Encouraging Intrapreneurship
August 11, 2009
As companies grow older and larger, it becomes increasingly difficult to develop new and innovative products and services. When you aren’t Apple, Microsoft, [insert other giant company here], you don’t have the luxury of a dedicated new research and development department. So how do you stay competitive and innovative in your market? I think it takes a combination of two things: hire entrepreneurs and promote intrapreneurship.
When you are looking to develop new products and services, who better to hire than entrepreneurs, those who are always looking for a better solution. Entrepreneurs can provide a unique insight into your company’s products, services, business processes, etc. However, you can’t hire an entrepreneur without knowing the risks. Entrepreneurs will most likely be working on something on the side other than their current tasks with your company, and if they are in fact working on something on the side and serious about what they are doing, they will be leveraging their hard-earned cash to fund their side projects. You may see this as a very bad thing, but it comes with the territory. That is why they are entrepreneurs. If they had rich uncles, they wouldn’t be working for you anyways. Instead of fighting it, have the policies in place to deal with the issue.
Intrapreneurship is very similar to entrepreneurship but it is more specific. Intrapreneurship is entrepreneurship focused on a particular organization’s core business. Promoting intrapreneurship in your organization is more than just hiring entrepreneur types. Without creating venues where your entrepreneurs can display their new ideas, providing incentives for their successes and ultimately providing the resources needed to implement the new ideas, your entrepreneurs on staff will become bored, feel ignored and probably leave. The underlying key in all the points of the last sentence is simply to listen. Let your entrepreneurs know you are listening and value their thought, time and effort.
I don’t want to paint a picture of entrepreneurs as prima donna, know-it-alls, because they aren’t. I simply paint it this way to bring up the point, you have to approach entrepreneurs in a different light, just as you would for developers, a sales team, executives, etc.
To give an example of creating venues for your intrapreneurs to show off their new ideas and implementations, Milsoft, a leader in Smart Grid Software and my employer, held several internal presentations yesterday showcasing their summer interns’ projects. The interns were given a project specification, but how they implemented their projects was open-ended. They were allowed to be creative and innovative. I can’t think of a better way to kick-start a young entrepreneur’s career by encouraging intrapreneurship from the onset. Kudos to Milsoft and their internship program.
What are your thoughts on intrapreneurship?
The Second-Mover Advantage
August 7, 2009
As an entrepreneur, it seems a lot of focus is placed on finding that unique, fresh and innovative new product or service. It’s a daily battle coming up with new ideas only to find with a quick Google search someone else is already way ahead of you on the idea. When I find my idea isn’t perfectly unique, I usually don’t chase the idea any farther than simply thinking about it, because I know I not only have to create an incredible product or service that people will use, but I am starting out of the gate with a major competitor(s).
Despite the challenge, being a second-mover has it’s advantages. A second-mover has the advantage of seeing exactly what the first-movers are offering and able to determine what is working and what isn’t. In this situation, the first-mover will be slower to act. If a first-mover company recognizes the real value of their service after gaining a large following, and they haven’t built out their product or service towards those value-adds, they are in trouble. As a first-mover’s customer base becomes larger, their company will become more resistant to change and less able to quickly implement new products and features to better suit the market. If they attempt any substantial changes to their offering, they risk losing customers. Being a second-mover, one may have the advantage of breaking down the market’s needs and hurts easier than the first-mover. Being able to address these specific needs at the onset allows the second-mover to build their offering in a way that re-addresses the core needs of the market. When implemented correctly, the second-mover will be able to start pulling market share from the first-mover. Sometimes applying a first-mover’s overall idea to a particular niche can be an effective strategy.
Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing easy about being a second-mover and there are plenty of convincing advantages of being a first-mover. By studying the first-mover to see what is or isn’t working, having a clear understanding of the market’s needs that aren’t being addressed by the first-mover, and having an offering that directly addresses the actual needs of the consumer, one has a good shot at creating something successful as a second-mover.
In the social networking world, new services pop up daily. With sites like MySpace and Twitter that become households names seemingly overnight, these giants are in the spotlight, have a huge user base and are finding it harder and harder to change their product direction. There is an incredible post titled “MySpace is to Facebook as Twitter is to _______” that breaks down how Facebook’s second-mover advantage allowed it to over take MySpace and questions who will be Twitter’s second-mover competition. The article inspired this post and I highly recommend the read.
I say all of this to say: even though your initial Google searching of your next big idea results in a long list of first-mover competitors, don’t stop there. Go the next step and see if you can leverage a second-mover advantage to create something successful.
What are your thoughts on being a second-mover?
The Truth Hurts
August 3, 2009
Since June 2007, my productivity has increased a good deal simply because of my iPhone purchase. I rely on my iPhone daily for my email, calendar, directions, alarm, Twitter, Facebook, games, texting, etc. etc.
BUT as time continues to pass and other cell phone (T-Mobile) and software (Google) providers close the gap on the iPhone’s technologies, justifying an iPhone becomes harder and harder. This article from Fast Company helps put things into perspective.
As Google’s and Apple’s offerings continue to diverge, I think my buddy Chris Faulkner (former Abilenian) puts it best: “there will come a day when we have to choose between Apple and Google”
What are your thoughts? Agree? Disagree?
