Doing This One Thing Will Make You A Great Intrapreneur

We often think of entrepreneurs as mavericks. This is part of the myth making around famous founders like Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. But acting like a maverick when you are an intrapreneur inside an established company is not a formula for success. As I often tell intrapreneurs:

You are not Elon Musk, and you don’t work in a company full of idiots.

I don’t do this to insult their entrepreneurial abilities. Indeed, I have worked with a lot of very talented innovators. My message is simply a reminder that to be a successful intrapreneur you need more than just your passion for innovation.

The difference in context between entrepreneurs working on their own startup and intrapreneurs working inside an established company is the level of politics.

Intrapreneurs need to be really good at building relationships.

Defining Successful Innovation

To understand why building relationships is important, we have to first align on what constitutes a successful innovation. An innovation is considered a success when it has impact in the real world. As such, the goal is to ensure that some of the ideas we work on end up in the market creating new revenues and profits for the company.

In order to achieve this goal, we have to design and test our business ideas. What we are searching for are value propositions that resonate with customers and business models that are profitable and scalable. This is the formula for innovation success.

The Role Of Relationships

Once we agree that the goal is to create products and services that have an impact in the real world, then it is easy to see why building relationships matters. It is virtually impossible for a product or service to be successfully launched in the market without collaborating with colleagues from other key functions in the business (e.g. finance, sales, marketing, and legal).

Furthermore, if intrapreneurs want to have more than just one successful project, having good ongoing relationships with these colleagues from the key functions becomes critical. This is the superpower of the great serial innovators inside established companies.

Great serial intrapreneurs possess a combination of entrepreneurial skillsand relationship building.

Relationship building is one thing that you have to be truly good at to succeed as an intrapreneur. So please remember to approach innovation with humility. Without buy-in and support from your colleagues, finding innovation success will be an uphill battle. Always remember that, you are not Elon Musk and you don’t work in a company full of idiots.