Corporate business plan competitions – an initiative to identify intrapreneurs and create open innovation
You know that some people in your organization have the potential to drive innovation forward, but how do you identify them? And once you’ve found your potential “intrapreneurs,” how do you train them and support their success? The chief tool I recommend for this purpose is a corporate business plan competition.
Such competitions are patterned after the business plan competitions run by educational institutions such as MIT and Harvard Business School, but the idea has been successfully adapted for a corporate environment or even used to drive open innovation. Companies that have successfully used this strategy to foster intrapreneurship include Danfoss Ventures, an international leader in mechanical and electronic products and controls; Novozymes, the world leader in bio-innovations; and computer giant Hewlett-Packard.
Corporate business plan competitions can…
• …increase revenues and raise profits, both short- and long-term. Intrapreneurs are at their best when they are challenged with new ventures or projects. Business plan competitions can link intrapreneurs to new ventures and projects, and when combined with solid execution strategies, can produce revenues and profits.
• …support recruiting efforts. A committed focus on intrapreneurship as evidenced by a business plan competition improves the corporate image and makes it easier to attract and retain top talent.
• …encourage others throughout the company to focus on innovation. Visibly identifying and cultivating intrapreneurs through a business plan competition can shift the corporate culture so everyone stays alert and always on the lookout for opportunities that might otherwise be lost.
• …help create a platform for open innovation. A business plan competition is an innovation engine that could be very effective in not only listening to the needs of the external ecosystem of customers and partners, but also in turning this input into business ideas and stronger relationships with key partners.
You can read more on corporate business plan competitions in the latest issue of Strategy & Innovation for which I wrote the feature article. See this document: Corporate business plan competitions
Strategy & Innovation is published by Innosight which is an innovation consultancy founded by Clayton Christensen.Corporate business plan competitions
Great article, Stefan. Now that we have a number of corporate business plan competitions to compare, I can see that when designing one, the organizer must be cognizant of how it will fit within the organization's culture. One example of this is deciding how competitors enter; HP has chosen to make it open to all employees while other companies use an invitation-only format. Both approaches may be correct for our particular corporate cultures.
I bring this up as a caution about being overly perscriptive. There is no "one size fits all" design for a corporate competition. Designing a successful one requires cultural awareness and alignment with senior management.
I hope that more companies will begin competitions like Flashpoint, Venturefest, and Man on the Moon. A sharing of best practices and experiences, both good and bad, is most helpful.
Thanks again for the terrific article, Stefan!