Driving Innovation in Large Corporations

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Companies should pay more attention to intrapreneurship and corporate business plan competitions so here I revisit an older post. The cases are still highly relevant so check it out!

The latest example is an interesting article, Driving Innovation in Large Corporations, written by Ricardo dos Santos from Qualcomm Ventures, Stig Poulsen from Danfoss Ventures, Dr. William R. Wagner from HP Imaging and Printing Group and William Aulet from MIT Entrepreneurship Center.

They all have extensive experience on innovation in large corporations and in particular with corporate business plan competitions. In the article, they state that the benefits of business plan competitions are typically threefold:

• Create New Companies – The competitions can create new ventures as a result of the motivation created through financial or recognition incentives.

• Foster Enhanced Skill Development – The competitions serve as both motivators and tools to enhance overall business acumen and entrepreneurial behaviors.

• Build Cross-Functional Teams – The competition can be a platform whereby people with different skills and the common goal of creating a new venture can meet and become partners. The resulting social and professional networks enhance the ability of individuals to realize their goals.

I also like their set of questions that can help decide whether an organization is a good candidate for corporate business plan competitions:

1. Is innovation fundamental to your company’s business strategy?

2. Does the CEO believe this and aggressively push for innovation?

3. Is your company willing to take a long term view of innovation programs?

4. Will a CBPC complement existing innovation programs in your company today?

5. Is your organization willing to make a significant investment in a CBPC program? (>$500K out of pocket plus a material time commitment of senior executives)

6. Will your company take seriously ideas that come out of such a competition?

7. Is there an identified champion who is passionate about running such a CBPC program?

Check out the full article: Driving Innovation in Large Corporations

Republished with author's permission from original post.

Stefan Lindegaard
Stefan is an author, speaker, facilitator and consultant focusing on open innovation, social media tools and intrapreneurship.

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