Terri Griffith blogged about some remaining questions she had from the Social Networking for Innovation event. She asked me to comment on the following:
“Companies have looked at working with intrapreneurship for a long time — is what we’re seeing now different?”
I say yes, at least for software intrapreneurs, for the following reasons:
- cheaper – it’s possible to try internal incubation without having to make significant investments as a result of the more open environments and tools…
- new opportunities – with the down economy, there appears to be more risk tolerance with taking small gambles on longshots with limited downsides but potentially significant upsides…
- staying competitive – across the technology landscape we’ve all witnessed companies like Google launch new services / revenue streams derived from stimulating and nurturing intrapreneurial passions…
- social – the explosion of social networking externally has led to models for improving internal social networking and crowdsourcing…
- reputation – innovation is a hot term and many seek opportunities to build their reputations and grow their personal network…
I’m sure there are many other contributing factors as well. What do you think?