//

An intrapreneurs is a manager who fosters and environment of innovation and risk taking within a large corporation

The ambition to gather a community of corporate entrepreneurs across the Red Dot was born out of a necessity amongst the community to meet up and inspire one another. The goal was to make a positive impact on how their organizations operate.

Wait, hold up, what is an intrapreneur you ask? The dictionary definition is a manager within a large company who fosters a culture of innovation and risk-taking within the corporation. Ok, now we can continue.

We had our first event on September 29, 2016 as fellow corporate change makers and people interested in making a difference answered my call to meet up.

So what is the Circle of Young Intrapreneurs about?

This global movement was created by two young British intrapreneurs — Tim Heard and David J. Spears — working at Barclays in the U.K.

The Circle of Young Intrapreneurs is designed to inspire, guide, develop and deliver purpose driven business ideas from young corporate entrepreneurs working in large corporates.

Also Read: Be like Mint: Content Marketing as a tool to build product anticipation

Tim and David have been doing a tremendous job to expand the community throughout the globe as they had the opportunity to present the Circle at the latest One Young World summit in Ottawa, Canada last month among other actions.

I met these guys last May 2016 at the Intrapreneurship Conference in Munich. We started talking about the movement, their vision and because this is something that I believe in, I decided to offer my help and spread the movement to Singapore (and hopefully beyond)!

A platform to inspire guide, develop and deliver purpose-driven business ideas

The CircleofYi Singapore provides a platform for corporate innovators to exchange efficient practices and methodologies in order to impact the way large organizations do business.

There are a lot of obstacles that can prevent change agents from moving forward with their ideas and the life of a change agent within a large organization can be lonely. We see ourselves as a support group.

While the creation of a community for intrapreneurs makes sense from a practical and networking standpoint, the objective behind it is bigger:

We want to raise awareness around sustainability issues, show intrapreneurs how we can take these issues into account in corporate transformation agendas and potentially tackle them by uniting our forces.

Social intrapreneurship is the ultimate step on the corporate innovator’s ladder

When talking to some corporate innovators in Singapore about the CircleofYI and the vision behind it, it seems the social/sustainability angle is difficult to address, or at times even dismissed.

A majority of the intrapraneurs we meet are involved in the digital transformation of their organization and they are not necessarily developing solutions with a societal and/or environmental angle. The link between the two may not seem evident.

The Circle of Young Intrapreneurs wants to change that.

Shouldn’t addressing and solving societal/environmental problems be the most fulfilling achievement in an innovator’s mind?

The creation of shared value and shared fulfilment have to be considered as a large corporate’s ultimate goal for mutual advancement.

Also Read: Meet the 10 fantastic fintech startups that won big at the Singapore FinTech Festival

With that in mind, it must also be the case for the individuals making things happen and driving change at these corporates. Shared fulfilment has to be the intrapreneur’s ultimate goal.

Much like their cousins in entrepreneurship, intraprenuers need a community in which to meet like-minded people, find a support network and discuss strategies for building a positive movement.

—

We are going to meet up again on November 17 at Mazars in Singapore’s offices! Intrapreneurs will get to hear the experience of Gregoire Rastoul, founder and CEO at UEX. His start-up gives customers a more social way to subscribe to an insurance plan. He started this venture as an intrapreneur at Verspieren so there will be plenty to learn for our fellow intrapreneurs.

Here’s the link to the event page so that you can RSVP.

I also invite you to like the Circle of Young Intrapreneurs Singapore page on Facebook to get relevant updates on the community! You can also subscribe to the global Circle of Young Intrapreneurs community on LinkedIn.

This article was previously posted on LinkedIn.com

 

The post Circle of Young Intrapreneurs: A grassroots initiative in Singapore fostering corporate innovation appeared first on e27.

from e27 http://ift.tt/2fF0dYV