Approaches to intrapreneurship keep on coming, and they are not all alike. Different organisational devices with very different characteristics and impacts can be implemented. Therefore, it is necessary to make the right choice well in advance to avoid the pitfall of adopting a ready-made solution that is not aligned with the company objectives and does not take its intrapreneurial maturity into account. By asking yourself some questions about these two points, you will be better placed to choose the right organisational device and build or restructure a program to make it relevant and impactful for your organisation.
What are the objectives of my program? Are they realistic and coherent?
A frequent mistake is to believe that you can reap all the benefits of intrapreneurship – business performance, innovation, human and cultural transformation – within the framework of a single program. Clearly, you cannot simultaneously encourage the participation of a large number of employees and aspire to generating ambitious innovation projects, the pursuit of which requires major human and financial resources on a few initiatives. Similarly, it is impossible to leave complete latitude to employees when it comes to choosing their project and use the intrapreneurship program to respond to well-identified strategic challenges.
Therefore, it is primordial to have realistic expectations and to correctly specify the goals of the program. These goals may change over the lifespan of the program and in line with the maturity of the company. We suggest that you specify your expectations in relation to the main expected benefits, the level of participation and the type of innovation sought.