Nurturing Intrapreneurship: The Secret to Business Success

Why Intrapreneurship?

Many businesses continue to overlook intrapreneurship in favor of traditional systems in which only senior employees are encouraged to innovate. However, this is an outdated approach that severely limits your hopes of success. 

Championing intrapreneurship is a far more effective route to high-quality corporate innovation. Here are just some of the reasons why;

• Intrapreneurship allows you to gain ideas from all directions and perspectives.
• Nurturing intrapreneurship will yield an increase in the number of ideas.
• It keeps employees engaged. When happy, they are statistically shown to be 13% more productive.
• Your business will become more agile and versatile in a changing landscape.
  
  

Six simple steps to promote intrapreneurship

Understanding the benefits of intrapreneurship is one thing but cultivating an environment that champions it is another. Here are six top tips to point you in the right direction.

Invest in the right employee innovation program

Many employers and managers doubt the potential of company-wide innovation. However, making intrapreneurship accessible using the right tools will quickly highlight the fact that many employees are being overlooked. Many people have ideas but don’t know how to act upon them. The frameworks will guide new intrapreneurs through the process of turning ideas into integrations while also facilitating connections to colleagues when required.

Allow time for intrapreneurship

One of the biggest obstacles standing in the way of innovation is a perceived lack of time. It is shown that creativity requires energy, peace of mind and perspective while taking action while ideas remain fresh in the mind will statistically yield better results. Giving employees the freedom to take responsibility and work on ideas without seeking permission is vital.

Make failure OK 

In addition to allowing intrapreneurs to try new ideas, you must also let them fail. Failure is a stepping stone on the path to success, not least because most successful innovations require iteration. Conversely, if an employee is worried that they will be mocked for their failed ideas, they won’t share them. Encouraging psychological safety is crucial.

Celebrate all successes

The goal isn’t only to encourage employees to innovate once. You want them to innovate time and time again as it will enhance your hopes of unearthing successful ideas. 

The best way to do this is by celebrating triumphs at every stage of the process. KICKBOX facilitates this by recording all successes and not just the big idea. The sense of recognition will subsequently encourage all employees to remain in the creative mindset.

Encourage collaborations

Intrapreneurs are both thinkers and doers. However, ideas don’t always have to come directly from them. Sometimes, the thoughts of another person can provide the spark. The My Starbucks Idea saw the coffee company ask consumers for their ideas and yielded several great innovations. Allowing intrapreneurs to tap into customer-centric ideas will help

Let them use new tech

It is shown that the most successful companies of the future will be those that leverage emerging technologies to drive their innovation efforts at scale. 

Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and other advanced tools allow for efficient testing and prototyping by removing the need to create real-world prototypes. This additionally supports cost-effective early stage innovation. Crucially, as well as identifying successful ideas, it will allow them to spot failures. Better still, they can still learn lessons to support future projects.