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HCC Forum
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| A bimonthly magazine, exclusive for members which contains articles, surveys and book summaries that address common issues and concerns of industries and companies in the area of human resources development and organizational dynamics. |
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December 2008
Entrepreneurship through team building
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We, at ECCP, decided to indulge in another team building adventure. This time, though, we moved away from obstacle courses and paint guns and decided to test whether entrepreneurship or intrapreneurship could be created or fostered through team building.
Let’s see how Wikipedia explains both activities:
Entrepreneurship is the practice of starting new organizations or revitalizing mature organizations, particularly new businesses generally in response to identified opportunities. Entrepreneurship is often a difficult undertaking, as a vast majority of new businesses fail. Entrepreneurial activities are substantially different depending on the type of organization that is being started. Entrepreneurship ranges in scale from solo projects (even involving the entrepreneur only part-time) to major undertakings creating many job opportunities.
Intrapreneurship is the practice of using entrepreneurial skills without taking on the risks or accountability associated with entrepreneurial activities. It is practiced by employees within an established organization using a systemized business model.
I am thankful to Beth Macdonald and Gabe Mercado for designing the event, making use of recruiters and facebook to create the teams (from manager to messenger) in 48 hours and then giving the teams 12 days to develop business ideas for ECCP and its subsidiaries.
Did it work? Absolutely YES. Did the teams find new business ideas and develop them into a plan? Some; we still need to polish a few. The winning team’s proposal has already been accepted and will be converted in 2009.
Lesson learnt: We are all entrepreneurs! In the new era of uncertainty, we all need to think like entrepreneurs.
We are just beginning to understand what globalization really means. We hoped it would mean a world of people competing to buy our products. Now we are beginning to learn that globalization means that people across the planet are competing for our jobs. We are just beginning to understand the impact of a world competing for food, oil, cement, wood and natural resources.
Millions of smart, hard-working young people – who speak fluent English – are graduating from colleges around the world. Many of these young graduates have no expectation of anyone giving them anything. They know they are going to have to make it through their own motivation and ability.
While some may complain that the new world isn’t fair, I believe, that it is much fairer than ever before. Millions of people from around the world will be getting the chance their parents never had. Young people need to learn the meaning of one word that all entrepreneurs know well: compete.
In an era of uncertainty, nothing can be taken for granted. Young people are going to have to develop skills and talents that make them globally competitive. And they need to keep upgrading and changing their skills and talents to fit the needs of an ever-changing marketplace. In other words, not only will you be expected to know more and work harder, you will also be expected to keep learning in your increasingly precious spare time.
Since we are back from the team building exercise (which included creating products from waste and selling them in a public market!), we are now looking at the characteristics of an intrapreneur:
An employee Intrapreneur is the person who focuses on innovation and creativity and who transforms a dream or an idea into a profitable venture, by operating within the organizational environment. Thus, Intrapreneurs are Inside entrepreneurs who follow the goal of the organization.
Employees, perhaps engaged in a special project within a larger firm are supposed to behave as entrepreneurs, even though they have the resources, capabilities and security of the larger firm to draw upon. Capturing a little of the dynamic nature of entrepreneurial management (trying things until successful, learning from failures, attempting to conserve resources, etc.) adds to the potential of an otherwise static organizations without exposing those employees to the risks or accountability normally associated with entrepreneurial failure.
The winning team is now converting its initial vision into a marketable, profitable product.
Entrepreneurs are not only bred in business schools! I am more and more convinced that even in a large corporation, employees are going to be entrepreneurs. These are the people that are moving up to the top fast.
And like any great entrepreneur: invest your time and money in your future. I enjoyed ECCP’s team building; comments are welcome – schumacher@eccp.com |
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