Intrapreneurship Success Case Study

WL Gore Associates, Inc & their intrapreneurial created WL ELIXER Guitar string line

By Howard Edward Haller, Ph.D.

An Intrapreneur must learn to get around the roadblocks of corporate structure and a possible stodgy manager, or the traditional corporate bureaucracy. A successful corporate entrepreneur, or intrapreneur, must first convince middle management to allow them to share with senior management their idea or concept. Then the hopeful intrapreneur must convince senior management their new and unique, “out of the box” product, service, or idea has real merit, a viable market, and would be both profitable and synergistic to the corporate mission. An intrapreneurship program can effectively and successfully increase creativity, unlock innovation, maximize human capital, and result in both increase profits and long-term success.

An intrapreneur is really an entrepreneur with a corporation or organization who has less risk in a venture than a traditional entrepreneur. The intrapreneur also has much less control of when, or whether, an innovative product will be launched. Being an intrapreneur or corporate entrepreneur takes a unique set of skills beyond creativity, including being willing to take some risks at sharing and pushing a unique idea. A successful Intrapreneur must have the perseverance to wait for senior management’s approval to create and launch a product or service, and the drive to see it through to fruition, no matter what.

The W.L. Gore (maker of Gore-Tex™)-W.L. ELIXER Guitar string line is a intrapreneurial success story. W.L. Gore has a program to encourage its employees to develop new ideas for the firm. W.L. Gore calls its inspiring intrapreneuring program, “Dabble Time Policy.” This W.L. Gore intrapreneurship fostering program allows employees to devote 10% of their time at work to their creative intrapreneurial projects.

W.L. Gore’s John Spencer and his team conducted extensive field market research of over 15,000 guitar players about their guitar strings and their guitar string wishes. The results of the extensive field marketing tests led W.L. Gore, John Spencer and his marketing team to come to a major marketing opportunity to innovate the guitar string market. Dave Myers and John Spencer’s “ah ha” moment was to fill a huge market need and major selling point – they needed to create better and longer lasting sound. They concluded that by coating the strings for longer better sound and longer useful life that they could quickly take a major market share of the guitar string market. The new ELIXIR coated strings were only slightly more comfortable to play than the conventional non-coated strings. The important marketing point was that ELIXIR coated guitar string kept their tone longer than the traditional guitar strings.

In the middle 1990′s, Dave Myers and John Spencer jointly created, researched the potential market, positioned and launched an entirely new product line using the materials and technology, from their employer, W.L. Gore Associates, Inc., who is well known for using their custom designed special materials in the manufacture of their main line of unique weather proof outdoor clothing products (including their line of Gore-Tex rain gear) and other products made with their proprietary Gore-Tex material. The result was the creation of an entire new product line of what became the ELIXER Guitar string line. Myers’ was the product creator and Spencer the marketing genius. Together they helped WL Gore launch the new brand of ELIXIR Strings, which has become one of the top selling brands in the guitar string market!

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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.”

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