What is intrapreneurship?
Intrapreneurship is at the heart of what Creaholic does. Everyone here is hired as a Professional Inventor, and what they tackle in that role as an intrapreneur is up to them. The only real requirement is that they bring an entrepreneurial spirit that advances interactions with customers and our own intrapreneurship activities.
When it comes to intrapreneurship: we lead by example, we blaze the trail and we walk the talk. An intrapreneur searches for, creates and develops new products, services or ways of working within an organization. Intrapreneurship is an innovation process that involves product development or new business development for a company by its own employees. This could lead to a new service, a fruitful collaboration, a new technology that sets the company apart, or an innovative value proposition that enhances customer experience.
Innovation case study: What intrapreneurship looks like at Creaholic
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.
Intrapreneurship expertise at your service
At Creaholic, we believe that anyone can be an inventor, and there is no golden ticket to success. The innovation process means walking a fine line between passion and objectivity; it requires an open mind and a whole bunch of perseverance.
Companies’ strengths lie in optimising operations and profits. But for innovation and service or product development, companies need to work and think differently– and that’s where our expertise comes in. By nature, an innovation, entrepreneurship or intrapreneurship project involves risk because there is no guarantee of what the outcome will be. A “normal” project has high security and low risk because it’s not about reinventing the wheel. The innovation process is reinventing the wheel… or maybe getting rid of the wheel entirely!
Working with our Professional Inventors eliminates some of the risk of your innovation process. We facilitate your intrapreneurship and complement your company’s and employees’ expertise. As one of the companies with the most experience in intrapreneurship coaching, we can support your team with workshops or trainings, user and/or customer experience explorations and guidance to help you get into the future shaping mindset.
We think outside of the box when your energy is better spent making sure things inside the box are running smoothly.
Planting seeds to harvesting success: Our in-house innovation process
As with anything that flourishes, it starts with a seed.
Creaholic's incubation process
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
What seed can Creaholic help you grow?
Our experience with our own incubation process, our own success stories and our own learning opportunities through failure means that your ideas – whether they are in the seed, plant or growth stage – can benefit from the innovation and intrapreneurship that distinguishes Creaholic's DNA.
It's literally what we do – for ourselves and for clients.
Benefit from our intrapreneurial spirit!
Get in touch with us and tell us how you'd like to innovate.
