Why is it important for companies to carry out intra-entrepreneurship programs from the innovation area? What is the motivation that leads companies to carry out these programs?
To start, diversifying innovation by involving people from the organization who have different knowledge and experiences, with different visions.
Training these people in new methodologies, giving them the opportunity to enrich themselves, on the one hand by getting out of the day-to-day routine, and on the other hand by meeting and interacting with people they wouldn’t otherwise contact.
What do these teams that attend these programs need to be able to carry out a good intra-entrepreneurship program?
First, motivation. Usually, these people attend voluntarily, so this comes as standard. Other times, you have to point out the candidates, because you know they are ‘hidden gems’.
I think the support program is very important, because in the end, these are difficult things that they are not used to. That is why it is essential to have someone, either internally or externally, who knows about the methodologies and team management. Beyond the methodologies, the support needs to be quality support.
In summary, the curiosity and attitude of the person who signs up and the quality of the program are the most important things. Along with this, the involvement and support of the management, and that this is perceived, are also essential.
What KPIs had you set for the program?
We have not been overly ambitious. As the most objective KPI, we had proposed that at least one of the projects could have a result. We believe that this is already a good result.
Had there been any previous measurement of innovative culture, another of the KPIs could have been how this innovative culture has changed as a result of this program.
We know you are about to finish the program and we wonder if you see any impact of the program on the company.
Yes, we believe the program has had a great impact on the people who participated, which we will confirm with the final survey.
But it has not only had an impact on these people, but also on the managers of the plants where these people work and even on corporate directors, who have already contacted us to give us positive feedback.
We have also seen a ‘contagion effect’ among the colleagues of the people who participated. Many people have written to us to express their interest in participating in the next program. And we hope to have much more impact from the organization when the projects are presented.
An intra-entrepreneurship program is a source of ideas and new disruptive projects within an organization. Furthermore, it is a way to stir up the organization and gradually change the culture.
Since you have been in different sectors, do you observe differences in the preparation of companies when participating in this type of process? How much does the company culture affect the selection of people who participate in this type of program?
I don’t know if the sector matters so much, although it is more difficult in the industrial sector than in the service sector.
The industrial sector has much more dependence on assets and therefore, the fact of launching new products is sometimes more complicated because there is a production process involved. In the service sector, there are more digital services, so the generation of new business ideas can be easier.
More than the sector, I believe the company culture influences a lot. I think companies in the industrial sector are more product-innovation oriented, although there are cases like Ford, which are doing very disruptive things despite being a very industrial company in a very difficult sector.
What would a company like Hinojosa need to establish a public-private collaboration relationship in the field of transfer and science? Is there any relationship of this type currently within Hinojosa? Do you have people within the company who were previously researchers and whom you have hired for your company?
It is a great opportunity for companies like ours to establish collaborations of this type since we do not have a laboratory or a research unit. Doing this kind of R&D&i through a technology or research center is very valuable.
Something that we have started to explore and want to do in the future is to incorporate a doctor or researcher for specific projects. We have already done specific collaborations with some technology center or university, but for concrete projects. I do not think it will be difficult to systematize this type of collaboration.
