Product development to new business: 30+ years of living intrapreneurship

While intrapreneurship is a popular buzzword, it is also more than that. It’s an effective initiative and the cornerstone of Creaholic’s culture, DNA and business model.

As the story goes, when the founders came together over three decades ago, they were motivated to uncover opportunities for product development that could eventually lead to new business. Whoever wasn’t actively involved in the hands-on work of invention – prototyping, experimenting, tinkering, iterating, analysing, innovating – would proactively look for pathways and research what else could be done.

We live this ethos today, some 30 years later! We have established a “100-hour” framework to support intrapreneurship. It involves a process, checks and balances, and supporting culture that empowers Creaholicers to use 100 hours per year for developing their own products. Their passion project in MedTech, sustainability or digital solutions can transform into an impactful innovation, made possible with input and expertise form fellow Creaholicers. After 100 hours, the company decides whether invest in the innovation as a new business spin-off… or the project is marked as a learning experience and it’s on to the next one. What’s important to note here is that there is a structure and guidance in place that allows this innovative process to flourish – without a framework, intrapreneurship will have a very difficult time gaining a foothold in your organisation.

These success stories like Arboloom, Joulia, Pulse Feedback and nine other spin-offs have won awards, changed the status quo and brought more recognition to Creaholic.

As with anything that flourishes, it starts with a seed.

Creaholic's incubation process

1. Seed: A new idea or an existing idea pulled from our ever-growing backlog. This can be anything, and any Creaholicer can take it and run with it.

2. Plant: The plant stage spans the 100 hours of Creaholic’s intrapreneurial incubation process. The journey can look wild and untamed, or it can follow a process like Testing Business Ideas from Strategyzer. In any case, assumptions are tested and tested and tested. The goal here is to get clarity on the potential of the idea and the resources that are needed to move forward.

3. Growth: If Creaholic’s Incubation Team decides the plant has potential and that the resources and milestones have been clearly defined, the company steps in as the investor and the Creaholicer (or team of Creaholicers) becomes responsible for achieving the goals. The objective at this stage is fast and efficient project or product development.

4. Growth iteration: When the goal is achieved or the resources are used up, the project is reviewed. Either its resources are replenished or it is discontinued. Here, the aim is to make quick and courageous decisions to make sure Creaholic invests in the right intrapreneurship projects.

5. Harvest: The idea goes through new business development. A company is established, a patent or licenses are sold, and a spin-off is born. From here, the journey leads to long-term value and monetisation of the idea.

The innovation process and product development journey within Creaholic and in collaboration with customers as part of a mandate has led to 14 spin-offs and 250 patent families (and counting!).

It’s not just about developing the product or the service. The experiments that are performed also test the sales and marketing potential. How much does it cost to get a customer? How can we keep production costs to a minimum? Is there actually a need for the product? These are all important assumptions that must be tested on the way to the harvest stage.