{"id":5704,"date":"2021-11-09T13:46:17","date_gmt":"2021-11-09T11:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/escp.eu\/thechoice\/?p=5704"},"modified":"2023-02-17T16:52:14","modified_gmt":"2023-02-17T14:52:14","slug":"three-essentials-before-setting-up-an-intrapreneurship-programme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/escp.eu\/thechoice\/choose-to-lead\/three-essentials-before-setting-up-an-intrapreneurship-programme\/","title":{"rendered":"Three essentials before setting up an intrapreneurship programme"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It is no surprise that intrapreneurship programmes are increasingly used by firms to deal with an ever more rapidly changing business environment<\/mark>. They are structured processes that guide employees in developing innovative solutions. Successful ones can help to continuously renew<\/a> and empower the firm<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, starting an intrapreneurship programme is not just plug and play. It needs a careful architecture right from the beginning to seize its full potential.<\/strong> Here are three things that our research and practical experience has taught us:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Get clear on the programme\u2019s role for employee development<\/em><\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Before designing an intrapreneurship programme, a key question needs to be answered:<\/mark> How much importance do you assign to the fact that your programme is a great employee empowerment instrument? The answer will largely determine how to incentivise employees, how to allocate resources, how to structurally embed the programme within the firm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    An easily overlooked but powerful benefit can be the empowerment of employees.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    While many firms run intrapreneurship programmes solely to develop innovation outputs, an easily overlooked but powerful benefit can be the empowerment of employees, which here refers to their learning of entrepreneurial tools, skills, and mindset through the programme. By working on their own projects, employees learn through action – learning-by-doing. Further, working in oftentimes cross-departmental intrapreneurship teams and dealing with a new variety of stakeholders extends their network within the firm and beyond dramatically – an important additional empowerment aspect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Determining the relative importance of employee empowerment will thus have large implications<\/strong> for the overall design. And in any case, the expectations for the programme should be clearly communicated to all relevant stakeholders. Additionally, attaching importance to employee enablement also means evaluating the programme differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. Set up the right measures to prevent failure<\/em><\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      Depending on the goals that you set for the programme, a second key question is how you want to measure the success of an intrapreneurship programme. Even if you aim for innovation output that is close to your company core and thus rather incremental, resulting business models will rarely be profitable whilst part of the program<\/mark>me. Mostly, the programme\u2019s active involvement ends way before any financial return on investment is achieved. That\u2019s a fact your organisation needs to be aware of right from the start, and that needs to be taken into consideration when setting up your measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      So, the question is how to measure success?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The most important thing to understand is that there are no inherently right measures. Make sure that the measures you apply always help you to operationalise corporate strategy. Regarding innovation output, there are some best practice measures which can be considered. However, take into account that appropriate measures also depend on the stage of your project funnel:<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n