Great Minds Think Alike

How great it feels to wake up and read an article that directly relates to one's own experiences. This is what happened to me recently when I read this recent article in Forbes magazine titled, Intrapreneurs Need These 4 Super Skills to Master the Art of Institutional Innovation, the author makes reference to 4 critical aspects of succeeding at intrapreneurship. I found a direct correlation with similar points that are addressed in the book, Winning at Intrapreneurship: 12 Labors to Overcome Corporate Culture and Achieve Startup Success.

The article mentions:

(1) "Alignment with core institutional strategy and values," which the book addresses as "Creating and Mastering Expectations." This refers to the ability to understand how the innovation or new business idea can be communicated in terms of the objectives that the parent organization will relate to and then setting clear expectations on how and when the startup's growth targets will be achieved. The use of SMART objectives, tailored to the intrapreneurship environment, is key here and further discussed in the book.

(2) "Activate allies to get things done," is covered under "The Sponsor, the Gatekeeper, and the Allies to Survive." Here a whole chapter is dedicated to the ability to identify the RIGHT sponsor and to also seek a gatekeeper that will help the startup and intrapreneur access the resources it needs from the parent company but also keep others away from the startup if there help is not required. Enrolling formal and informal leaders and influencers in the organization will also be a key ingredient to success.

(3) "Assesses and leverages existing institutional assets", which the chapter on "Leveraging the Parent Company for Strategic Advantage" addresses dead on. This chapter is dedicated to what I have called Corporate Force Multipliers (or CFMs). CFMs are the essential competitive advantage that a corporate startup up has over an independent startup and must be exploited fully.

(4) Manage success to a double bottom line, which is stressed in the chapter on "Avoiding the Materiality Minefield." Too often, companies sponsor great ideas but without evaluating the contribution these new innovations or lines of business will have to the overall bottom line. An idea can be good, successful, and even make some money, but if it cannot make a significant contribution to the top and bottom lines of the parent company, it should not be pursued.

If you want to understand how to organize your innovation program and prepare your company to succeed at intrapreneurship, you will need to master these 4 skills and several more that are covered in Winning at Intrapreneurship, which has already received several very positive reviews that you can view here.