IMAGESBAZAAR

With trade literature complacently boasting the need for innovation in the present-day corporate scenario, India Inc capitalises on intrapreneurship

Today, in an attempt to concoct more fertile ground for creative endeavours, several organisations create an atmosphere, thus allowing employees to develop internal start-ups based on assessed policies consciously put in place, only to further nurture what today, is officially termed as, ‘intrapreneurship'. To encourage intrapreneurship, Directi offers its employees something called the ‘Directi University', which has made learning and sharing of knowledge a fundamental credo there. Every Friday, Directi hosts a culture encompassing ‘Friday Hangouts', wherein employees from various departments team up to work on problem-solving to learning new programming languages, or brainstorming to come up with an uncommon but innovative idea. Reinwald Warapen, a lead engineer at Directi, shares, "I always had a craving to build something I can call my own. Directi's ‘Friday Hangouts', work culture, freedom to be innovative, access to a good resource of books from the library and encouragement led to ‘Postman'. I believe it is vital to start off in the creative solutions' ecosystem of an innovative company," says Warapen.

To incubate and beyond!

‘Customer driven innovation' and ‘design for delight' make Intuit's approach to innovation unique by crafting passion within employees to solve important customer problems. Intuit nurtures the spirit of entrepreneurship by providing an ‘Unstructured Time' to employees who are encouraged to think independently. The unstructured time allows employees to break free from the routine and devote 10 per cent of their time to work on projects they're passionate about. Deepa Bachu, as director of emerging market innovation at Intuit India initiated ‘Fasal', a revolutionary service that is empowering India's farmers to improve their financial lives. She describes her experience, "Fasal was just an idea in theory, which pioneered with the help of two of my colleagues. With time, the idea expanded, as did the team. As intrapreneurs, we had feedback and support from the network of start-ups that Intuit platters."

The driving force

It is believed innovation emerges when people are allowed to give free rein to their creative talents within a set of simple rules. And ‘Lakshya' - Sanofi India's initiative that focuses on building capabilities in key talent was envisaged in 2008 to do just that. Lakshya has provided a platform for the people to learn from cross-functional working.

Pratin Vete, senior director, commercial operations (Tier II & internal medicine), Sanofi talks about his intrapreneurial venture, "I wanted to initiate and improve the capabilities of doctors in rural India and as a global healthcare company, the needs of the patient are at the core of everything that we do. Therefore, the company provided me with all the necessary resources to develop this initiative to benefit the needy sections of the healthcare delivery chain. Through Lakshya, the organisation roped in high-potential inhouse talent to execute the initiative."

Ideas Inc.

Ingersoll Rand, to encourage and support the entrepreneurial mindset, recently launched a new innovative initiative called ‘Entrepreneur Creation Program (ECP)'. Under this programme, the organisation hired six management graduates from Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad and Bangalore as ‘Entrepreneur Partners', who are being trained and mentored by the company and will be able to create their own businesses at the end of a two-year training programme. Speaking about this programme, Jayantika Dave, vice president-HR, Ingersoll Rand India says, "The ECP has been designed as an extension of our vision to drive innovation, build entrepreneurship and create value for the society. Current entrepreneurial initiatives are taken forward by students with a strong desire to start businesses of their own; and who often fail due to improper guidance and support."

So, if you have an idea, be sure to dwell on it. As they say in business, fail faster, succeed sooner!

- Arshie Chevalwala