
1st Edition (2017): Summary of the day
The first of its kind discourse on Intrapreneuring and Innovation at the Intrapreneurship Conclave 2017 held on the 9th of March at Vivanta by Taj was hosted by Unfold Consulting. We had practitioners and thought leaders as speakers to decode this topic and its application for India.
Session 2: Intrapreneuring and ‘double duty’: Professor Ranjan Das, THE STRATEGY ACADEMY, IIM Kolkata.
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He encouraged organisations and individuals to change their mindset and change the way things are done if they are dissatisfied and impatient with the work they are doing. -
He encouraged the participants to be clear about their motives and aspirations, for them to become great Intrapreneurs. -
He also talked about actions to promote Intrapreneurship orientation within an organisation by allowing employees to participate in the rewards of what they create, such as being granted ownership rights in the internal enterprises they create or performance pay. This promotes innovation at a large scale and allows the organisation to grow as well. -
Questions like “What is the importance of loyalty in identifying a right intrapreneur?” were asked and his response was that ‘there is no right or wrong intrapreneur and investing in them is taking a risk but it is a worthy risk as the reward is greater than the investment”. -
He likened Intrapreneurs to heavyweight boxers and how they needed to stick their neck out to land a knockout punch and the need to recognize that intrapreneuring is about ‘double duty’ and requires immense stretching to turn ideas into solutions.
Session 4: Case study– Know how CISCO’s thingQbator enables its intrapreneurs to innovate better
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Innovation is a function of context and every context is different -
One needs to evolve an operating model rather than define one. -
Community support made people more available to try new things and develop new ideas and products
Session 5: Case study – Fostering Innovation through Start-up Collaborations: McDonald’s India
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Framework for scaling distribution with start-up collaborations -
How to get the right objective fit and build a corporate program to engage with start-ups -
How to mitigate barriers for collaboration – internal cultural barriers, relational barriers, external environmental barriers.
Session 6: Learning from a Founder’s Journey: Inside Out – Outside In- Ravikiran Annaswammy, CEO Innohabit Technologies
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How do you work on an idea? -
How to build an initial strategy? -
How to effectively execute? -
How to go to market? -
How to take decisions and consider the right risk with rewards? -
How to exit at the right time?
Session 7: WORKSHOP – How to become a STAR Intrapreneur – Suraj Sudhi, Director IOT and Big Data
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To understand the context and the type of innovation that can drive value within that context -
To have the ability to learn fast, fail fast and recover fast.
Session 8: WORKSHOP – Future of Work through Intrapreneur Lens: Climate for Innovation by UNFOLD
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Whether there were barriers to Intrapreneurship or was it inclusive of age and circumstance? -
Are Intrapreneurs self-made or can the skill be developed? How does one retain and engage intrapreneurs? -
What are the roles of managers and teams? How does one build a governance and sponsorship for Intrapreneurship?
Session 3: Innovation for the Long Haul by Mr Sowmendra Das from Intuit.
He brought about a different approach when he added into the mix on how innovation could last for a long time in an organisation.
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For Innovation to succeed intrapreneurs need to fall in love with the problem and not the solution. -
In order for an organisation to grow they have to establish a culture of trust, differentiate between inquiry and advocacy, data and opinion -
Mutation is the key to evolution. At Intuit, Intrapreneurs help evolve the organizational DNA by designing for delight – building deep customer empathy, going broad to going narrow and through rapid experimentation.
Session 9: Panel Discussion – Transforming Organisational Culture with Intrapreneurship: Moderated by Benedict Paramanand, Editor, Author, CEO Biz Lit Fest – ManagementNext
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Perception that present corporate culture stifle creativity – which also means stifles intrapreneurship -
Challenges of hiring intrapreneurs – how do you spot Intrapreneurship trait in potential recruits -
Is the lack of a vibrant Intrapreneurial culture reason for fewer successful product companies in India? -
Is quarterly focus on results a huge hindrance to building a culture of innovation, creativity and Intrapreneurship?
Session 1: Keynote by Gifford Pinchot
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Intrapreneurs are the corporate entrepreneurs or “dreamers who do” who have the ability to turn ideas into profitable solutions. -
The primary cause for the lower returns of corporate managers of innovation is their failure to understand the importance of backing the right people. -
He likened Intrapreneurship to toast by saying it can serve a lot of things on it such as cost cutting, strategic implementation and employee retention. -
It is easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission. Intrapreneurs, like soldiers, have to have the courage to do what’s right instead of getting discouraged by the ‘corporate immune system’ -
Intrapreneurship needs a community sense of ownership to make it a success, among his many examples, he used the example of Hussein, General Manager of Validation Engineering Group who was facing a 16% budget cut on every aspect of the project in his department but did not want to lay off any of his employees, so he asked for ideas from his entire team and gave them the freedom to explore without asking for permission. This led to confidence boost in the employees and innovative ideas resulting in a whopping savings of 19.4%. -
He emphasized on the importance of Intrapreneurship in the workplace and how levers like support and gratitude strengthen the working relationship between the employee and the manager inspiring innovation. -
You cannot have cost-effective innovation unless you hire, train and encourage intrapreneurs.