Inside Innovators

How intrapreneurs drive value creation from within organizations

Intrapreneurs activate innovation within larger organizations, often propelling them forward and creating the products or services that will help them remain valuable in a changing business landscape. When he went looking for the perfect book to relate the importance of intrapreneurship, Louis K. Gump came up empty. So he decided to write it himself. That book, “The Inside Innovator: A Practical Guide to Intrapreneurship,” is out this month. In it, Gump – currently the president of Cambian Solutions and with CEO and intrapreneurial experience in his career – lays out how intrapreneurs can drive novelty within the framework of big, established businesses and why it’s so important that they do so.

The Role of Intrapreneur

The first thing to understand about intrapreneurship is that it’s not simply a derivate form of entrepreneurship, Gump told BOSS. It is its own animal, requiring different skill sets and mindsets for success. While an entrepreneur is the head of an organization and often free to call the shots without a lot of pushback, intrapreneurs work within the framework of companies that might have a long history and entrenched ways of operating. That can mean intrapreneurs have to cut through a lot of red tape and justify expenditures to several layers of management.

On the other hand, there is usually an abundance of resources within the organization intrapreneurs can easily draw from, namely people, data, relationships outside the company, and the weight of the brand.

“These are things that an entrepreneur rarely has,” Gump said.

Intrapreneurship also allows creative individuals to innovate without the personal risk of starting their own business. If an initiative fails, there is always somewhere else a large organization can distribute talent to, and those creatives can dust themselves off and try again without having to reset their entire lives.

While the roles aren’t exactly the same, intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs are certainly both interested in creating something new. Working together, intrapreneurs can often give entrepreneurs their big break with a foot in at a large company, and entrepreneurs provide critical services that make intrapreneurial endeavors successful.

“I can’t count the number of small entrepreneurial companies I’ve seen, including ones that I’ve been a part of or otherwise associated with, that have had their breakthrough moment with one company,” Gump said, “and then that one company kind of opened the door and other companies that had similar needs all of a sudden got interested and it’s a rocket ship.”

The right intrapreneur-entrepreneur partnerships create a symbiotic relationship.

Value Creation

The large organizations employing intrapreneurs often have legacy products that made them household names. But with times and technology always changing, they need something new in development to stay relevant.

“I think it’s really important for organizations whose products are maturing to have intrapreneurial focus because it’s one of only two ways to keep a business with maturing products vibrant,” Debora Wilson, former president & CEO of The Weather Channel, observes in Gump’s book. “This is because every company’s product lines, including their related revenue and profit sources, mature over time.”

If these organizations don’t have internal pipelines for new products and services, they have to acquire them, and that comes with a host of risks, from a bad fit to overpaying, that intrapreneurship eliminates.

Intrapreneurs often become or train the next generation of leadership within the company.

“When enlightened leadership teams find opportunities and then assign some really promising people with the right characteristics to these initiatives, then everybody wins,” Gump said.

The organization has a value-creating initiative, and talented people who might otherwise leave have incentive to stay with the company. They can contribute and grow within the company and preserve institutional knowledge.

“There is nothing that I’ve found that’s more valuable than talented people who know how to drive innovation but also understand the organization.”

The organizations best suited to intrapreneurship really have the structures in place to encourage innovation, not just offer lip service to it. Those companies allocate the capital necessary to successfully develop and launch new things, and they identify the talent they already have and nurture it. Most importantly, the executives at the C level need to walk the talk and show that they’re really invested in the initiatives.

Not Just A Hobby

In the book, Gump lists 16 characteristics of successful intrapreneurs. The top five are: curious, action-oriented, able to build bridges, risk-tolerant, and optimistic.

Without a strong innate sense of curiosity, intrapreneurship can be a difficult path because so much of the job is exploring potential connections between seemingly disparate things. Good ideas are nothing if they’re not implemented, so successful intrapreneurs need to follow up and push their organization to take risks. Whereas entrepreneurs don’t always have to answer to someone else, intrapreneurs need to get people in the organization – some who might feel threatened by a new initiative – on board. While the personal risk might be less with intrapreneurship, they still have to deal with the fact that not everything they try will be a smashing success.

“If you’re the kind of person who insists on succeeding all the time, go find something else,” Gump advises.

The optimism needs to be grounded, but intrapreneurs who recognize a golden opportunity don’t let naysayers stop them, they figure out how to alleviate the concerns they hear and win people over to their side with unshakable confidence in the eventual outcome.

Intrapreneurship isn’t for everyone, but as IBM’s Joe Fiveash told Gump, “I think you have to try it and see if you like it. And understand that it comes with stress and discomfort. You may find it’s not for you. But for some people, once you’ve tasted it, nothing else is satisfying.”

It can be interesting, fun, and extremely rewarding – if the organization is truly ready to commit time and resources to it. Gump advises budding intrapreneurs to know themselves and know their companies. You’re going to push boundaries within the organization. Do you have a boss who will clear the path for you, or one who will stand in your way?

When done right, intrapreneurship pushes established organizations to innovate. It creates transformative opportunities for entrepreneurs, and it drives new growth opportunities in the organization.

“This isn’t just a hobby. It’s not just a little cubbyhole of innovation,” Gump said. “This is truly the future value of your company for many companies that do it well.”