Program Managers From SAP, Airbus and Kohler Co. Share Their Experiences As Social Intrapreneurs

For 14 months, we’ve been working closely with remarkable employees at some of the best known corporations in the world. We wanted to understand how they are driving corporate innovation from within and making their companies a force for good. On Tuesday, we spoke live to some of these intrepid Social Intrapreneurs, and shared the findings from our extensive joint research. Here’s what we learned.

WHAT IS A SOCIAL INTRAPRENEUR?

You might have heard words like ‘intrapreneur’ or ‘social enterprise,’ but what is a Social Intrapreneur and what do they do? Here’s the definition we go by:

“/ˈsəʊ.ʃəl ɪntrəprəˈnɜːʃɪp/: A Social Intrapreneur is an entrepreneurial employee who develops a profitable new product, service, or business model that creates value for society and her company.
This can include working with social entrepreneurs to lean on and/or scale their model through the company’s value chain.
Social intrapreneurs help their employers meet sustainability commitments and create value for customers and communities in ways that are built to last.”

In other words, a Social Intrapreneur seeks to create social innovation from within their company. They solve human problems while continuing to make profits for their business. This has the benefit of allowing the Social Intrapreneur to rally the know-how and expertise of the corporation behind a social end.

OUR RESEARCH: A PLAYBOOK FOR SOCIAL INTRAPRENEURS

How can companies support Social Intrapreneurs? How can they build structures to fast-track social innovation to scale? And of course, how can employees themselves succeed as Social Intrapreneurs? In cooperation with Growth Mechanics, INSEAD, HEC Paris and the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, these are the questions that we sought to address in our research, with some fascinating results. Want to find out more?

Get Report

INSIGHTS FROM SAP, AIRBUS AND KOHLER CO

We had the pleasure of hosting a panel at the Global Intrapreneurship Week with employees from corporations doing some very exciting work as Social Intrapreneurs. Yunus Social Business Co-founder and CEO Saskia Bruysten spoke with:

• Rey Buckman, Airbus BizLab (#Africa4Future)

• Deborah Kaplan, SAP 1 Billion Lives
• Angie Peltzer, Kohler Co

Introducing the Playbook was Emil Lamprecht from Growth Mechanics, one of the key drivers of the research project.