There is lots of talk about entrepreneurship these days, yet what about intrapreneurship? There are lots of large organizations with legacy brands that are currently at a crossroads. Add value to your organization by using principles of entrepreneurialism and make a big impact inside your very own company.
An intrapreneur is someone who has an entrepreneurial streak in his or her DNA, but chooses to align his or her talents with a large organization in place of creating his or her own.
Intrapreneurs are innovative thinkers who have the ability to work through ambiguity, are risk tolerant and use creative approaches to solve business challenges within their own company.
Interested in becoming an Intrapreneur? Consider these 3 strategies.
Gain Deep Company Understanding
It starts with gaining a deep understanding of the challenges that your company or department has. Do your homework, review reports, talk to stakeholders, and gain as much perspective about the challenge. Think about all the ways the issue may impact customers, cross-functional departments or employees. Try to get to the root cause of the issue by going deeper. Many times we focus on the symptoms, not the cause. By becoming the expert on the issue, you will gain more stakeholder support and resources should you develop a potential solution to fix it.
Experiment… Experiment… Experiment!
Explore as many potential solutions as you can. For each solution create a hypothesis based on what you intuitively expect to happen. Design small-scale experiments on a few of the solutions to gain learning that will contribute ultimately to the best solution. Identify what it is you expect to learn from each experiment. You don’t have to wait to begin to impact the business; you can use Quick Wins to get started right away. Quick Wins are smaller, high executable initiatives you can do right away to start addressing the challenge or issue. Make sure you identify what it will take (resources), who it involves and when it will be completed.
Working with others to get things done
Your ability to work with others is imperative. After all you won’t be able to execute against the best solution on your own. Construct a small cross-functional team. A number of research studies have indicated that smaller teams are more productive, more agile and more connected. Ensure team members are clear on their roles and accountabilities. Ask for and receive real time feedback from your team. Share successes of the team along the way. And lastly, find a senior level manager to sponsor you. A senior level executive that has influence can open doors for you that you can fly through.
By using these 3 strategies you will be well on your way to becoming a Intrapreneur.
