What's In It For Me? A Personal Case For Innovation
Driving innovation in large corporations requires a different kind of thinking from ‘business as usual’. And yet, big companies don’t always seem the most natural home for changemakers and entrepreneurial thinkers. But actually, taking an entrepreneurial approach in your corporate role can make you stand out and help supercharge your career. Transformation Consultant, Charley McGarry explores how.
There are some people who just make things happen. The Doers. The Self-Starters. The Changemakers. The startup world is full of these people. This mindset lends itself particularly well to founding and leading a company. And yet, lots of these people exist inside big companies too.
If you’re one of these people, you might have tried driving change within your company before. But for many, the bureaucracy and slow pace of change within the structures of a large organization holds them back. Discouraged by countless tales of bright ideas that led nowhere, they take their energy and drive elsewhere.
But actually, taking an entrepreneurial approach within your corporate role can be hugely valuable - not just for the impact you create within the wider business, but also for your own career development. Done well, demonstrating the traits commonly associated with entrepreneurs can help you to create bold new opportunities, diversify and deepen your network, and build a reputation for your star quality. Here’s how:
Bring together ideas from different areas
Entrepreneurs are excellent at combining ideas from different disciplines to build something uniquely valuable. For example, James Dyson’s inspiration for the dual cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner came from centuries old fluid dynamics design. As the story goes, his initial need was to remove particulates from an air stream in his factory at Kirk-Dyson. In order to do so, he covertly scaled the fence of a local sawmill by night to measure and examine the workings of a conical cyclone. Having successfully applied these learnings to the factory, he went on to use this knowledge to develop an industry-disrupting vacuum cleaner design. By pushing yourself to learn outside your area of specialism, not only will you develop a broader set of skills, you’re also likely to spark new ideas that you can apply in your current position to drive innovation.
Make things happen
Entrepreneurs aren’t just ‘ideas people’; they are expert executors who will make things happen by any means necessary. As Sahar Hashemi OBE, Founder of Coffee Republic, author of Start Up Forever and member of the Beyond Advisory Council says, “Ideas are worthless: You’ve got to make them happen.” This dedication to delivering outcomes is an in-demand skill in any environment, and positions you as an invaluable member of the team.
But to drive change within a corporate environment, entrepreneurial thinkers need to focus particularly on finding allies across the company who believe in their ideas and are willing to back them. Building these cross-functional relationships is not only essential for creating the supportive environment needed for your innovation processes to thrive, but it is also an excellent way to diversify and deepen your personal network.
Set the stage for others to shine
Successful innovation leads create an environment in which everyone can perform in the innovation process. In conversation with OneLeap’s founder and CEO, Hamish Forsyth, Greg Brandeau (former CTO at Pixar and Disney, and author of Collective Genius: The Art and Practice of Leading Innovation) likened the role to being not the first violinist, but the conductor of an orchestra.
This is a sophisticated leadership approach that stretches your leadership comfort zone. But by learning and exhibiting these capabilities in your innovation efforts, you can not only expand your range as a people manager, but also demonstrate value to your company as a transformational leader who creates lasting organizational change that goes far beyond your work as an individual.
Large corporations may not seem the most likely place for changemakers and entrepreneurial thinkers to thrive. But by seeing the company as an ally, and learning how to tap the resources available within it, entrepreneurial thinkers can create huge value - not just for the company, but for their own careers.
Discover Beyond by OneLeap, our personal accelerator for innovators and changemakers in large corporates. Download the brochure here.
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