How can an intrapreneur working in a large company really make a difference?

Yes - and once you have a few early adopters on board, it can be useful to change the talk around the issue from a possibility to an certainty, i.e. "We will..." and then it transforms from an idea to something that will happen. In a way, there are similarities between the activist and the intrapreneur. It requires a lot of pushing and convincing but ultimately a belief that IT WILL HAPPEN.

It's not easy. not at all. New and emerging concepts such as social intrapreneur tend to get bundled into the peripheral "sounds a bit like CSR and so not really real business or part of my job". challenging misperceptions like this is key. I would also say that the #SocInt concept must always be grounded in a firm business case that is robust enough to withstand questioning from doubting leadership, the disinterested or the cynical. there are plenty of each!

The ability to hit a target other's can't see.

Awesome, thanks Zahid!

Hi Mette -David Grayson at the Doughty Centre has published a paper on this exact piece that you should check out.

From my experience, company culture and permissions help. We saw a lot of intrapreneurship at Nike because they had a fairly entrepreneurial culture and a mantra of 'do the right thing' - this gave people permission to interpret doing the right thing in their own way.

David also talks about the importance of 'godparents' - early champions - almost like Angel Investors in intrapreneurs. Again, in the case of Nike, we could trace several projects back to a single senior level individual who saw the promise and released some seed funding to get the ideas off the ground.

And, finally, a big enabler is TIME. Give people space in their day jobs to experiment with new ideas.

Great advice, thank you Maggie!

Maggie - that is helpful. As an NGO we work with a lot of corporates and I have always wondered what is the formula for spotting the intraprenuers ion these comapnies as they are the best entry points for exploring core business development

Its in the nature of an intrapreneur to develop homemade solutions, leveraging skills and capacities that are already available, specific to their company, and primed for changing the world!

Taking on the management perspective is important, excellent point. Thank you Mark!

Question from a Corporate Partnerships professional:

At my organization, we've (through "social intrapreneurship, more or less) launched a new initiative focused on leveraging the capabilities of corporations to help scale our social enterprise investments. We realize that often it takes a few key players within the corporations to help us see the partnership to execution.

What can we as potential partners do to help social intrapreneurs affect change within corporations?

Mark Thain - I'd be particularly interested in hearing your perspective as we have had some ongoing conversations with financial institutions.

I do love that notion of social challenges often being business opportunities in disguise Maggie.

Mavis - To my mind, social intrapreneurship is not a role in itself. Nor will it appear on any corporate organogram. It is not a new division, department or job title. Instead is much more of a mindset, behavior or attitude. Something that can manifest itself within any corporate function or individual.

Wish we'd had you at the Lab!

Google Graham Simpson at GSK, Miriam Turner at Interface & Christine Gould at Syngenta - some of the first members of the 'The League of Intrapreneurs' who have some amazing stories to tell - but are also are very much in the process of attaining success.

Reynard - another great resource is this publication from Professor David Grayson (Director, The Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility, Cranfield School of Management): http://snipbfp.org/1aRojDW

Q2. Is social intrapreneurship always possible? Is a certain ‘enabling-environment’ required or can you make it happen regardless?

Dan Schawbel, founder of Millennial Branding, a Gen-Y research and management consulting firm, recently wrote an informative article on Forbes.com, "Why Companies Want You to Become an Intrapreneur." He makes an interesting point: "The top reason why millennials leave their companies after two years is because of a lack of career opportunities. Intrapreneurship programs are one solution to solve this retention problem." So there's another reason to support the entrepreneurial spirit of employees.

Could you offer some suggestions on how to promote and develop intrapreneurs in large companies in the first place, please.

I think you're raising a really interesting question as to how social entrepreneurs on the outside can link into the pre-scaled value chains of large corporates......it's Ashoka's notion of the hybrid value chain. I think orgs like your own could play a fantasic brokering role between entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs and also the exciting B2B concept of intrapreneur to other intrapreneur

This is such a great idea - and how I ended up discovering social intrapreneurs in the first place - through funding from Skoll to look at the potential for collaboration between corporations and social entrepreneurs!

A few initial thoughts on how you can help intrapreneurs who are working with social entrepreneurs: 1) Help them make the case for investment. What is the benefit to the organization of working with the social enterprise? 2) Help them to tell great, engaging stories - bring the idea off the page and rally support. 3) Help them to translate social or environmental goals into business language and vice versa. and finally 4) Help them to manage the power dynamics that can easily emerge between large organizations and small enterprises...

Hope that helps and good luck!

So true. Gen Y expects totally different things from work. Hopefully, more companies will switch on!

Here's a link to David's paper: http://snipbfp.org/1aRojDW