To kick off Stone & Chalk’s podcast series on Intrapreneurship, Stone & Chalk’s Ben Dunn sits down with Stone & Chalk Group Executive - Partnerships, Mimi Curran, to lay the groundwork for the series. What do we mean by ‘intrapreneurship’? 

Why should companies care about intrapreneurs and what can they do to foster and encourage their passion and ideas? In this age of disruption, companies will need all the help they can get to question the assumptions of their sectors in a way that benefits their customers and their shareholders. Ben and Mimi discuss some of the lessons that can be learned from Stone & Chalk’s Advisory Consulting team’s projects, especially around how individuals and teams require guardrails to set them up for success. Innovation needs a structure that helps focus and direct efforts on solving problems and priorities. Successful innovations also require a diversity of approaches. It’s not just about the visionary who comes up with the idea but also the team who successfully executes. Innovation is a team game, and companies require teams of intrapreneurs to capture the value properly. Intrapreneurs can be found at all levels of the organisation. More senior intrapreneurs can help the wider organisation think differently, listening to customers and working with an organisation’s structure and resources to deliver value that may disrupt the norms within their company and industry, but that’s ok. Sacred cows make the best burgers.

Useful links:

e: ben.dunn@stoneandchalk.com.au

“A new model for innovation in big companies” by Beth Altringer – HBR November 2013: https://hbr.org/2013/11/a-new-model-for-innovation-in-big-companies

League of Intrapreneurs: https://www.leagueofintrapreneurs.com/