The 10 Commandments of Intrapreneuring

(Mark Palmer is the CEO of StreamBase Systems.  Follow him at twitter.com/mrkwpalmer. This post was originally released in 2009, but rewritten in January of 2010)

The American spirit is an entrepreneurial spirit. So it’s no surprise that the recent
economic upheaval has spurred a rash of discussion about entrepreneurship and innovation. Today, for example, the New York Times reported that we are in the midst of a shift where innovation is moving to big companies, and away from small companies. But the article missed the heart of the entrepreneurial matter - it’s approach, not size, that forms fertile ground for innovation.

Size of a company is a specious way to characterize innovation. But is there a better way? Gifford Pinchot's classic book Intrapreneuring analyzed the leading big innovative companies of his day (the book was published in 1985), and his findings have stood the test of time. 

To begin with, he found that big companies, as a group, aren't good at innovation:

You might think that larger organizations would be stodgy in thinking up new ideas, but, because of a wealth of management talent, would be very good at executing them. It turns out, however, that just the reverse is true:  our large organizations are producing large numbers of good ideas but generally are unable to implement them." 

Unfortunately, I think this finding still stands, 25 years later.

But he went on to describe how big companies can adopt the right spirit, hire the right people, and design the right incentives to innovate. A few central points are helpful to review.

To innovate, big companies must form small, autonomous, focused groups. These groups must be incentivized to act like small companies, by adopting the "Intrapreneur's 10 Commandments": 

1. Come to work each day willing to be fired
   
2. Circumvent any orders aimed at stopping your mission
   
3. Do any job needed to make your project work, regardless of your job description
   
4. Find people to help you
   
5. Follow your intuition about the people you choose, and work only with the best
   
6. Work underground as long as you can – publicity triggers the corporate immune mechanism
   
7. Never bet on a race unless you are running in it
   
8. Remember it is easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission
   
9. Be true to your goal, but be realistic about the ways to achieve them
   
10. Honor your sponsors
    

These commandments will seem obvious to entrepreneurs, but they are both rare and threatening in most big corporations.

So if you're the CEO of a big company and you're serious about innovation, what should you promote? First the CEO must check his or her own personality. Not all CEOs are alike. Some personality types are best suited for the "cash cow" part of a corporate lifecycle, and some are best suited for the early stages.  

What are the characteristics of people who can thrive in innovative firms? Pinchot provided a tool for this too, with his breakdown of 19 characteristics of intrapreneurs versus traditional managers. Here's an exerpt from that table, (or download the entire list here, published with permission from the author).

	Traditional Manager	Intrapreneur
Primary Motives	Wants promotion and other traditional corporate rewards.  Power-motivated.	Wants freedom and access to corporate resources.  Goal-oriented and self-motivated, but also responds to corporate rewards and recognition.
Decisions	Agrees with those in power.  Delays decision until gets a feel of what bosses want.	Adept at getting others to agree to private vision.
Time Orientation	Responds to quotas and budgets, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual planning horizons, the next promotion or transfer	End goals of 3-15 years, depending on type of venture.  Urgency to meet self-imposed and corporate timetables.
Action	Delegates action.  Supervising and reporting take most of energy.	Has a bias for action. May know how to delegate, but when necessary does what needs to be done.
Courage and Destiny	Sees others in charge of his or her destiny.  Can be forceful and ambitious, but may be fearful of others’ ability to do him or her in.	Self-confident and courageous.  Many Intrapreneurs are cynical about the system, but optimistic about their ability to outwit it.
Attention	Primarily on events inside corporation	Both inside and outside.  Sells insiders on need of venture and marketplace, but also focuses on customers.
Risk	Careful.	Likes moderate risk.  Generally not afraid of being fired so sees little personal risk.
Market Research	Has market studies done to discover needs and guide product conceptualization.	Does own market research and intuitive market evaluation like the entrepreneur.sponsors

These are just a few key key elements a culture that's designed for innovation. So many more are critical, including compensation plans, equity structure, organizational structure, and so on. But I find that for people with the entrepreneurial mindset and some experience, those things become obvious.

Since our economic future depends on getting innovation right, both in big companies and small, we're lucky that we already know how to innovate. We just need more companies and leaders that have the guts to get out there and do it.