“Creativity needs to be managed”

Hans Crijns is not a fan of blind intrapreneurship

“Very good and very bad companies follow a balancing act between free entrepreneurship and rigid management. The good ones find the balance, the bad ones fall flat.” Hans Crijns, professor of Entrepreneurship at the Vlerick Leuven Ghent Management School, does not have a magic formula for intrapreneurship. He keeps both feet on the ground: “Even creativity needs to be managed.” 

Johan De Crom

Does intrapreneurship or in-house entrepreneurship mean that you determine your objectives based on the available talent in your company? As opposed to setting objectives your employees subsequently have to achieve?
Hans Crijns: “That's a controversial assumption. It used to be clear-cut; the boat had a final destination and a fixed course. Since Good to Great, a book by Jim Collins, there has been a wind of change. He says: 'First make sure your people are on the boat'. His logic is pursued further today. Some entrepreneurs see who and what they have in the company and plot an approximate course toward the final destination. They might not make it directly to India with their people but they'll get to Sri Lanka. Their thinking is: 'Well, at least we've made it this far already'.”

How can large, established companies implement intrapreneurship?
Hans Crijns: “They can invest in sandpit projects in which employees can 'experiment' freely, projects that don't need to make any money in the short term. Some organisations don't have real job descriptions either. The role of employees has been described less rigidly. The first rule of intrapreneurship is that you give people the space to experiment.”

How do I recognise in-house entrepreneurship?
Hans Crijns: “Enterprising people or companies are characterised by a preparedness to innovate, to take risks and by being proactive. They have a craving for autonomy and independence and want to be their own boss. It is incredible to think that entrepreneurs stifle exactly those employees who contest the business line and voice their opinion.”
   
How do you recognise good ideas? How do you nurture them?
Hans Crijns: “Real innovation always comes from the market. Some genius or other who comes up with a super plan needs to be distrusted from the start. And the best proposals practically speak for themselves, so let commitment play its role. Apart from this first you need to release the creativity, and then tighten it again. You need to let people with ambitious ideas present a worked out plan, with strict deadlines. Even creativity needs to be managed. And not unimportantly: test your new design in the market. Don't put any resources into ideas that don't have a chance of survival.”