The document discusses seven traits of Nigerian intrapreneurs that were identified based on a study of 20 professionals in Lagos: enthusiastic, supportive, inspiring, audacious, futuristic, coordinating, and making the workplace better. It also discusses what these professionals want from their employers, which includes a favorable innovation climate, technical excellence incentives, motivation, emotional balance, participative decision-making, appreciation, and recognition for their work. Finally, it outlines some of the biggest corporate blocks to innovation, such as silo mentality and risk aversion, and argues that Nigerian companies need to foster internal entrepreneurial programs to compete in a faster, more innovative manner and benefit from intrapreneurship.

1. ...advancing business
Enterprations
Weekly
Strategy
How to find and
Recognise
Intrapreneurs
In Nigeria
www.enterprations.com
What do they want?

2. 2 April 2017 Enterprations Weekly Strategy
SevenTraitsofNigerian
Intrapreneurs
ntrapreneurs have been found and still be searching for they put aside ego and don't fear failure. “Nobody succeeds
in developed and developing countries. They in a silo. Whatever we venture personal, professional,
{Intrapreneurs} are continuously managed by philanthropic, political, or private we must remember theIinnovative leaders. Their {Intrapreneurs} impacts are people involved in and essential to our success,” explains
really felt on the value of assets, the value of total incomes Faisal Hoque, a serial entrepreneur, Fast Company
andthevalueofprofits contributor, and co-author of the new book Everything
"Intrapreneurs are key drivers of growth in companies large Connects.
and small," Chirag Kulkarni, CEO of C&M Group, said in Trait 4: Audacious. Demonstrate natural leadership. This
an interview with Inc. "If you are looking for individuals has been helping most of the professionals in moving ahead
with corporate experience for your start-up, intrapreneurs with a promising new approach when others might be more
are the ones to hire because they understand corporate cautious. Managers and business leaders need to recognise
upheavals, but will still be driven and motivated to work this and capitalise on it towards choosing leaders for
towards growing your company." In this regard, we dedicated teams for new products or services development.
sampled views of 20 working class professionals in Lagos It has been documented that transformational leadership is
to understand their intrapreneurial spirits. Our study reveals positively related to entrepreneurial behaviour only when
seven distinctive behaviours and how they want their psychological empowerment is high, whereas transactional
employers to recognise their contributions. They are leadership has a negative relationship with entrepreneurial
discussedherefromthehighesttotheleast. behaviour.
Trait 1: Enthusiastic. Most of the employees are willing Trait 5: Futuristic. Vividly describes how things could be
and ready to learning skills in line with the roles and tasks inthefutureandwhatis neededtogetus there.Thisis oneof
assigned to them. What this connotes is that managers and the core attributes of employees who believe in the
corporate leaders should have specific techniques and company's strategic visions and missions. Sampled
strategies of understanding what every employee wants in professionals have the ability to predict what will or might
termsofnew knowledgeandskillsacquisition. happen in the future, concerned with the future or planning
Trait 2: Supportive. Many employees have the ability of for the future and quick in noticing, understanding, or
encouraging others to take the initiative for their own ideas. judgingthingsaccurately.
Businesses need to recognise this as soon as possible. To Trait 6: Coordinating. Having understood that teamwork
effectively identify this, Erik Jensen, in his write up on is crucial for business in taking on new challenges and
intrapreneurship, emphasizes four essential building perform strategic tasks, get people to rally together to meet
blocks of intrapreneurship for corporate innovation. These a challenge is one of the behaviours of the professionals.
include knowing employees inside out, framing the Managers need to know the elements of effective teamwork
business problem, understanding risk tolerance, instilling and help employees in building and maintaining high-
ownership in team's dedicated to new ideas and getting out performanceteams.
of the way. Companies like Adobe, Royal Bank of Canada, Trait 7: Making workplace better. They are creating an
3M, and Lockheed Martin are getting it right by crafting environment where people get excited about making
their programmes with four essential building blocks of improvements. This indicates that innovation alone is not
intrapreneurship. enough. They are setting context appropriate for
Trait 3: Inspiring. The professionals are exalting others to developing innovative products or services. In specific
think about their work in new and stimulating ways. They terms, they are making frantic efforts towards having the
are getting their follow employees to think creatively, rightpeople,therightprocesses,andtherightenvironment.
challenge the status quo and keeping everyday operations
running efficiently. Inspiring others has been their norm,
Moving ahead with a promising new approach when others
might be more cautious. Managers and business leaders
need to recognise this and capitalise on it towards choosing
leaders for dedicated teams for new products or services

