Category: Reality Bytes

Intrapreneurs – Engaged Employees

Over the last few months, Google’s attrition problems is making it to the news columns frequently. A problem highlighted by many is that the company has become too big (5k to 25k employees) to keep the entrepreneurial juices flowing within. While the analysis of Google’s issues continues, it is as good a time as ever to understand the organizational benefits of intrapreneurial  culture. 

intrapreneur

“An employee who is given freedom and financial support to create new products, services and systems, who does not have to follow the company’s usual routines or protocol.”
– Richard Branson

“A person within a large corporation who takes direct responsibility for turning an idea into a profitable finished product through assertive risk-taking and innovation”
– Wikipedia

While business growth & innovation are two oft documented benefits of an intrepreneurship, creating engaged employees is not spoken of enough. A culture of enabling intrepreneurs engages employees in any of the following ways …

  • creates ownership of projects / initiatives amongst employees driving them
  • channelizes employee’s passions towards organizational well being
  • provides a platform for people to exercise their entrepreneurial urges
  • helps balance the “love to do” with the “have to do” activities
  • provides an entrepreneurial playground for the “conservative risk-takers”

Google is contemplating launching an in-house incubator.

An incubator is “20 percent time” on steroids. The thinking seems to be that giving your in-house entrepreneurs all the space in the world to work on their passions will keep them loyal to Mother Google.

The big question is – how are you enabling intrepreneurship within your organizations?

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Related Posts:
~ Quotes To Live By – Life Lessons from Richard Branson
~ Leadership – 25 Years From Now
~ Thinking of becoming an entrepreneur?
~ Tactics For Taking Risks
~ Multipliers – Video from Google

References:
~ Why Google’s “20 Percent Time” Isn’t Stemming Its Brain Drain
~ Intrapreneurs – for building the future

It is a SPIKY (not flat) world

the-world-is-flat

Is the world truly getting flat? Nah  .. say John Hagel III and John Seely Brown in their latest blog post. Some of the arguments they introduce into the debate are:

People are moving into large urban areas at an accelerating rate — today over 50% of the world’s population lives in dense cities versus ~30% in 1950. If location no longer mattered in terms of economic potential for an individual, it seems likely that more people would stay in place rather than uproot themselves to relocate.

First reason for the above mentioned movement, tacit knowledge — the “know-how” that is not codified and is often gained through experience — is increasingly valuable; rich exchanges of tacit knowledge generally require face-to-face contact.

The second factor is related to serendipity, the ability to attract people and resources we need but don’t yet know exist. In a dense city, the probability of serendipitous encounters increases; if the city draws a specific talent pool (such as entertainment in LA or finance in NY), the number and quality of encounters improves.

So what about all the latest technologies that were triggering the flattening of the world?

Far from flattening, these technologies are actually fuelling spikiness – smaller number of densely populated cities – by lowering the barrier to movement into big cities. Telecommunication technology helps people stay in touch with friends & relatives they have left behind. And, location based technology is making it easier for new entrants navigate cities faster. Socio-location technologies also help us get in touch with our tribes that are bound by common passion & interests. 

Read the full post here.

Reinforce The Positives

ServiceExpress_ExpressMonorail
(Photo courtesy Express Photorail)

India is gaining in reputation for being the services & hospitality capital of the world. But, instances of bad experiences introduces doubt if the country & its professionals have what it takes to deliver on this promise. I came across a Vir Sanghvi article today that deals with the issue of service attitude (or the lack of it) amongst professionals in this industry. Causes vary between employee’s lack of long term commitment to a job, multitude of employment options, corporations taking customers for granted, etc. – all matters beyond any one individual’s control. Overwhelming for anyone wanting to better the situation!

Can such systemic issues have simple individual remedies?

While raving & ranting about the bad experience has its place, positive reinforcement is a simple yet surprisingly rarely used remedy. 

  • An extra tip to the restaurant staff who made your kid comfortable with additional cushions & toys. 
  • Write an appreciation note for the employee who went out of his way to ensure your favourite dish was customized to your liking. 
  • Share feedback about what you like at least as often as the dislikes.
  • Respond when the hotel staff greet you.

While we detest the dropping of service standards, we often take proper service delivery for granted. Positive reinforcement is our responsibility in ensuring it is repeated. It is representative of a more patient, positive & encouraging approach (much like parenting) to actively develop an immature but growing industry. 

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Related Posts:
     ~ Changing Scales in India
     ~ Enterprise IT – Just A Utility?
     ~ When Customer Rule!

Thinking of becoming an entrepreneur?

BusinessCard 
(Picture courtesy Shoa)

The story of how I was wrong ~ Inspirational presentation about how an MBA student found his true calling in life ~ Link (SlideShare presentation)
Inspiration | Real Life Story

What Entrepreneurship Means ~ Alicia Morga talks about her story about becoming an entrepreneur. Maybe you’ll discover you’re an entrepreneur. Maybe, you’ve been one all along. ~ Link (FastCompany video)
Inspiration | Real Life Story

Should You Be An Entrepreneur? ~ A simple test of 20 questions to determine whether you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur ~ Link (HBR Blogs)
Reality Check

Career Design: Why Three Jobs Are Better Than One ~ Three blog posts that addresses the different aspects of making the shift away from a secure job (read all the 3 posts) ~ Link (blog post)
Inspiration | Real Life Story | Reality Check

Building India’s Amazon: Flipkart ~ The story of how the young techies moved from working for tech giants to working for themselves ..successfully ~ Link (interview)
Real Life Story

Khan Academy ~ An inspiring story of an individual pursuing his beliefs & doing a whole lot of good while at it ~ Link (About page)
Inspiration | Real Life Story

Living Self-Employed Online: The Manual They Forgot to Give You ~ Experiences & lessons from someone who has been at it for 18 months ~ Link (LifeHacker blog)
Lessons | Reality Check

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Related Posts:
     ~ Thinking of starting your own business?
     ~ Tactics for Taking Risk
     ~ Leadership Capabilities