Page - 250 - in Digital Entrepreneurship - Impact on Business and Society

proof of a digital intrapreneurship concept is an important early step in building a culture suitable for digital intrapreneurs.Our client’s goals for theprogrammewere as follows: 1. To increase profitable innovation in the IT sector 2. To bring out and implement bottom-up ideas 3. To develop business acumen in IT 4. To build teamwork skills in IT. The digital intrapreneurship programme was entirely online. The design brief stipulated thatnoperson in theprogrammecouldbe required tomeetwithanyother participant inperson,whichwasgood, since the intrapreneurial teams formed in the programme were often intercontinental, with, for example, one member based in Brazil, another one in the USA, another one in Germany, and another one in Singapore. The School for Intrapreneurs™ included fourmajor parts: 1. TheDoorway to Intrapreneuring, a three-houronline course covering thebasics of intrapreneurship.All of the 1100 ITprofessionals of the company, including the head of IT, were required to complete it. a. For managers, the course showed how to recognise and manage intrapre- neurs, with case studies illustrating the role ofmanagers as sponsors. b. For intrapreneurs, the course inspired participants to bring out their intra- preneurial spirit and declare their desire to implement their ideas. It taught themmore effectiveways tomove their ideas forwardwithin a bureaucratic organisation. c. For the company, the course located potential intrapreneurs, so that man- agement could support the development of their ideas. TheDoorwaywas run entirely by software. The company placed the software on a server and gave the participants a login. From that point on, theworkshop ranwithout any faculty involvement.Still, the coursehada95%approval rating from graduates, which is unusually high for a required course. This illustrates the power of software and digital innovation to reduce the marginal cost of training an additional participant to almost nothing. It also illustrates more generally how digital innovation can greatly reduce operating costs. 2. TheIdeaExpowasanonline forumwhereparticipantscouldpost their ideasand get feedback from the other participants andmanagers. It served as an online meeting ground for forming teams around some of the ideas. The next step for intrapreneurs after the Expowas tomove their ideas forward and attend an accelerator that would help them build a business plan for their ideas, teach them about being an intrapreneur, and build high-performance teams. At the end, it gave them an opportunity to present their ideas to senior management. Digital Intrapreneurship: The Corporate Solution… 257