3. 3 April 2017 Enterprations Weekly Strategy
What do they
want
Favourable Innovation Climate it is about taking certain decisions,
and Technical Excellence unable to influence corporate level
Incentives. Many professionals are decision making. Giving them
e x p e r i e n c i n g u n f a v o u r a b l e uninterrupted time to address
innovation climate and/or lack of problems in small and highly
technical excellence incentives. It functioning teams could be a great
seems that businesses are yet to chance to creatively problem solve
realise that attitude of employees without the pressure of worrying
towards intrapreneurship could be about corporate hierarchy or
easily observed through creativity oversight, which tends to stifle
and innovation. As hinted by i n n o v a t i v e e x c h a n g e s .
InnovationTools.com, the right Intrapreneurialism thrives when
incentives can be giving innovators thrives companies demonstrate a high
the time and space required, giving level of commitment to employee
them a chance to be creative and bold, involvementindecisionmaking.
and providing the right mix of diverse Being appreciated. Employees want
people on the innovation teams, and recognition or reward for a job well
f o s t e r i n g c o n n e c t i o n s a n d done. They want any extra effort to be
relationship. appreciated especially when their
Motivation and Emotional hard work results in something great
Balance. Their creativity and for the business. According to an
innovation are being impeded article in Forbes, the top three reasons
because of low of motivation, people listed for leaving their jobs
emotional exhaustion, and burnout. were disliking their boss, a lack of
They can only think critically and be empowerment and feeling frustration
creative when managers motivate over internal politics. Businesses also
them and ensure emotional balance. need to be wary of these reasons.
Emotions are tied to everything E x p e c t a n c y m o d e l f o r
employees need to do while forces entrepreneurial behaviour has make
like instincts, drives, needs, us understand that the level to which
incentives, the thoughts among others an employee perceives a direct
direct future behaviour which relationship between the effort he/she
constitute motivation elements. puts forth, and successful
Motivation could be intrinsic or performance on the employee's
extrinsic. According to Mallow the appraisal and evaluation system, to
highest level of motivation comes which he or she perceives a direct
from the need for self-actualisation relationship between a good
which is a state of self-fulfillment performance appraisal and rewards
where people realize their highest and whether the company is offering
potentialintheirown uniqueway. the right reward are critical in
Participative decision-making developingintrapreneurshipspirits.
style. They are having problem when
They can only think critically and
be creative when managers
motivate them and ensure
emotional balance.
The Building Blocks of
Emotional Intelligence/
Emotional Balance
The ability to accurately perceive,
appraiseandexpressemotion.
The ability to access or generate
feelings on demand when they can
facilitate understanding of oneself or
anotherperson.
The ability to understand emotions
and the knowledge that derives from
them.
The ability to regulate emotions to
promote emotional and intellectual
growth. Each of these building
blocks helps develop the particular
skills that together form our
emotionalintelligence.
The biggest corporate
blocks to innovation
Silo mentality: Optimization of
functional activities supersedes
o p t i m i z a t i o n o f c o m p a n y
performance.
Risk aversion: The existing
b u s i n e s s m o d e l i n h i b i t s
consideration and implementation of
alternativemodels.
D y s f u n c t i o n a l p ro c e s s e s :
Organization structures undermine
the capacity to successfully manage
cross-functionalbusiness processes.
Conformity: The organization
rewards those who contribute to the
existing model, at the expense of
thosewho donotfitthemodel.
Fatalism: The business does not
believe it can significantly affect its
future.
Stubbornness: The organization
would rather suffer losses to
competitionthancannibalizeitself.
VictorFernandes,Natura

4. telecommunication industry lack appropriate strategies to
Intrapreneurship: Companies that support intrapreneurship activities despite having
strategies of retaining employees who exhibitedembraceitthrive
entrepreneurialbehaviours.There are benefits and demerits of creating
intrapreneurship culture, but the benefits are more than the StrategicActionsminuses. Google is one of the companies benefiting from Nigerian companies need to foster internal entrepreneurial
intrapreneurship to foster innovation and employee programmes to compete in a faster and more innovative
empowerment. In Nigeria, evidence has shown that there manner. Apart from this, Intrapreneurs remain the engines
is a link between strategic intrapreneurship practice and of growth in the present recession as the uncertainty of
banks innovation in Nigeria most importantly in Access what the future holds and how to create competitive
Bank, Eco Bank, First Bank of Nigeria, Guaranty Trust advantages increase everyday. Having internal incubator
Bank (GTB), United Bank of Africa (UBA), and Zenith programme will go a long way of producing the right
Bank situated in Lagos State whereas companies in Intrapreneursinordertosurvivetherecessioneffects.
Contact
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www.enterprations.com
info@enterprations.com
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April 2017 Enterprations Weekly Strategy4