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.
What is the intrapreneurial maturity level of my organisation?
Not all companies have the same level of maturity, whether it is because of the experience they have acquired in such matters or internal characteristics that may or may not predispose them to adopt intrapreneurial behaviours and processes. Before embarking on an intrapreneurial approach and before choosing the right organisational device, it is therefore essential to assess your level of maturity, which is what we are proposing with this test.
We propose a scale with five levels from 0 to 4 that you can use as a tool for self-assessment in order to identify which type of device will work best depending on your maturity. Four dimensions are taken into account: the experience accumulated and the expertise acquired in intrapreneurship and participative innovation, the company’s current strategic priorities, its values and culture and the characteristics of the organisation.
We recommend that you perform this self-assessment and keep it in mind before studying the different types of organisational devices and those that are most suitable for your objectives.
Intrapreneurship questionnaire: take the test!
The questionnaire will only take you a few minutes. Depending on the aims that your organisation wants to prioritise and its intrapreneurial maturity, you will get a recommendation for the most appropriate organisational devices among the 8 that we have outlined in our white paper!
To find out more, you can find the typology drawn up by Véronique Bouchard and Lola Virolle presented in this article How to choose the right organizational device for my intrapreneurship program (in French).
