Entrepreneurship has been a buzzword that dominates most of the conversations in our industry. Entrepreneurs are certainly a special lot who are ultra-passionate, enjoy taking risks and are usually driven by making a positive impact to the world around them.
With all the attention that entrepreneurship gets, it is arguably not possible for all of us to become one. There could be myriad of reasons for this but many of us consciously find our calling in working for the organizations. If an entrepreneur creates a vision, it's the employees who make it a reality. So this choice is absolutely fine and legitimate.
Being an employee doesn't mean that you cannot exercise the traits that make one an entrepreneur. In my career journey, I discovered that one can embrace those traits anytime at work and create a dent in the universe surrounding your organization. Simply put, Intrapreneurship is the act of behaving like an entrepreneur while working within a large organization.
In this session, I shared my experiences about this discovery of mine and dissect a few of the distinguishing qualities that make one an Intrapreneur.
2. 2
the Australian team (under Steve Waugh) used to consider
themselves as world no. 2 (though they were undisputed #1).
This feel of them not being #1, even though artificial one but
deeply internalized one, helped them get better even when they
won.
3. 3
“Is Monty bowling in his 33rd test or the
1st test for the 33rd time?”-
Shane Warne
Monty did all the hard work to reach the
pinnacle of his chosen sport but stopped
growing, stopped experimenting enough.
4. 4
What do you infer from these
examples ?
Any correlation with corporate
life ?
7. 7
Arthur Fry co-inventor of Post-It Notes
When Fry was told by the marketing division his
idea wasn’t wanted by customers, he did his
own market research,’
When manufacturing told him his Post-It Notes
were impossible to make, even though he
worked in the lab, he worked out the
production technology himself and, in blatant
disregard of the rules, borrowed and re-
engineered a 3M production line at night to
prove his process would work.
9. Job Hiring Process
Job Description
created by Job Owner
Job Description
Approved by Finance,
Leadership
Interview/Hiring
Process/Offer
New Employee
Onboarding
Induction into the
role/Job Charter
Explanation
Normally
In my case
Organizational Gap
Identification
Drafting of Job
description
Pitching the job to Executive
Leadership/Driving Approval
process
Appearing for Interview
Process along with other
candidates
Defining the Execution
Plan
10. Job Hiring Process
Job Description
created by Job Owner
Job Description
Approved by Finance,
Leadership
Interview/Hiring
Process/Offer
New Employee
Onboarding
Induction into the
role/Job Charter
Explanation
Normally
In my case
Organizational
Gap Identification
Drafting of Job
description
Pitching the job to
Executive
Leadership/Driving
Approval process
Appearing for
Interview Process
along with other
candidates
Defining the Execution
Plan
11. 11
Drive Revenue Opportunities by Enabling Strategic Customer Engagements,
Leading World Class Innovation and Tech Trainings Programs, and
Creating Ecosystem Leverage.
What was I doing then ?
India Technical Operations Vision and Mission
TECHNICAL TRAINING
Build a World Class Tech
Training Practice. Enhance the
Culture of Curiosity.
INNOVATION
Drive Patents, New
Product/Revenue Opportunities
TECH ECOSYSTEM
ENGAGEMENT
Engage with Peer Companies
and Drive Synergies
UNIVERSITY TECHNICAL
RELATIONS
Enhance Long Term Tech
Relationships with Universities
INDIA SITE BRANDING
Make Citrix Brand Prominent,
Citrix Messaging Relevant
START-UP ECOSYSTEM
ENGAGEMENT
Work with Technologically
Relevant Start-ups and Create
Opportunities for Synergies
EXECUTIVE BRIEFING
CENTER
Drive the Engagement to 2X-3X
times the Current Visits/Year.
INDIA SITE COLLABORATION
Greater Technical Collaboration
Between India Engineering,
Support, Operations and Sales
GLOBAL INITIATIVES
Tech mentoring Program,
MOOCs, India Site Scorecard,
Playbook and more.
12. A few areas that I had to unlearn and relearn
- Drinking from a fire-hose syndrome
- Relationship Building
- Creating an immaculate Elevator Pitch
- Managing Identity within the organization
- Managing Ignorance
- Transitioning from managing by control to
managing by influence
13. Impact of my Intrapreneurial StintMy Career Phases
There are many ways to
measure careers. I chose
‘extent of disruption’ I
managed to create as a
measure of career success.
15. Why focus on mindset ?
Career is akin to running a marathon, One cannot do well by just focusing on skills (body) and not on mind.
I ran my first full marathon (42.195
Km) in 2014, focused a lot on physical
training. Realized at the end of that
run the importance of mindset
training. Recently, finished my 17th
full marathon in 40 degrees plus heat,
could finish it due to better mindset
preparation.
I follow similar approach while taking
any new roles i.e. unpeel the job and
figure out what mindset would be
needed for success and work to
master that first (while working on
skills).
In many ways, mindset training
precedes skills training.
16. Why focus on mindset ?
Having different ingredients of success isn’t enough, you need a catalyst to take that leap
17. 1. Intrapreneurs have high degree of situational
awareness
Both Sakshi Malik in 2016 Rio Olympics and Leander Paes in in that 2006
Davis Cup match against Pakistan won the close contests by being
physically, mentally and emotionally aware of match situation.
Likewise, Intrapreneurs know how to find gaps in the system
18. How I identify Gaps ?
- Focus on areas where existing solutions and decision makers aren’t
addressing important needs.
- Make it a priority to listen whenever executive leadership speaks.
Don’t miss employee meetings, ask questions, show curiosity.
- Read as much as possible about company strategy, public
messaging and much more.
