The Rise of the Social Intrapreneur
As corporations
recognise the link between CSR and sustainability, opportunities arise for
socially conscious leaders to change the world from the inside out.
Up-and-coming
leaders today are looking for more than a good salary - they’re searching for
significance in their day-to-day work and they tie their personal values more
closely to their career than previous generations
“There
is a longing for a sense of meaning with many executives,” Filipe Santos,
INSEAD Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Academic Director of the
INSEAD Social Entrepreneurship Initiative, noted outside the school’s 2013
INSEAD Global Business Leaders Conference in Abu Dhabi recently.
“They
are told to run a company for profit but now they’re thinking. ‘I want to go
beyond that, I want to have impact in society which is sustainable and makes a
difference.’”
This
leaves companies with the choice. Either they increase the opportunities for
very highly skilled employees to engage with societal issues or they don’t, and
are likely to find many of their best people leave the organisation to find one
that meets their expectations.
Shifting corporate mindset
By
giving a platform to these ‘social intrapreneurs’ and creating an environment
that incubates and promotes their initiatives, smart companies are finding that
not only are they able to keep their most talented and highly skilled people,
they are fulfilling society’s growing expectations of the company’s role and
opening the way for new ideas, broader markets and innovative ways of doing
things.
“Once
you shift the mindset of the people in your organisation from a short-term
focus on the value that we get from the activities and focus on the value that
we can create for all stakeholders, the possibilities become much greater,”
notes Santos.
People
will think differently by being more in tune with societal needs and will find
innovative ways of doing business, creating new revenue streams, expanding core
capabilities and achieving competitive advantage in new markets.
From CEO to junior employee
Firms
don’t have motivations to engage in social issues, he argues. It’s the people
inside the corporation, the social intrapreneurs from all ranks of the
corporate hierarchy, from CEO to junior employee, who spark change. Able to
leverage off a corporation’s network of resources, market share and
distribution channels, they address some of the toughest social and
environmental challenges while delivering long–term value for their company.
Whether
this is by finding more inclusive ways of doing business with previously
excluded sections of the population; pushing forward ideas on energy
conservation; or introducing methods of reusing or recycling within the company
itself, social intrapreneurs push boundaries beyond their regular role and
introduce changes to internal operations or business initiatives which enable
their company to become more engaged with societal issues. They disrupt the way
business is conducted, with the backing of corporate heads.
Getting
that support from the organisation, says Santos, is the tricky part.
Pushing through change
While
social intrapreneurs may avoid the continual search for funding, faced
by social entrepreneurs looking to run their own mission-based enterprise, they
have to navigate complex corporate structures, meet the often diverse needs of
multiple stakeholders and risk being seen as the lone wolf.
Social intrapreneurs seek to create social impact through
the firm’s resources but without primary concern for profit as the main
outcome, Santos and co-author Christiane S.Bode, PhD Candidate in Strategy note
in their recent paper The Organizational
Foundations of Corporate Social Entrepreneurship.
They
challenge the perceptions of other organisational members who think that
corporate initiatives which do not focus on value capture are unjustified.
So
they need in some way to articulate why the ideas and initiatives they want to create
are good for the company. And they need to find the way it resonates with each
of the internal stakeholders.
“[Successful
intrapreneurs] engage in creative and selective framing of the initiative,
generating multiple rationalisations for its existence, to gain the support of
various stakeholders.”
The
reason why people within a corporation support an idea may be very different,
Santos explains. “Some may do so to benefit their reputation, some because it
improves the loyalty of employees and some may genuinely want to have a direct
impact on society.
“A
clever social intrapreneur has to understand what motivates different people,
and frame ideas slightly differently when seeking individual support.”
Social intrapreneur vs entrepreneur
While
social intrapreneurs, don’t get the recognition which comes with founding a
successful company branded with their name, they do have the satisfaction of
getting their disruptive ideas to market ― and to more customers sooner than
the more widely-recognised social entrepreneur. Greater environmental or social
impact is achieved as a result.
For
companies, the benefits may not be obvious straight away, says Santos. But as
they engage more generally with those issues across the entire value chain,
they will actually find opportunities for value creation and then it will
become “not just a public relations exercise with a nice report but actual and
genuine change… creating meaningful activities and changing areas of the
business to incorporate issues that society cares about.”
Filipe Santos is Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at
INSEAD, Academic Director of the INSEAD Social Entrepreneurship Initiative and
Programme Director of the INSEAD Social Entrepreneurship Programme, part of the school’s
suite of Executive Development Programmes.
Read more at http://knowledge.insead.edu/social-entrepreneurship/the-rise-of-the-social-intrapreneur-2961#LYt1mBArc364FMtR.99
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