Intrapreneurship

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Intrapreneurship

Location: Salon VI and VII

Presenter: Nina Bhatti, HP Labs

“An Intrapreneur is the person who focuses on innovation and creativity and who transforms a dream or an idea into a profitable venture, by operating within the organizational environment. Thus, Intrapreneurs are Inside entrepreneurs.” From Wikipedia. A current Intraprenuer will talk about how she innovates within an organization involving, creating an idea, getting buy-in and managing up. Anyone working in industry will not want to miss this session.

Intrapreneurism is "internalizing the mission of an organization, absorbing your customer's problem and driving a creative solution that matters." Internalizing is understanding why the company is there and what they do, and finding a way to do that in a new and creative way.

  • Don't work for an organization if you don't care about what it does.
  • the idea has to make sense to more than just you
  • "Cannot be an intrapreneur unless you have high credibility."


"My journey into intrapreneurism"

  • "Delivered my product" that was high performance
  • sales people thought they could have sold it better because there was no printer support
  • "sales guys are really a direct group" - they care about sales and will tell you what the problem is
  • went to find out why - because it would take too long based on what engineering management thought
  • went to the engineers, found out what the problem was
  • went to the UI architect (found internal partial solution), "don't you think you could do that?"
  • went to management "I think I can do printer support in 4 months with two contractors" - and explained how
  • "you can make something great happen but you have to find out what is needed"
  • you have to figure out why by listening, the problem can be different than it appears to be
  • "it comes from having that respect for the people" - everyone looks good
  • if later it looks obvious, "more people own to solution . . . that's a good thing. It means the organization is aligned with you"


Second story

  • assigned to a team with a different emphasis
  • found a way to fix it, to do a good thing
  • "really like customer-inspired innovation"
  • "Wanted to mimic the nicest beauty consultant in the world and give woman power over the beauty consultant"
  • leverage a technology trend (women take more pictures than men, the number of camera phones is increasing)
  • "Well, if you reduce the problem you can maybe do it . . . This is the craziest thing I've heard of and I'll help you do it."
  • talk to experts - she broke the problem down and talk to the experts in each area
  • use exemplar database to find out what makeup consultants recommended to similar
  • "innovating on behalf of customers"
  • a cross-disciplinary team has to coalesce, get along
  • make sure your team members share in the success
  • "you don't need to know everything but you need to know how to listen"
  • "you have to align a lot of people to win"
  • you have to commit and jettison all the "hedging your bet" projects
  • "if there's something you're dying to do that isn't part of the organization, go find the organization where it is"
  • "If you're telling people who are supposed to be your stakeholders that this idea is really cool and they just look bored, it's probably not as good as you think it is." As long as they're listening and hearing you


Summary [slide] Intrapreneurism - creating your labor of love

  • understand the organizational landscape
  • make something great happen
  • don't assume anything
  • make your key stakeholders look good
  • don't be intimidated
  • bigger efforts require teams, but with bigger results
  • be fearless and keep the faith


Questions Q: How did you switch from being a developer to managing a project? A: In the first case, had shipped a project and was just starting on a large team for a new project and was available to exit. Did the legwork before as part of her regular job, but when the project could be presented as a whole. Q: Probably couldn't do it right away. A: No, you need the credibility. For the second project, because the official one and with new managers told them what the project was. Q: Do you tell everyone right away what you're thinking about when you are doing the legwork? A: Definitely. It helps get support, and is part of making people look smart.

Q: How do you approach a new manager? A: Reputation precedes you. When she asked for a new resources, the manager checked up on her, calling others in the organization. "When people talk about you that is the strongest thing you could have." And when you're talking to the manager, talk about what you've delivered. Can be upfront about your agenda.

Q: What about when your vision is only going to be effective in the further future? A: Yes, the problem is that it will be someone else's problem because the people who are making the short-sighted decisions aren't going to be there. Talk to the people that will be there longer, as part of getting the organizational "lay of the land". Sometimes they are making trade-offs that you don't know about---the company might be acquired, the project might be about to change. People don't get excited about housekeeping, but if you can tie it to profitability issues it can help. If you can't get anybody interested, then work on the things that are important now. You have to succeed "in a way that people will recognize." "If you really don't believe in the value system, get a new organization." You might have to just pay your dues.

Q: Suggestions about how to get people together and interested? Social events? Meetings? How do you create a cross-disciplinary team? A: Some people did it on the side and some people got assigned. Some she rerouted some resources to get the people she really needed. Sometimes it's money people need, sometimes it's credit --- find out what the management needs when getting people resources from them. Some people got involved because they thought it was fun. A very strong peer relationship and strong vision of the benefit and fun. No bullshit in meetings - tell everyone who has to be there and who doesn't. "Set up a healthy rivalry between two different statistical methods" "Peer-respectiful relationship. I didn't order anyone around." Told them about deadlines - "the customer is coming next week, can we do it?" "We do a lot of things that revolve around food." --- bbq, lunches "Value what they do." "Appreciating people . . . is huge and it's something that we forget."

Q: What happens if the project fails? A: You can find projects with very little risk. "Take the risk down to the point where it's just a programming exercise." The other project, she posed as a risky problem, potentially technical insolvable, but that was in a research lab. "If I did this alone and the manager thought it was stupid and the VPs thought it was stupid, that would be a risk" "Be honest about the outcome . . . about how you're doing."

Q: How do you pull off the no-jerk policy? A: Being technical rank rather than management helps with that. Focussing on the mission, "rather have a small group that's competent than a large group" Because it's a project rather than a management deal, you can have more control. And she watches out for people in the team . . . create an emotionally safe place and protect them.

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