19. Brian Fitzpatrick (former) Senior Engineering Manager Google
Brian created a change allowing users of Google
products to manage their own information and
data. Without being in charge of that, he
advocated for the idea that he collaborate with
all the product owners — where all this data sat
across all the different Google products like
Gmail and photos — to make changes to the
products that they owned.
In the end he was able to create a single,
integrated tool called Google Takeout. That
became a very high-profile way that Google was
able to demonstrate they weren't acting as a
monopoly.
21. 2. Intrapreneurs know how to build support for their idea
- Never reach out to someone for the first time, when you need
their help.
- Understand the difference between Givers, Matchers and Takers.
- Focus on decision makers but don’t forget the influencers.
Intrapreneurs develop broad and varied network of relationships. They know how to navigate the
political web of the company to build support.
22. It's important to understand how decisions gets made
and how budgets are allocated.
23. 3. Intrapreneurs know how to effectively communicate
success
“It was interesting because the
2012 U-19 final featured India
and Australia; the result of the
final will tell you that India beat
Australia. Six years down the
line, while only one of those
boys played a couple of one-day
games for India, four-five
Australians have gone on to
play for Australia.”
Rahul Dravid
What Rahul Dravid meant was that success at U-19 level is not
just measured by whether the team won the world cup or not,
but really by how much active talent pipeline it has helped build
in a long run (to be playing in senior side).
24. Deepak Punia, Aug 2019: Junior 86 kg World Wrestling
Champion
Deepak Punia, Sept 2019: Senior 86 kg World Wrestling Gold
or Silver medalist
25. Inspired by Amazon’s Press
Release process, I begin
every initiative by
envisioning end in the mind,
by forming a clear definition
of success upfront and get
that definition validated by
the people who matter.
26. Are you differentiating between activities and the
outcomes ?
Do the metrics you are tracking matter to people who
matter ?
27. 4. Intrapreneurs are authentic, align first with core values
“Being authentic to
yourself, who you
are is the most
important thing.”
29. 5. Intrapreneurs are champions at connect the dots
“Chess helps me in plotting the
opposition batsman's dismissal. I try
to be one step ahead of the batsman,
especially in T20 where the bowler
has to think on his feet. When the
batsman is going hard, I try to remain
calm. My chess training helps me in
staying focused with the job in hand.
30. 31
Focusing on my Third Dimension in
the time beyond work and personal
life, allowed me to build a great
deal of foundation to help build
unimaginable connection that
helped me at work.
31. 6. Intrapreneurs focus on Credibility/Reputation first,
Skills next
Your credibility/reputation is always on incline,
It either goes up or comes down.
If its static, its actually going down.
Skills first thinking helps most of the times but it becomes a problem when we use the lens of skills to reject the
opportunities that we should have taken.
The chances of you getting a great job by pursuing it are not so great. Its far better to make yourself attractive and let the
jobs/opportunities come your way. And you become attractive by first establishing your credibility.
32. 7. Intrapreneurs embrace learnability, but also stay teachable
The case of Julius Yego, also known as Mr.
YouTube. Hailed from Kenya which is known for
long distance runner, he made his mark as Javelin
thrower and eventually became world champion
in 2015. He started learning Javelin using
YouTube till started winning International
medals. He showed exemplary learnability earlier
on but later leveraged professional coach’s help
to become world champion. It shows that he
remained teachable even after becoming expert.
Learning agility: If a person is thrown into a
situation, they have never seen, how quickly can
they figure out what it takes to succeed.
33. 8. Intrapreneurs know that asking for help is not a sign of
weakness
Robin Uthappa hired a personal coach when
he wasn’t doing well. It eventually turned
tide for him and he did remarkably well in
IPL after that.
You don’t get unless you ask.
Don't hesitate to ask for help. It's not a sign of weakness, its
certainly a sign of maturity. Asking for input is a smart move. A
big benefit in being a large organization is access to many point
of views. Why not make use of it ?
34. A big benefit in being a large organization is access
to many point of views. Why not make use of it ?
36. 9. Intrapreneurs understand that there is absolutely
no sense of entitlement
“When you think about the pedestal we
put our cricketers on, to them wealth
seems to be a right, not a reward,”
Don Argus who head the panel that reviewed Australia's poor Ashes show
including the Ball tempering scandal
Aldous Huxley, the author of Brave New World said, most
human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things
for granted.
39. Intrapreneurs are fast. Move fast, learn fast, change
course if needed. But ensure progress at all times.
Don't let you be the enemy of yourself.
Alwayskeep taking minimum viable step to ensure
progress in difficult circumstances.
40. 11. Intrapreneurs come to work willing to be fired
A mindset that teaches
you to:
- Be fearless.
- Be practical.
- Be in the moment.
41. Don’t be fooled into thinking that you have a lifelong
career. At any moment, prepare to be independent.
42. 12. Intrapreneurs keep the hunger, that ‘Fire-in-
Belly’ alive at all the times
Roger Federer at 36 became World no. 1 in
Tennis, a sport traditionally known to be
dominated by 25 year olds.
Its that hunger to dominate the sport that
kept him going.
43. 13. Intrapreneurs show-up more often than anyone else
An ideal metric is "How many times we show up"
If you want to write a ground-breaking paper,
publish a lot.
If you want to be a long-distance runner,
Run a lot.
Show up and keep showing up.
44. If it feels scary and lonely, you're probably on the
right track.
COMPANIES CANNOT DISRUPT UNLESS
INDIVIDUALS DO.
45. “People who are mission-driven and people who take bold bets will
not have a job description, they will not be project managers, they will
not be program managers, we call them choreographers, they are people
who have the breadth of experience across various business types and have
good understanding of humanities, technologies, sociology. The reason for this
is because they can work across various silos of the organization
and bring out the potential that technology holds”
Jayesh Ghatge, Market Partner, ThoughtWorks
