Invest in Intrapreneurs –

Innovation Management Supports Your Organization’s Greatest Change Makers

Intrapreneurs are those important team members with the optimism, intellect, initiative, and discipline to champion bright ideas and drive new project pipelines, establishing innovative change across the business. Does your organization nurture valuable intrapreneurship? 

When internal team members are given the freedom to think like entrepreneurs, they become more motivated, creative, and engaged. They are not afraid to challenge the status quo and are driven to find innovative solutions to problems. By fostering intrapreneurship within your organization, you stimulate the development of disruptive ideas and invest in a collaborative work environment. The organization’s collective intelligence is multiplied, leading to more innovative outcomes and solutions to your biggest challenges.

How does a company encourage an intrapreneurial spirit in employees? By making their employees feel that their ideas are heard and transparent to others, fairly evaluated, and under consideration for future implementation. 

How do you nurture an intrapreneur to come up with your next generation product?

Nurturing an intrapreneur to come up with your next generation product involves creating an environment that encourages innovation, providing support and resources, and fostering a culture of entrepreneurship within your organization. Here are some steps to nurture an intrapreneur:

1. Encourage creativity and autonomy:
   Give your intrapreneur the freedom to explore new ideas and think outside the box. Encourage them to take risks and challenge the status quo.
2. Provide resources and support:
   Ensure your intrapreneur has access to the necessary resources to develop their ideas, such as funding, technology, and expertise. Offer mentorship and guidance to help them navigate the process.
3. Foster a culture of innovation: Create a culture that values and rewards innovation. Encourage collaboration and open communication, where employees feel comfortable sharing their ideas and opinions.
4. Set clear goals and expectations: Define the objectives and expectations for the project pipeline. Provide a clear vision and direction to guide the intrapreneur’s efforts.
5. Offer incentives and recognition: Recognize and reward intrapreneurs for their contributions. Offer bonuses, promotions, or special recognition to motivate and encourage their entrepreneurial spirit.
6. Embrace failure and learning: Understand that not all ideas will succeed, and failure is a part of the innovation process. Encourage your intrapreneur to learn from failures and iterate on their ideas.
7. Create a feedback loop: Establish regular check-ins and advice sessions to review progress, provide guidance, and offer constructive feedback. This helps the intrapreneur refine their ideas and stay on track.
8. Celebrate successes: When the intrapreneur achieves milestones or successfully develops the next-generation product, celebrate their achievements. This reinforces the value of intrapreneurship and encourages others to follow suit.

Remember, nurturing an intrapreneur requires patience, trust, and a supportive environment. By providing the right conditions, you can harness the entrepreneurial spirit within your organization and drive innovation for your next generation product.

Intrapreneurs promote innovation through their new ideas for business, and Innovation Management is the strategic process that efficiently moves their ideas to faster implementation.

The leadership of an organization should have a system in place to accept, rank, and channel ideas. They must prioritize a clearly defined process for idea vetting and project achievement to attain a shared goal.  Innovation leads to growth and applies across many facets of a business.

Stanford University outlines the types of innovation as the following:

• Product innovation – New or improved good or service that benefits a company, such as improved customer experience or a new device for the market.
• Open innovation – Ideas gathered within an organization as well as through external sources such as vendors, customers, universities, and startups.
• Organizational innovation – New strategies to streamline, automate, or modify business operations to promote company growth.
• Social innovation – Ideas benefiting the social workplace environment specifically valuable to teamwork and group wellbeing.
• Sustainable innovation – ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) focus which requires a framework for companies to act responsibly and ethically.
• Disruptive innovation – Products or services challenging the establishment with simpler, more affordable, or more accessible features to a broader market.

Innovation Management Software by Ezassi is a SaaS solution designed to accelerate the innovation lifecycle, regardless of the type of innovation, which includes:

• Idea Management – A centralized platform for collecting and managing ideas
• Technology Discovery – A scouting research tool to uncover emerging Technology
• Pipeline Management – A collaboration tool to manage your Innovation Pipeline

Intrapreneurship cultivates an engaging environment of experimentation, where failures are seen as learning opportunities and successes are celebrated.

Want to learn more about embracing intrapreneurship and creating an innovative culture within your organization? Check out this webinar from Stanford’s Center for Professional Development. 

If you are also interested in a demo of our Innovation Management suite of products and services which best support your intrapreneurs’ goals and desired business processes, please be in touch.