when saving the world is your day job
As we introduce a series of interviews with employees driving inclusive social change from within their organisations, we look at how firms can nurture an ‘intrapreneur’ culture and attract the next purpose-driven generation.
When Sam McCracken, a young Sioux Indian working in a Nike warehouse in Oregon, had the idea of organising fun runs in his community to honour his mother, who had died from type 2 diabetes, he had no idea that it would lead to him becoming general manager of a new line of footwear for the sportswear giant.
McCracken's passionate belief that sport can help combat the epidemic of diabetes in Native American communities led to him working with the company's shoe designers to create the Nike Air N7 shoe, designed with a larger fit for the distinct foot shape of American Indians. In its sustainability credentials, N7 also embodies the Native American principles of sustainability, which are thinking of seven generations ahead and seven behind. And it set in motion positive changes that have brought wide benefits for both himself personally, Native American communities across North America, who get proceeds from the sale of N7, and the Nike brand.
When Maggie De Pree, founder of the League of Intrapreneurs, is asked to explain what an intrapreneur is, McCracken is one of them: people she describes as "perpetual problem solvers", driven to work on developing new business models, products and services to address real-world problems as part of their day jobs, no matter where they are in the company.
De Pree estimates that 10% of people in companies could be intrapreneurs if they had an enabling environment, though her organisation is looking to build up more robust data. In 2013, she launched the League of Intrapreneurs, a global competition to find out who the leading changemakers in companies are. The competition attracted 200 entries from 52 countries and more than 30 industries.
"This is a global phenomenon. It's not just about M&S, and Unilever and Interface," De Pree says. And the main wellspring of the movement is millennials. "Young people today are hungry to find purpose and meaning in the workplace. The intrapreneurs movement fits squarely with that. For most of them, it's quite refreshing to find out there is a language for what they are doing. They think: "I'm not a misfit. I've got a role to play."
Miriam Turner, Director of Disruptive Innovation at Friends of the Earth and formerly associate Vice President of Co-Innovation at Interface, is another intrapreneur featured on the League of Intrapreneurs website and is one of the league's advisors. She drove the Net-Works partnership with the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) to develop a supply chain for Interface's carpets using discarded fishing nets.
The partnership tackles poverty alleviation in fishing communities in the Philippines and Cameroon and a pressing environmental problem: old fishing nets and gear are responsible for around 10% of ocean debris. Turner acknowledges that a company with sterling sustainability credentials like Interface can provide fertile ground for entrepreneurs to grow, but it is not a given.
"It helps if you are in a company where it's understood that the purpose of the company is to make the world a better place as well as good financial performance, but there needs to be permission and space for people to act on that, rather than it just be a tagline," Turner says. "And even in a purpose-driven company, the intrapreneur has to show how the initiative creates value for the company and the wider world."
One critical factor for success is having a senior-level person to give intrapreneurs air cover, though this can also pose risks if that ally moves elsewhere. The other risk is that companies will change governance and strategies, as happened with the clean-energy intrapreneurs at BP and Shell, who left when the companies abandoned their beyond-petroleum strategies. A change of leadership clearly presents a real risk for an intrapreneur.
Companies also need to be patient with the pace of change. "Things aren't going to happen quickly if you are out to change the world," Turner says, so the normal hurdle rates and parameters may not apply, at least at first. They should also be willing to work with "unusual suspects" outside the company.
De Pree says: "It's about solving problems, not just creating a product or service. And while it has business value, it may not fit in the four walls of your organisation, and that may require different governance structures and spin-outs."
Turner adds: "That's exactly what is happening now with Net-Works, which is looking to bring other corporate partners on board, alongside Interface, and exploring potential new structures that will increase its impact and reach."
Though she now works at Friends of the Earth, Turner says: "I still self-identify as an intrapreneur even though I work for an NGO. Intrapreneurship is not confined to corporations. One trend we are seeing is that people in companies who have been corporate intrapreneurs are taking those skills to different sectors. They recognise that some levers for larger-scale change may be government or civil society, often still working in partnership with business."
De Pree points out that the skillsets possessed by intrapreneurs are precisely those required as companies look to collaborate with other companies, government agencies and NGOs in multi-stakeholder partnerships.
"One of the things we've heard is how important it is to find the people with the skillsets to make these collaborations work. People have approached us asking, "Can we have a 'League of Coffee or Climate' intrapreneurs, please?". It's shorthand for people who collaborate and aren't afraid to try things out and then bring it back to business [and demonstrate] the value of it”.
For De Pree, the value of a more inclusive, collaborative approach to doing business is crystal clear: "From supply-chain resilience to innovation to expanding into new markets, inclusive business is about business that operates as an integral part of society. Intrapreneurs are often at the core of this because many are exploring what it looks like if we bring our values to work every day and truly live them”.