Intrapreneurship conference waterloo 2016
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The document provides several case examples of lessons learned around innovation initiatives: - Clear communication from leadership about goals and support for innovation is important to gain traction. - Aligning innovation projects to specific business unit priorities leads to higher success rates than focusing only on technical proofs of concept. - Innovation projects need separation from ongoing operations to avoid delays or loss of relevance. The first 6-8 weeks require a judgement-free environment focused on product-market fit. - True cross-functional oversight at the right levels prevents innovation from becoming siloed and improves longer-term planning ability despite shifting business unit priorities.
Intrapreneurship conference waterloo 2016
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- 7. ● ● ● ● CASE EXAMPLE: Innovation program launched with public announcement of objective and goals Challenging business climate led to slowing down of the innovation effort But once the CEO communicated sponsorship and seriousness in pursuing Innovation to his directs , the traction got much better The message filtered down and change could be seen within 3-6 months - budgets, staffing, visibility for innovation projects
- 9. CASE EXAMPLE: Early in my career, I used the ‘push’ approach - finding business problems and then building POC’s around them This led to good, functional prototypes but didn’t translate to customer or employee facing use cases Once I changed the approach and aligned projects to the current priorities of specific BU’s, the success rate was much better. ( Identifying strategic problems > Sponsorship > Building business case > Prototypes) is a strong approach in my experience... ● ● ●
- 11. ● ● CASE EXAMPLE: Innovation projects get bogged down unless there is a clear separation from ongoing operational projects Even if they are not entirely stopped, they might get delayed or when completed, lose their relevance First 6-8 weeks are especially crucial; it’s best to keep the concepts being developed in isolation & ‘judgement free’ Focus on lighter financial metrics, product/market fit, growth potential & competitive scenario
- 13. CASE EXAMPLE: Without true cross functional oversight & at the right hierarchical level, Innovation tends to get siloed Makes longer term horizon planning and taking riskier bets almost impossible due to shifting individual BU priorities True cross-functional oversight drastically reduces the time spent later in the go-to-market and preparatory phase ● ● ●
- 15. ● ● ● CASE EXAMPLE: Worked on a very cool innovative POC which had strong sponsorship from the BU leader But there was no single ‘owner’ or documented process on the BU side for ‘receiving’ the built prototype I spent a couple of weeks talking to a range of people in the BU to identify allies & found one, who became an internal champion Eventually, the POC was a success and was launched internally
- 17. ● ● CASE EXAMPLE: The most fun part of an Intrapreneur’s job, I think! In over a dozen partnership projects with startups, the key lesson for me has been to have clear, mutually agreed upon goals upfront, even if it means some delay Be transparent on cost/benefit for both enterprise & the startup - and on the scope i.e. pilot vs. a trial vs. pre-RFP ‘test run’’ Starting internal stakeholdering in parallel as early as possible is key to avoiding delays later on
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