You probably won’t meet an executive who doesn’t believe that innovation is vital for growth. In a survey by McKinsey & Company, 80 percent said it was very important or extremely important to their companies’ strategies.1 But only 6 percent were satisfied with their innovation performance and very few knew what the problem was or how to fix it.2
So it’s not surprising that many leaders find it a challenge when it comes to describing and quantifying intrapreneurship. They ask, “Do I have enough intrapreneurs in my organization?,” “Do they generate enough innovation initiatives?,” and “Do I have a culture that nurtures good intrapreneurship?” These big questions are overwhelming and most often result in very vague answers.
In this chapter, we offer you with two assessment tests so that you can get started with measuring intrapreneurship in your organization. I have broken down complex and hard-to-measure innovation questions into simpler questions designed to assess the current state of your organization. These tests have been developed in partnership with innovation managers and corporate leaders.
For your convenience, you can download the assessments and templates in this book from my website: www.sandralam.me.
Figure 2.1 presents the first assessment, Level of intrapreneurship, in your corporate. This assessment helps you understand the level of intrapreneurship of your organization and identify potential areas of development to increase it further.
Figure 2.2 presents the second assessment, The intrapreneur in you. It is a self-test designed for individual employees. You can give it to employees who aspire to be intrapreneurs. Completing the questionnaire will help them better understand their strengths and give them insights on how to further develop their potential.
Figure 2.1 Assessment I: Level of intrapreneurship in your corporate
• Work on the previous assessment and understand the level of intrapreneurship in your organization. Identify the current strengths and areas for development.
• Go to Chapter 3 to understand the traits of potential intrapreneurs. Make an inventory of the likely candidates in your organization. Reach out to them and discover their aspirations.
• Use “Assessment II: The intrapreneur in you” in this chapter, to assess your existing employees or potential candidates to discover their strengths and areas of development.
• Refer to Chapter 4 to understand the Intrapreneurship Formula for building an ecosystem for intrapreneurs to thrive.
• Read Chapter 5 to understand how to build the culture for intrapreneurship.
• Chapter 6 helps you set up the infrastructure for innovation, an environment that you need to provide for innovation to take flight.
• Chapter 7 lays out the key skills required for a successful intrapreneur. Evaluate your inventory (from Chapter 3) against those skills. See where the gaps are and make a learning roadmap to help them develop.
• Chapter 8 explains how the network of diversity brings more and better innovation.
• Use Chapter 9 to design an end-to-end employee journey for your intrapreneurs.
• Read Chapter 10 to avoid the pitfalls of innovation.
Next, you’ll find Assessment II: The intrapreneur in you, which you can send to potential intrapreneurs. For employees who show a particular interest in intrapreneurship, give them a copy of this book so that they can learn more about the skills required.
Figure 2.2 Assessment II: The intrapreneur in you
Guide for Intrapreneurs Completing Assessment II
• Work on the assessment and identify your current strengths and areas for development.
• Read Chapter 3 to review the traits of potential intrapreneurs. Ask yourself honestly: Does it describe who I am? Do I aspire to be a person like this? Decide for yourself whether you want to be an intrapreneur. You can change your destiny.
Getting Started
• Review your “Areas of development” scores and refer to the relevant skills described in Chapter 7. Decide which skill is the most important or impactful for you to expand first.
• Design a personalized learning plan based on the priority skills you need to acquire.
• Start a short weekly review session (you only need 15 minutes) to evaluate your progress and improvement.
Build Momentum
• Learn, practice, evaluate, and repeat.
• Practicing what you have learned is essential for you to reach your goals.
• This book will help you learn about the skills required for intrapreneurship. To master them, you should explore resources that can help you dive deeper and sharpen those skills. Refer to the external resources recommended for mastering each skill.
This chapter has provided you with a great starting point in the form of two assessment tools. The scores from Assessment I show you the level of intrapreneurship in your organization. They will guide you on the existing strengths and areas for improvement. You can then proceed to tackle specific areas by reading the relevant chapters of this book. Each chapter has detailed guidance on practices to build, enabling you to form a customized action plan for your organization.
Based on Assessment II, you will have engaged some of your employees to assess their potential to become intrapreneurs. In the next chapter, we’ll discuss the traits of potential intrapreneurs in more detail. You will see how the assessment is designed to discover these traits. It will make it easier for you to identify the talents with whom you interact in the future, without requiring them to do a detailed assessment.