Initiative, Innovation, Intrapreneur!

 

Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower – Steve Jobs.

Innovation is the key element to developing a business in a XXIst century economy and an efficient way of achieving economic growth, said a National Science Foundation report from USA; which is one of the natural consequences of a modern economy, but which makes the entrepreneurs’ preoccupation for innovation a needed development in their organizations. In the European Union, the country with the biggest innovation inclination is Germany (79.9%), according to  EUROSTAT, making it one of the most resistant and productive countries during the economic crisis. However, innovation is still being viewed as an expensive investment which can be avoided and replaced with short term goals. But this is how the performance process gets stuck. Well-known American physician Oliver Wendell Holmes said that the great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving; in business it’s more or less the same, because you cannot build performance while remaining in the same point, just because, for the moment, everything goes well. So what is the solution for innovation in business or how can we apply innovation in business with the resources we already have?

The concept of entrepreneur is well-known among small or medium businesses; however its true success lies among large companies, where it is often called intrapreneurship. In recent years, this term refers to intracorporate entrepreneurs, meaning an entrepreneur working for large companies where his main goal is to make changes, motivate and build performance through new ideas, initiative and last, but not least, innovation. An intrapreneur is different from an entrepreneur, because he focuses on creativity and innovation to turn an idea into a profitable element for the company, working with the available resources in the company. Mostly lead by the concept it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission, intrapreneurs bring one essential benefit for their business – initiative. 

A famous case is the story of Chuck House from Hewlett-Packard, who persisted on multiplying the number of extra large screen computer monitors, even though CEO David Packard personally asked that he stopped this action. House’s idea won the admiration of his clients, making the company more profitable and convincing David Packard that his initiative was a good choice.

An innovating change based on the available resources is the strategy of any successful intrapreneur. In most companies, any new idea “can wait “and until it is being materialized, it gets lost on the way, but through initiative, intrapreneurs can bring great and radical changes in a company; if you want to win more, you have to risk more and especially, to change more!