如何把内部创业从神话变为现实

培训员工具备创业精神

    “很多研究显示，创新不只是上天的馈赠，同时也是一项可以通过后天学习掌握、并且不断提高的技艺，”Innosight的安东尼说。他同时还是《创新黑皮书》（The Little Black Book of Innovation）一书的作者。公关公司Prosek Partners则安排员工参加新兵训练营，讲授公司业务基本信息以及内部创业观。“我的员工普遍变得更主动，更有创业精神。拉出来和谁比都不逊色，”《创业之师》（Army of Entrepreneurs）一书的作者詹妮弗•波罗塞表示。

提供不务正业的空间

    众所周知，谷歌（Google）允许员工每周花一天时间尝试一些与日常工作无关的项目。员工可以用这20%的时间实践，可以进行大量的测试，不用担心犯错。

    乔登•戈德斯坦加入建筑设计公司Gensler后不久就建议结合新技术、全面改革设计流程，这个成功的实验很快就推广到了整个公司。受此鼓舞，他又实施了一些项目，还建议设立Fuel实验室——这是一个Gensler内部孵化实验室，与学术机构和非传统的潜在客户一起测试新的设计模型。

    Gensler同意为这一项目出资，做法与天使投资者和独立创业者之间的合作无异。今年夏初，戈德斯坦在泰国带领一队学生为低收入家庭和社区中心提供了空间扩展选择。“我总感觉，公司已经搭好了舞台，只要合适，我就可以在登台演出，”他说。“现在（他们）更愿意让我上台了。”

奖励成功者

    成就一番事业是激励人们成功创业的主要因素。但一个极佳点子可能带来的几百万或几十亿美元的财富也同样不容忽视。苏潘克和戈德斯坦都表示，他们很满意创业带来的巨大回报。

    对于一位最先发现机会并安排首次客户会谈的员工，波罗塞把来自这位客户的销售收入按5%回馈给这位员工——终生有效。另外，她还给予8位创业员工以公司股票，表彰他们开发的新产品。当然，在大公司内部创业的风险也低于独立创业——如果失败，他们在公司内部的声誉可能会受损，但职位应该会得到保留。

    不过，大公司内部的创业项目给创业者带来的成就感也难以媲美独立的初创公司。

    最后，有些前沿公司正在想办法支持内部创业，它们依托规模优势，或许有机会赶上活的初创企业。“大公司的员工们开始像创业家一样行动起来，释放出巨大的增长，”安东尼称。他在文章中给出的例子包括美敦力（Medtronic）、IBM、先正达（Sygenta）和联合利华（Unilever）等公司。

    苏潘克认为，培生的资产和行业经验使Alleyoop在快速变化的环境中享有竞争优势，不枉他费尽周章地向委员会成员解释一家创业企业的里程碑和策略。苏潘克说：“初创企业的增速、不断调整以及变化从文化和经营上都迥异于一家成熟”企业。

    但随着更多公司在内部庞大而守旧的体系中寻找新点子，或许越来越多的人都会高调地宣扬内部创业理论。不过，投资者、员工和客户最好还是留个心眼。

    译者：早稻米

Train staffers to be entrepreneurial

    "There's a lot of research that suggests that innovation is not just a gift from above, but it's a learned skill that you can improve," says Innosight's Anthony, author of The Little Black Book of Innovation. Public relations firm Prosek Partners sends employees to a boot camp that covers both the fundamentals of the company's business and its take on intrapreneurship. "My employees, across the board, are more engaged and entrepreneurial. I'd stack them up against anyone," says Jennifer Prosek, author of Army of Entrepreneurs.

Offer room to play around

    Google (GOOG) famously provides employees one day a week to experiment on projects outside of their day-to-day tasks. With 20% of your time to practice, you can conduct a lot of trial and error.

    Soon after joining architecture and design firm Gensler, Jordan Goldstein proposed to revamp the design process by incorporating new technology, a successful experiment that soon spread throughout the firm. Emboldened, he ran with a few more projects before proposing Fuel Lab, an incubation lab within Gensler that works with academic institutions and nontraditional potential clients to test new design models.

    Gensler agreed to fund the venture, not unlike the way an angel investor works with independent entrepreneurs. Earlier this summer, Goldstein led a team of students in Thailand to create a scalable options for low-income housing and community centers. "I've always felt that the company has set the stage and I could play on it as I see fit," he says. "There's a greater willingness to let me run with it."

Reward the successful ones

    Successful entrepreneurs are primarily motivated by the opportunity to make an impact of some sort. But the millions or billions of dollars in potential equity a fantastic idea can deliver carries weight too. Supanc and Goldstein both say they're happy with the compensation they've received, thanks to their ventures.

    Prosek gives 5% of the revenue from a customer account to an employee who identified the opportunity and set up the first meeting -- for life. She's also given eight entrepreneurial employees equity stakes in the firm in recognition of the new products they've created. Certainly, the downside risk with being an intrapreneur is somewhat less than it is for independent entrepreneurs -- they can lose reputational capital within the firm but likely keep their jobs.

    But it's hard to find an entrepreneurial venture within a corporation that rewards the founders for a home run to the same degree that a stand-alone startup would.

    Ultimately, some cutting edge companies are finding ways to support internal entrepreneurs and may have a chance of keeping up with lean startups, thanks to the benefit their size conveys. "People inside large companies have acted like entrepreneurs and unleashed massive growth," says Anthony, who cites Medtronic, IBM, Sygenta, and Unilever as examples in his article.

    Supanc feels Pearson's assets and experience in the business have given Alleyoop a competitive advantage in a quickly changing environment, and made it worth the extra effort he spends to translate the milestones and strategy of an entrepreneurial enterprise to his board members. "The pace, the ongoing adaptation, and level of change inherent to a startup is culturally and operationally very different from a mature and established" profit and loss statement, he says.

    But as more corporations look for new ideas within their hidebound bureaucracies, we're likely to see continued effusive rhetoric about internal entrepreneurs. Investors, employees, and customers alike would do well to remain skeptical.