Moving beyond process and goals in corporate entrepreneurship
by Steffen Raetzer, Innovation Catalyst & Entrepreneur, CH
Three out of four decision makers believe that innovation is a top 3 priority for their organisation. Yet, only one out of five, believes their business has an advantage in innovation. Based on an on-going research project, this session proposes very practical ways to unlock higher levels of innovative power, grit and passion in intrapreneurs and innovators.
IN today‘s world, we innovate through an idea-centric process. We ask people to put ideas forward, we develop and fund those…and the results are not great….
This is unsatisfactory on a number of levels:
Financial: needs >26% ROI
Human: lots of frutration
Business & Society: the problems do not get solved!
When you look at some of the finer details there is an element that has gone unnoticed for long…
This is unsatisfactory on a number of levels:
Financial: needs >26% ROI
Human: lots of frutration
Business & Society: the problems do not get solved!
When you look at some of the finer details there is an element that has gone unnoticed for long…
Clearly, addressing the human dimension holds a lot of potential for better results.
If you add that 80% of employees are disengaged at work (Gallup) and 80% ly in job interviews, there is definate room for improvement.
Hence, the people centric approach.
Should not come as a surprise: experienced investors always invest in the team, rather than the idea.
So, what happens, if we put the individual before the idea? What if we optimize for engagment and collaboration before we look at challenges and ideas?
That is what the human centric approach does: it looks at the individual and their core motivators and believes, before foming super teams and letting them loose on challenges that they believe are important.
I am prepared to bet that a fully engaged team, that consists of individuals, whos yes are shining at the possibility of doing thier thing, will outperform a team that is turning up for a 9-5 job.
I was wearing a mask…
THEN THE PENNY DROPPED! MAYBE IT WASN‘T A FLAW: MAYBE IT WAS THE TELL TALE THAT I WAS JUST PART OF SOMETHING DIFFERENT; SOMETHING NEW!
I was okay with trying something new. As a result, we raised 36 million for my first company and made it to the WEF watchlist of tech pioneers.
It was behind finding a solution to problem that the Red Cross had, completely reworking a product that had not changed for decades, making a viable product out of it and raising 200.000 CHF and being seen as Top 25 Start-ups in Switzerland. That is rare for a humanitarian product.
Important, I am doing this, not because anybody tells me to…I am doing this for my self…I am doing this because it is important to me…yet, it will resonate with a certain group of your work force, that I will introduce in a minute
How can I access this untapped potential?
While I saw these results, the question that bugged me was:
Where there more people like me? People that cold bring a different kind of innovation?
Was it predicable? Can we measure it?
needed to know, if I was the only one…
Asked friends and family, soon was approached by strangers
Found research partners
So what are we researching?
I was looking for an approach that explained what dozens of people have told me in interviews. Individuals with good careers and how they found the current structure restraining, how they felt, they wanted to give more but couldn‘t!!
I found it evolutionary psychology…you see, us humans evolve in stages…
ALL APRADIGMS ARE QUALLY VALUABLE: NONE IS BETTER THAN THE OTHER! Need a mix and collaboration
50 % want self-fulfillment
16% are looking for impact
That is 2/3 of this group are not wanting change for you or your organisation! They are doing it for themselves!!
BTW: from a marketing perspective – Women are 20% more likely to express a desire for values in their work. And I am taking bets that they prefer to buy from an organisation that is values based…