Intrapreneurship Unveiled: Navigating Innovation from Within with Karina Prasad and Jason Mellad

Karina Prasad and Jason Mellad sit down with the University of Cambridge Online to discuss the ins and outs of intrapreneurship and share some of their advice for aspiring intrapreneurs.

If you were to ask a group of people to provide a word to describe those that seek to innovate, disrupt markets, lead successful initiatives and ultimately drive profit, it’s likely that many would reply with ‘entrepreneur’. Very few would answer with the word ‘intrapreneur.’

That is because society has romanticised the concepts of owning your own business and being ‘the boss’. In actual fact, however, innovation rarely flourishes in isolation and often requires expertise and significant resources which can be challenging to secure on your own. As an alternative, many opt to become ‘intrapreneurs’ and develop innovative ideas that drive the commercial success of the organisations that employ them, taking full advantage of internal infrastructure, supportive colleagues and agile funding.

Karina Prasad and Jason Mellad are experts in the field of intrapreneurship and combined have been supporting start-ups and individuals to harness these skills for over 35 years.

“Intrapreneurship is a desire to make things better even if they are outside your day-to-day role. An intrapreneur is someone who is curious, creative and brave” as Karina says. “This doesn’t mean that every intrapreneur is confident or bold, but it does mean that they have perhaps found a good idea and just need peer support and/or a champion and a little guidance on the process to push it forwards.”

How does this work then for organisations as a whole – what’s in it for them? Karina and Jason have the perfect answer: “Corporations have to innovate to thrive. The future of innovation is all about the survival of the quickest and never allowing your company to become a zombie organisation. Allowing intrapreneurial activity amongst individuals and teams ensure organisations stay at the top of their game.”

Unlocking Intrapreneurial Success: Key Skills for Innovation in Organizations

When asked about the most valuable intrapreneurial skills to have as an individual wanting to drive success, Karina and Jason agree on 6 different areas:

• courage

• resilience

• vision – foresight

• an open mindset

• collaborative spirit

• strong Communication skills.

It’s a long list but one that Karina and Jason believe is important if individuals and organisations are to harness the power of the intrapreneurial mindset effectively.

“You must be brave to be an intrapreneur; you are putting yourself out there, stepping out of your comfort zone, maybe even outside of your current role, this requires courage. Resilience is being able to push forward in the face of adversity but with the right self-awareness for knowing when to stop.”

Jason continues, “in all new visionary ideas there is an element of creativity, stepping back and thinking about the bigger picture and how you can bring people along with you but also map your vision onto the organisational vision. Then begins a journey of learning and testing which in many ways is more important than the outcome. Having an open mindset enables you to accurately address any challenges encountered throughout this.”

The final skill is communication. Karina and Jason say that communication is everything as it’s how you ultimately articulate your vision, engage, attract support from peers and prepare your pitch.

Overcoming Confidence Challenges: Navigating the Path to Intrapreneurial Success

A large part of being an intrapreneur is having confidence in your own abilities, doubting ourselves or having too much confidence is therefore the main obstacle to success. How do you get around this?

Feedback says Jason and Karina.

“Constructive feedback is a gift – seek it often and engage with it. Humble yourself – remember your audience is not as close to your idea as you – be patient and listen.”

There is a British expression “herding cats”. Cats are notoriously independent they have their own agenda and if it doesn’t fit with your agenda then you will have conflict. The key is to find something that all the cats want – cans of tuna, for example. This will herd your cats in one direction and is a good example of how you get people to buy into your vision. What is their motivation? – Hunger? Desire? – and how do you align the two? Find out what motivates others and what is their pain point. However, remember not all cats have the same pain points.

Getting started – talk to people

We’ve established the skills you need and the main obstacle that can hold you back but if being an intrapreneur is something new to you, where do you start? We asked Jason and Karina for their best advice.

“Get started, talk to your peers and people around you who might understand your idea and can give good feedback. Don’t over analyse at this stage, it leads to paralysis. Make a simple list of your ideas and go talk to people. Get a mentor and accept that you will make mistakes along the way…

…and of course, taking our Cambridge Advance Online course gives you a great head start.”

Karina Prasad is Head of the Postdoc Academy(Opens in a new window) at the University of Cambridge and has over 17 years’ experience developing novel opportunities for aspiring innovators.

Jason Mellad is Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Cambridge-based Start Codon(Opens in a new window), a healthcare venture builder and seed fund that helps translate ground-breaking life science innovations into disruptive and successful start-ups.

Are you interested in getting a head start in the world of intrapreneurship? Take a look at Karina and Jason’s online course with the University of Cambridge online: https://advanceonline.cam.ac.uk/courses/intrapreneurship-employee-led-innovation