Intrapreneurship Success Case Study

Intrapreneurship Program at 3M creates more products: 3M multilayer optical film technology, 3M’s Vikuiti™, and 3M Scotch® Pop-Up Tape

By Howard Edward Haller, Ph.D. is Professional Keynote Speaker, Published Intrapreneurship Book Author, the Leading Expert and Thought Leader on Intrapreneurship, Corporate Entrepreneurship, Intrapreneurship Program Creation, Using Intrapreneurship programs as a strategic tool for Recruiting and Retaining Key Employees, and Using Intrapreneurship to Increase Innovation and Foster Creativity.

3M has led by action, support, grant funding, and not just words. 3M is a beacon of Intrapreneurship and is considered to be one of the most innovative companies in the not just the US, but the entire world.

Some enlightened corporations, such as 3M, allow an employee-intrapreneur (corporate entrepreneur) some limited freedom to pursue new ideas. The corporate entrepreneur, or Intrapreneur, must convince senior management that their new, out of the main stream idea has merit, has possible market, and that the new produce would be both profitable and synergistic to the corporation.

A corporate entrepreneur or Intrapreneur is really an entrepreneur who has less risk in building a new venture. But this means that an Intrapreneur also has materially less control of when, or even whether, the product will be launched by his employing corporation. To be a successful Intrapreneur takes a unique set of talents and abilities far more than just being creative. They must be willing to take some personal risks at sharing and pushing a unique idea with the senior management of the corporation. The Intrapreneur must have persistence and perseverance to work to secure senior management’s approval to create and launch the product or service. The successful Intrapreneur must have the personal drive to see the project to a successful fruition, no matter what it may take; the Intrapreneur may have to overcome possible roadblocks of formal corporate structure and the delays of corporate bureaucracy. An intrapreneur must constantly stay focused and fully committed to the product and be willing to keep pushing, even if it takes years to produce their new product and deliver it to market!

Through 3M’s Intrapreneurial “Bootlegging Policy” is a program that allows the employee intrapreneur to spend up to 15 percent of their time at work developing their own creative ideas for the betterment of the company and the creation of new products or services for 3M. 3M continues to actively support their employee’s become Intrapreneurs by encouraging their innovation by providing the time off their job. 3M employees are allowed to spend up to 15% of their time working on be creative and innovative to explore the ideas that the employee (or Intrapreneur or what some call a Corporate Entrepreneur) thinks might benefit 3M. In addition to encouraging innovation and supporting Intrapreneurship with “time off” 3M also provides all the right necessary resources.

If an intrapreneurial idea is accessed as a potentially viable product then 3M funds the product through the 3M program is called the Genesis Grant. This 3M program offers intrapreneurs aka researchers a grant up to $85,000 to guide their innovative projects past the idea stage.

3M has available a formal panel of technical experts and scientists to initially review the intrapreneurial ideas that 3M Intrapreneur has submitted. If a project passes the initial 3M panels review then it is sent to another committee of senior technical experts, marketing and management.

The second 3M Review Panel specifically looks for creative ideas that might lead to a competitive advantage in a specific market segment. This panel carefully reviews projects where some preliminary experimental work has already been completed and data is available to analyze. The second panel identifies those Intrapreneur created projects which resources required from both within and outside 3M.

Intrapreneurial Grants

3M regularly awards 15 grants for Intrapreneurially created product each year by their employee – intrapreneur teams. 3M is proud to point out their Intrapreneurship programs success in increasing innovation and the profitable creation of many products in addition to 3M Post-It Notes®. The additional products that have resulted from their intrapreneurship program include the 3M multilayer optical film technology, 3M’s Vikuiti™, and 3M Scotch® Pop-Up Tape.

Copyright (C) 1982-2012, Intrapreneurship Institute and Dr. Howard Edward Haller

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Howard Edward Haller, Ph.D. is Professional Keynote Speaker on Intrapreneurship, Corporate Entrepreneurship, Intrapreneurship Program Creation, Using Intrapreneurship programs as a strategic tool for Recruiting and Retaining Key Employees, and Using Intrapreneurship to Increase Innovation and Foster Creativity.

Dr. Howard Edward Haller is a “street smart” serial Intrapreneur and Entrepreneur, and is the Leading Expert and Thought Leader on Intrapreneurship, Intrapreneurship Program Creation, Intrapreneurship Program Implementation & Operation, and Entrepreneurship.

Dr. Haller is also a University Graduate Business School Professor, major University Trustee (Emeritus), and past University Board President, as well as a seasoned Senior Corporate Executive of major public and private companies. Haller was the Founder and Managing Director of Anaconda-Ericsson Finance and Leasing Inc.(for Anaconda-Ericsson Inc., the ARCO & LM Ericsson Joint Venture) Dr. Haller was Senior Vice President of United Artist/Tele-Communications Inc., where he managed assets in excess of $4 Billion.

Howard Edward Haller’s groundbreaking 1982 University published academic research on intrapreneurship is cited by Wikipedia.org in their “History of Intrapreneurship” entry. In addition, Dr. Haller’s 2009 published intrapreneurship book “Intrapreneurship Success: A PR1ME Example” is also cited by Wikipedia.org in their “History of Intrapreneurship.”

Book Dr. Howard Edward Haller to speak or consult with your entire firm or your senior executive on Intrapreneurship, Corporate Entrepreneurship , Intrapreneurship Program Creation or Increasing Innovation with your company.