrapreneur. A social intrapreneur is an entrepreneurial employee who develops a profitable new product, service, or business model that creates value for society and their appointed company. Social intrapreneurs help their employers meet sustainability commitments and create value for customers and communities in ways that are built to last. Traditional business models are under pressure from disruptive technologies, low growth in established markets, and challenges in developing and emerging markets, and some companies see social intrapreneurs as one way to stay competitive. To those out there, working in organizations who want to be innovators, my advice is to take calculated risks, to
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ask questions, to offer ideas and to keep pushing them until they are taken up. And if the organization or company or hierarchy doesn’t gel with that idea, then look at your idea and ask yourself: does it fit with this company? If the answer is no, and the idea is good, then perhaps you can find a way of bringing the idea to fruition by yourself as an entrepreneur. One of the key attributes of being an entrepreneur is to believe in yourself, your idea and do what it takes to realise your idea. To leaders and decision makers in companies and organizations who want to nurture intrapreneurs, I give this advice: promote and reward innovation, encourage ideas and difference. Great ideas come from anywhere and everywhere. If you have a flexible structure in your organisation that encourages ideas, no matter where they are from, then innovation will happen. It’s great to give
direction, to provide scope, resources and to give a nudge, but then sit back, let the ideas flow and enjoy the results. For me, innovation is key and is an important part of the equation. Whether it comes from within or from an external person, if an idea is good, if it is viable and if it works and helps solve a problem – then the idea and the people behind it should be nurtured and encouraged. There are opportunities everywhere. Having an entrepreneurial, intrapreneurial innovative mindset will mean you are always on the lookout for more opportunities. That’s the key to success and a rewarding career.
Leanne is opening the 2020 Australian Intrapreneurs Summit on the 19th of March at the Brisbane Convention Centre.
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8:30AM TO 5:00PM
WHY COME?
ENABLING INTRAPRENEURIALISM THROUGH TECHNOLOGY & DIVERSITY
Be introduced to the next gen technology platforms that are liberating intrapreneurialism and intrapreneurs around the world Meet our amazing international and Australian speakers who are on the cutting edge of this global movement Discover the practical strategies that will unlock the underutilised potential in you and your teams Hang out and network with your tribe of diverse intrapreneurs and have some fun Learn how to prepare, rejuvenate and reskill your workforce for the future Gain valuable insights into how other sectors are doing intrapreneurialism Find out how to unleash the intrapreneurial talent in your ranks Be inspired by remarkable stories of intrapreneurial success Understand why intrapreneurialism is the future of talent Put some rocket fuel into your career trajectory Experience some very cool new technology!
More information is available at australianintraapreneurssummit.com.au/
REGISTER NOW
HOW TO SUPPORT
I NT RA P RENEURSHI P IN YOUR BUSINESS
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eople who want to have an impact in their industry, solve problems, be challenged, focus on creativity, and enjoy their work don’t always have to go out on their own as entrepreneurs to make this happen. Instead, the growing trend of intrapreneurship, or “inside entrepreneurs” who use entrepreneurial skills within the company they work for, is showing how so many advances can be internal. Intrapreneurship leads to pluses for everyone involved. It creates a
more productive, committed, loyal, engaged, and innovative workforce for businesses, while for employees, it means more enjoyable, satisfying work plus access to more resources and support. The owners and managers of firms must take steps to encourage intrapreneurship and make it realistic for team members to go down this path. Here are some steps to take to support intrapreneurship in your business today.
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HAVE A DIFFERENT MINDSET Thinking of your staff as ‘simple employees’ is such a limiting mindset which can permeate your office. Instead, maintain a healthy, communicative, respectful working environment where employees feel they’re an essential part of the business. Give people the chance to work on tasks their own way within deadlines, and encourage them to come to you with ideas and insights. Listen to feedback and enact as much as possible of it, to help everyone feel they’re making a difference and are valued and heard. The more people get the impression they’re part of the team and can have a say, the more quickly they will turn into intrapreneurs.
DON’T MICRO-MANAGE Similarly, avoid micro-managing. Hire the right people for positions, give them any training they require, and then let them go ahead and do their job without being constantly under close supervision.
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You should still be available to answer questions or provide guidance, but grant your team the opportunity to complete tasks using their own preferred approaches first. This is how productivity often rises within firms. When staff members have the chance to think freely and work without significant constraints, they can come up with innovative, elegant ways to do things that wouldn’t have arisen if they were told exactly how to move forward.
GIVE WORKERS FREEDOM Find ways to give your workers freedom in other ways, too. Provide opportunities for employees to make their own decisions about things regularly. They might choose the types of tasks they complete, the order they tackle things in, the training they do, when and where they work, and even the actual job they do. Allow people to move around the business trying new things, as this fosters creativity, develops leaders for the future, and leads to discoveries of previously unnoticed problems. Consider letting
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people choose who they work with on projects, too, or move people around teams. Encourage “crosspollination”, where employees from various teams, disciplines, and even locations come together to work on projects. The diverse knowledge and skills that come together in these arrangements have big benefits. Furthermore, allow staff members in customer-related jobs to have some freedom in how they take care of clients. For example, give them a certain amount of money they can spend to resolve customer issues and leave it up to them how they achieve this. Doing this not only makes your team feel more empowered and in control, which boosts engagement, but also makes customers happier and reduces the need for managers to approve employee actions constantly.
PRIORITISE INNOVATION It’s also important to make it clear to staff members that their company prioritises innovation. (You have to then follow through on this, though.) When people know it’s part of their job description to think outside of the box and try new things, they won’t be so afraid to take a risk. As long as managers never punish workers for risks that don’t pan out – this trial and error is a necessary component of the process – employees will feel like they have ownership within the business and will eventually come up with ideas and solutions that can revolutionise the business. If and when intrapreneurs make mistakes, have teams come together to solve issues collaboratively and learn what to do differently next time. Also, make sure you acknowledge and thank workers who take risks and try something new, so they and the rest of the team feel freer to be creative in the future.
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r u e n e r p a r t n I TV Listen to what some of the attendees had to say about the AIS 2019.
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Editor-in-Chief Dr. Irena Yashin-Shaw speaks with Suzan Briganti Founder and CEO of Silicon Valley tech start-up Swarm Vision.
Suzan Briganti
Editor-in-Chief Dr. Irena Yashin-Shaw is interviewed by Hans Wijgh Director of Training at BusinessNavigate Academy.
Hans Wijgh intrapreneurmagazine.com
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Editor-in-Chief Dr. Irena Yashin-Shaw chats with Queensland’s current Chief Entrepreneur, Leanne Kemp.
Leanne Kemp
Editor-in-Chief Dr. Irena Yashin-Shaw speaks with Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Ideascale, Jessica Day.
Jessica Day
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