Page - 236 - in Digital Entrepreneurship - Impact on Business and Society

but theyalsotendtorejecthighlyinnovativeanddisruptivesuggestionsbecausethey arehard tounderstand.What tends to survivearemediocrecopycat ideas. Whatworks for selecting and supporting innovations is not a process, but rather a large setof close relationshipsbetween intrapreneurs and their sponsorswhohave some clout and influence and who trust, spend time with, and give extraordinary support to specific intrapreneurs. These sponsors get to know their intrapreneurs, their team, and their ideas very well. They are in a good position to evaluate the intrapreneurs and their proposed innovations. Their judgement on what the com- pany should invest in is better than that of the committee; additionally, they can help the intrapreneurs to improve their ideas using well-informed questions and coaching. Successful intrapreneurs, digital or not, often have several committed sponsors occupying different positions at different levels of the organisation. Creating and managing a coalition of sponsors is thus a core intrapreneuring skill. Consider these facts together: 1. Each intrapreneurusually requires several collaborating sponsors to support and protect their interests and ideas. 2. Many intrapreneurs areneeded todealwith the threats andopportunities rapidly generated by exponential digital technologies. 3. Sponsoring is an intimate relationship, which makes it time-consuming; that means that each sponsor can only protect one or few intrapreneurs. These facts imply that each company needs a great number of sponsors to support themany intrapreneursnecessary to face the eraof rapiddigital innovation. Senior leaders cannot possibly provide the volume of sponsorship sufficient to address the opportunities and threats created by exponential technology. Their role is to create the systems and a culture that empower middle managers and even first-line supervisors to serve as effective sponsors. Any intrapreneurship pro- grammes that necessitate the blessing of senior leadership for individual innova- tions will fail for simple numerical reasons. In the age of digital innovation, authority to give the green light to innovationmust be delegated. 3.2 Organisational KnowledgeofDigital Technologies The second factor driving digital innovation is the organisational knowledge of digital technologies. What does this mean? It means that an organisation, as an entity, makes decisions and takes actions as if it understands and is gracefully creativewith itsuseofdigital technology. It isnot just abouthowmanypeoplewith digital skills are employed by a given company; rather, what matters is how an organisation responds to digital opportunities and threats. That is what matters. Thereare twomainelementsof theorganisationalknowledgeofdigital technology: Digital Intrapreneurship: The Corporate Solution… 243