As an employee, you suspect that your best ideas are valuable and could greatly benefit your organization. Management also recognizes that a company's ability to compete is contingent on how well it leverages its employees' ideas. So, why are individuals at all levels of organizations typically poor advocates for ideas? Intrapreneurship provides an engaging guide for both managers and employees on how to direct the flow of ideas and foster a culture of entrepreneurship within their company's existing structure.

Based on Kevin C. Desouza's research and experience consulting with thirty global organizations, Intrapreneurship outlines ways to mobilize all types of ideas - including blockbusters with the potential to create radically new external products and services, and more incremental innovations for improving internal processes. With practical frameworks and real life examples for both employees and managers, Intrapreneurship will help you to identify the value in your own ideas and those of others to ultimately benefit your organization.

About the Author
Kevin C. Desouza is the director of the Metropolitan Institute and an associate professor at the Center for Public Administration and Policy at Virginia Tech.

Reviews
'Are you frustrated with the fact that companies often talk about the need to generate and collect their employee's ideas, but in reality they lack tangible tools and processes to efficiently leverage these ideas into real projects and products? Despair no more! In his new book Kevin C. Desouza shows us how innovative companies do not only promote generation of ideas, but encourage the entrepreneurial spirit of their employees by supporting their efforts to develop and commercialize their ideas, both internally and also externally. This book is a must for all managers who are struggling to design effective innovation processes and for employees who want to learn the science, and art, of pursuing ideas to their full potential inside their organization.' -- Milos Ebner, Chief Innovation Officer, Trimo
'As competition intensifies globally, no corporation can afford to ignore the potential of corporate entrepreneurs, or "intrapreneurs," to drive growth and continual renewal. Kevin C. Desouza provides a new look and important contribution to the field of innovation, and he does so in a way that should be of keen interest to executives, intrapreneurs, and aspiring intrapreneurs across industries. Not only does Desouza explore new territory, he does so in a highly readable, applied manner drawing from both research and practice. Intrapreneurship will enable employees and managers to overcome typical, and costly, roadblocks faced when transforming ideas into commercially viable products and services.' -- Robert Wolcott, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Kellogg Innovation Network, Northwestern University
'Innovation is a key strategic priority for most large companies, and most executives today have realized they cannot just give responsibility for innovation to their R&D group or their business development team they need to make innovation everyone's job. But how do you do that? The evidence suggests most companies actually do a terrific job of killing off the entrepreneurial endeavours of their would-be innovators, through their standardized procedures and risk-averse mentalities. Kevin C. Desouza's book, Intrapreneurship, provides the solution. He gives guidance to the people with bright ideas, to help them build support and get their ideas taken seriously, and he offers advice on how to manage and organize a company to give these would-be intrapreneurs as much support as possible. Drawing from his own practical experience as well as decades of academic research, Desouza's book is a must-read in companies that care about making innovation everyone's job.' -- Julian Birkinshaw, Professor, London Business School; Co-Founder, Management Innovation Lab (MLab); Fellow, Advanced Institute of Management Research (UK); and author of Reinventing Management
'Intrapreneurship offers a fresh and timely perspective on how to harness and not kill the power of innovation that exists inside every organization including nonprofits. In his book, Desouza masterfully weaves academic research together with real life stories across industries to show us how to foster innovation and turn the best ideas into reality. His fusion of innovation and implementation into a single, pragmatic intrapreneurship framework is where the magic happens. This book is a must read for employees and leadership alike whether you are trying to increase profits, save the world, or both.' -- Neal Myrick, Director, Groundwire
'You cannot stay competitive and lead your industry unless you mine the potential within your own organization. Kevin C. Desouza makes the case for identifying and empowering talent to steward innovation from within. Intrapreneurship will help you tap your company's greatest potential.' -- Scott Belsky, CEO of Behance, National Bestselling Author of Making Ideas Happen



Book Information
ISBN 9781487522834
Author Kevin C. Desouza
Format Paperback
Page Count 280
Imprint University of Toronto Press
Publisher University of Toronto Press
Weight(grams) 420g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 20mm