Intrapreneurship Success Case Study

3M’s Post-it Notes

By Howard Edward Haller, Ph.D.

Intrapreneurs, like their entrepreneurial counterparts, need to envision and create an idea. But instead of convincing outside investors or risking their own personal capital, the intrapreneur needs to create the right team within the company he/she works for to successfully launch a new product(s). The intrapreneur needs to convince some “mover and shaker” in senior management to approve a new product concept and then to invest the company’s time, money, and other resources.

Some enlightened corporations, such as 3M, do allow an employee-intrapreneur 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!

Some major public companies specifically foster and encourage intrapreneurial explorations on company time through formal corporate intrapreneurship programs. During the intrapreneurial journey from idea to product, some ideas and products are ignored or neglected. The twelve year course from idea creation to production of product for 3M’sPost-it Notes(TM) is an example of this.

Through it’s Intrapreneurial “Bootlegging Policy,” (which allows employees 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) the usually staid, 3M Corporation was able to capitalize on the creative ideas of 3M Intrapreneurs Spencer Silver and Art Fry to create and launch the 3M Post-it Note product. 3M scientist Spencer Silver invented a not-so-sticky adhesive in 1968, but it took him several years to come up with how to best use and market the product. Spencer shared his idea through seminars in which he shared the features (and benefits) of this semi-adhesive to fellow 3M employees.

But no one really caught the vision of his product for five long years. Finally, a co-worker, Art Frey, recognized the need for Spencer’s idea! During choir practice and performances, Frey’s bookmarks were regularly falling out of his hymn book. This product concept solved his problem! Still, 3M still did not do anything with Spencer’s idea for over a decade. Then finally, in 1980, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing’s (3M) Post-it Notes product line, which is their moveable semi-sticky notes product, was successfully launched across the entire US, and internationally.

Intrapreneuring, intrapreneurship and even informal intrapreneurship program or intrapreneurial organizations have existed in corporations for decades, even before the term was used in the 1982′s. The Lockheed “Skunk Works” in late 1940′s and through the 1950′s is a great example of the application of intrapreneurship concepts to accomplish a big task quickly without the usual corporate bureaucracy.

In 1982, Haller successfully defended his master thesis on the “Intrapreneurship Success” a study of PR1ME Computer Inc. from 1977 to 1980. It was the first academic intrapreneurship research and “real world” case study of Intrapreneurship. Haller’s Master’s Thesis was published by the University back in 1982 (as cited by Wikipedia.org). Dr. Haller Intrapreneurship Case Study was cutting edge intrapreneurship or corporate entrepreneurship research of PR1ME Computer Inc. Haller’s case study was published almost three years before the term “intrapreneur” was actively used by the popular media such as TIME in February 1985 and then by Newsweek in September 1985.

Apple’s Chairman, Stephen Jobs used the term “intrapreneurship” in his Newsweek article in September, 1985. Job’s said, “The Macintosh team was what is commonly known as intrapreneurship-only a few years before the term was coined – a group of people going, in essence, back to the garage, but in a large company.” Gifford Pinchot made the word “Intrapreneuring” a common term when his book was published in 1985.

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.