The Disruptive Intrapreneur
When you are an intrapreneur appointed to lead digital and business transformation projects, it is likely that you will disrupt the corporate status quo.
Looking back on my professional career, I have been able to experience at first hand different types of organisations—large corporations with offices spread across continents, local entrepreneurial companies or large Romanian companies. What differentiated them were aspects related to size, specificities of national cultures, organisational structures, formalism, leadership style, etc. Consequently, I have gained experience across a range of organisational cultures while implementing various types of digital and business transformation projects. The project required significant effort to be completed successfully. It demanded not only business and technical expertise, but also the ability to navigate corporate complexities, deal with various departments’ needs and implement internal process changes. It not only meant utilising a mixed range of hard and soft-skills, but also using creativity in the most surprising ways. At that time, I had ‘eBusiness Director’ printed on my business card and not ‘Intrapreneur’ or ‘innovator’. The terms ‘intrapreneurship’ and ‘business transformation’ or ‘digital transformation’ were not widely used. Nevertheless, this is the type of work with which I have been involved since 2001.
During the implementation of different types of digital projects, I noticed one major challenge that they had in common: the organisational culture. Today, I will mention only one important aspect that I have encountered: the expectations related to how you had to behave and respond to certain situations. And that can be quite tricky for a leader expected to implement digital and business transformations projects.
“The perceptions supplied by an organizational culture sometimes can lead an official to behave not as the situation requires but as the culture expects.“
— James Q. Wilson
I believe that someone in such a role—bringing newness to an organisation, must be an authentic intrapreneur, aware and willing to challenge the status quo. The process includes the delicate task of addressing sensitive issues and fears, questioning how things are done, the thoughtful formulation of pertinent questions, and the provision of feedback. And, sometimes, no matter that this is constructive feedback, it may be perceived differently by stakeholders.
Therefore, the intrapreneur is required to have a great understanding of human behaviour and corporate politics, knowledge of change management, pragmatism and genuine concern for people, patience and resilience. Last but not least, it requires the challenger to take the time to get to know the culture of the organisation, because that is where most of the risks are likely to be found. An, why is that? You see, if you are expected to bring innovation, you have to challenge the current status quo. You need to dig for details, ask the tough and right questions, identify the problems (whether technical, human, operational etc) and the risks. Basically, you are challenging “the way things are done” and that has everything to do with the culture of the organisation. Your conduct could be regarded as disruptive, and certain colleagues may respond accordingly.
It is a mistake to underestimate the resistance to change that comes from organisational culture. I know from experience that resisting behaviour is the hardest part of business transformation projects. Therefore, you can understand why I love Louis V. Gerstner Jr.’s quote below. Despite of the critics, he will always be remembered as a ‘transformational leader’ and the visionary the man who saved IBM after resuscitating, then reinvigorating, the near bankrupt company. Wow, what an incredible journey he had! It was such a success and such a challenge that it simply had to be put in a book!
“Until I came to IBM, I probably would have told you that culture was just one among several important elements in any organization’s makeup and success — along with vision, strategy, marketing, financials, and the like… I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game, it is the game. In the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value.”
— Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.
It is crucial to understand that organisational culture is not an initiative. It has been built up over the years with the help of the founders, shareholders, employees, etc. These united efforts, whether conscious or not, will result in a culture. The result is either a healthy organisational culture or not, but that is not my main topic now. What is relevant for the point I am trying to make is this. The organisational culture is the driving force behind all initiatives, including digital and business transformation projects. This is something any intrapreneur must clearly understand and architect his/ her strategy accordingly.
“We believe that it’s really important to come up with core values that you can commit to. And by commit, we mean that you’re willing to hire and fire based on them. If you’re willing to do that, then you’re well on your way to building a company culture that is in line with the brand you want to build.”
— Tony Hsieh
Hsiesh is right! Yet, in order to achieve such an objective takes time, strategy, clarity, determination, alignment, effort and having the right people on board.
PS. If you don’t know about how he completely transformed IBM in the ’90s, you must read his story. Here’s a great first reading @ Forbes.
When you are an intrapreneur appointed to lead digital and business transformation projects, it is likely that you will disrupt the corporate status quo.
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