CEO Brandon Frere: How to Drive Success in an Organization With Intrapreneurship

Gathering of the Minds

What is intrapreneurship? Intrapreneurship is when employees act like entrepreneurs within a larger organization. Intrapreneurs are highly motivated, engaged and goal-oriented individuals who are willing to step forward and take on innovative projects. Though intrapreneurs may not realize the full financial benefits projects earn when successful, they also do not take the risk and loss of an unsuccessful project. Brandon Frere, CEO of Frere Enterprises and other ventures, constantly challenges his team to act as entrepreneurs within his organizations.

“I really encourage staff to speak up and I invite innovation from everyone up and down the organizational chart,” said Frere. “Small innovations can be just as valuable as larger efforts.”

I really encourage staff to speak up and I invite innovation from everyone up and down the organizational chart. Small innovations can be just as valuable as larger efforts.

Brandon Frere, CEO of Frere Enterprises

A recent article in People Matters discussed the importance of intrapreneurship to lead innovation throughout an organization. One of the most critical components is to do more than encourage staff; instead, team members must feel secure in their ability to be independent and make suggestions as well as decisions. A rigid chain of command can suppress potential intrapreneurs. Similarly, risk-taking with ideas and actions must be fully supported. Being maligned or mocked for a failure will kill innovation, and not just for the employee that failed but within the entire organization.

Allowing employees to have access to important company information gives them more ownership and allows them to have a greater understanding of the systems and process infrastructure. Additionally, to increase buy-in, it is important to give staff the freedom to fix problems as they occur, building trust, personal urgency and responsibility. Further, it is important to provide resources to staff working on innovative projects to create a culture of intrapreneurship, empowering staff to build dynamic solutions for the most vexing challenges.

Giving employees the time and space they need to work on groundbreaking solutions shows a commitment to innovation to the entire organization. Business leaders must also reward and celebrate team member successes, both with recognition and money, incentivizing the employee work they prize. Finally, the workplace must be a place of both collaboration and healthy competition, balancing trust within the team with a helpful dissatisfaction with complacency.

“It is not simple to build intrapreneurship within an organization,” said Frere. “But if you can manage to carve out time and resources for employees to innovate, as well as model openness, fearlessness, collaboration and competition, there is a good chance that you can build a team of dynamic intrapreneurs.”

About Brandon Frere

Brandon Frere is an entrepreneur and businessman who lives in Sonoma County, California. He has designed and created multiple companies to meet the ever-demanding needs of businesses and consumers alike. His website, www.BrandonFrere.com, is used as a means of communicating many of the lessons, fundamentals and information that he has learned throughout his extensive business and personal endeavors, most recently in advocating on behalf of student loan borrowers nationwide.

As experienced during his own student loan repayment, Mr. Frere found out how difficult it can be to work with federally contracted student loan servicers and the repayment programs designed to help borrowers. Through those efforts, he gained an insider’s look into the repayment process and the motivations behind the inflating student loan debt bubble. His knowledge of the often confusing landscape of student loan repayment became a vital theme in his future endeavors, and he now uses those experiences to help guide others through the daunting process of applying for available federal repayment and loan forgiveness programs.

BrandonFrere.com

Source: Brandon Frere

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