CorporateEntrepreneurship

“We don’t know how to support and realize our employees’ new business ideas.”

We provide a step-by-step structured program to generate new business ideas from within a company, then to take those ideas through the lean startup methodology in order to validate the market potential of those ideas, and selecting proven ones for investment and scale.

Corporate entrepreneurship programs allow employees to learn and apply the lean startup methodology by testing their business ideas within the confines of the company.

The corporate entrepreneurship program is designed to provide intrapreneurs hands-on training in and application of Design Thinking, Lean Startup and Customer Development methodologies, giving them the tools to test the ideas in a short time at a minimal costs, and transforming those ideas into viable business models.

Alongside such entrepreneurship programs involving multiple employees, the same methodology is also being applied to radical new business development processes executed together with agile squad teams.

Acceleration Phase

In this approximately 6-week period, business ideas are transformed into business models and teams start the model validation process.

Participating intrapreneurs get out in the field, interview real customers and seek insights into current pains in the customer journey/experience. Following, utilizing simple solution tests, solution ideas are tested against validated problems and customer segments. The solution idea is then mapped to the Business Model Canvas, followed by the identification of key assumptions to test and a subsequent testing plan for the Pilot Phase.

During the Acceleration Phase, the following areas are clarified:

  • Problem and Customer Segment Definition
  • Problem – Customer Fit
  • Customer’s Interest in the Solution Idea

Pilot Phase

During the pilot phase, solution ideas validated during the acceleration phase and approved by top management, are tested with real customers in the market via a working prototype.

During this 3-4 month pilot phase, internal startup teams, supported with regular mentoring sessions, work to develop prototypes to gauge market interest and validate the key areas of their business model. The goal is to gain more quantitative data regarding customer purchase and usage behavior from a small audience to validate the feasibility of the idea.

At the conclusion of the pilot phase, the following concepts should be clearly validated:

  • Usability of the Solution
  • Product – Market Fit
  • Commercialization Roadmap

Commercialization Phase

In this phase, teams work to optimize the key metrics in their business model and get the product/service ready to scale with company resources.

Support is provided to teams during this phase to develop a market entry strategy and commercialization road map based on lessons learned from the pilot phase, setup an integration framework with relevant units within the company and outside stakeholders, and improve acquisition and retention funnel metrics for the solution.