One of the most frightening things about growing up as a startup is the idea that you might lose your innovative edge. The bigger companies get, by and large, the less nimble they become and the harder it gets to stay truly innovative.
It’s for that reason that many larger companies are focusing on the idea of “intrapreneurship,” based on the notion that entrepreneurial activity can take place at larger organizations, if it’s given room to take shape. Management experts have theories about it, and startups like Spotify are building their org charts with it in mind.
We at BostInno were curious about this phenomenon, and so we asked a number of our Channel partners about it, and what advice they’d give to startups about staying innovative as they grow. The best definition for the term “intrapreneurship” came from Taylor Aldredge, Ambassador of Buzz at Grasshopper who described it this way:
I think intrapreneurship looks selfless, and it looks like someone who knows that their goals identify with something beyond just themselves. I think an intrapreneur sees what’s around him or her and tries to improve the situation or come up with something awesome that will benefit everyone in the organization. Intrapreneurs recognize that they are part of something big, but they don’t get lost in the shuffle. Instead, they get this urge to improve the machine, add new parts, and get it humming at a speed that others never thought it could.
So that’s the goal, but how do you get there? From the responses we received five lessons emerged, some general and others specific.
Give Employees Autonomy
“Regardless of your size, you need to continue to listen to your customers, continue to hire smart, motivated people and continue to provide them with autonomy to attack the problems they think will make the most impact on your company,” said Josh Payne, Director of Product Management at InsightSquared. Jay Singh, founder and CEO of ViralGains, agreed. “Intrapreneurship is fueled by encouraging employees to be proactive and giving them the freedom to spearhead initiatives they feel passionate about,” wrote Singh by email.
Focus on Culture
“It’s important not to take your company culture for granted,” said Sarah Downey of Abine. “Think about what’s defined the people, the attitude, and the vibe from the beginning, and commit to keeping that as the company grows.” Harvey Simmons of EverTrue agreed. “There is no perfect formula for companies to stay nimble and innovative as they grow, but all companies can benefit by continuing to go back to their roots — by sharing with everyone the inspiration that fueled their ship as they took off,” he wrote.
Hackathons
Simmons also mentioned hackathons as a way to keep companies innovative. Indeed, these days hackathons don’t need to be limited to the software side of the business. Greg Raiz, CEO of mobile development shop Raizlabs told BostInno he utilizes hackathons for this purpose as well.
“We have ‘hack-days’ once every other week where people can explore ideas, innovations and new technologies,” he said. “This fosters idea creation and innovation in existing domains without the constraints of process or approvals. We’ve been able jump start a number of interesting projects.”
Incubate New Ventures
One of the more obvious but perhaps more difficult solutions to this problem is to just create startups internally. Though this approach is more ambitious and requires a formal change to the org chart, it’s the path Carbonite has taken, according to CEO David Friend.
“It’s hard to have a corporate culture that juxtaposes caution and process on one hand with nimbleness and innovation on the other. So it’s a good idea to separate the two functions inside the company so that both are fostered,” he told BostInno. “At Carbonite, we have formed a new ventures organization that is under separate leadership from our core businesses, and as products from this group mature from incubation, they can be handed off to the core business.”
Keep Paying Attention to Startups
Last but not least is one of my favorite suggestions, and probably the easiest to implement. Don’t stop reading about and learning from startups as you grow!
“Something that has helped us keep our innovative edge is staying current with what other companies in the startup space are doing, both from a product and marketing perspective,” said Kathleen Poulos, Co-Founder and CMO of InCrowd. “We’ve used BostInno to help make that happen; we’ve learned about new services, creative marketing ideas, found interesting ways to share content or in other words we simply stay close to those pushing the boundaries.”
Whether it’s BostInno, Hacker News, TechCrunch or whatever else, paying attention to what the best startups are doing will help keep you on the cutting edge.
Any other suggestions for cultivating intrapreneurship and staying innovative? Leave them in the comments.
