Intrapreneurship and Boston Driving

As a product manager in an industry-leading multi-national company, I am an intrapreneur. I focus on launching new products into market. Since my products are platforms for our business units to use, my marketplace is like a B2B market, where I am sort of a software platform vendor (or partner) to them. I get funded each year through the capital budgeting process, and I have to put together the same kind of economic and market stories for new product launches and new features as I would have to if I were seeking venture capital or money from other sources.

I have colleagues who don't necessarily take the same point of view, but I find that this perspective (while not the official corporate policy) helps me focus my activities and platform strategy more effectively than any other construct I could operate in.

One of the challenges of doing my job in particular, and probably of being an intrapreneur in general, is that the marketplace that I play in is a lot more insular, and I am more constrained in how I operate than if I could be a disruptive force to an industry -- an approach that a VC might take in trying to make hay with the next billion-dollar business that turns an industry on its ear in the process.

We're a $12-billion-dollar business, and while we are constantly innovating, we have a franchise to protect. Using a highway analogy, I'd call that the "slow lane." It's full of big trucks full of customers that pay the freight for everyone. There's also some experimental innovation going on -- strategic investments that don't need to be connected to the slow-lane activities. But, they are disconnected from the day-to-day parts of the business -- and they have no revenue goal responsibility. I call them the "fast lane." They go somewhat unencumbered by the current state of the business. The state troopers are out with their radar guns, though. Those are the people who want to make sure that the franchise is not disrupted by these fast-lane activities. Innovate, but don't kill the cash cow in the process. So, they look at partnerships and acquisitions that extend or reinforce our core business, but they refrain from redefining the business.

But I'm not in either situation. I have to launch new products (not the slow lane), but what I do must be quickly relevant to the business, enabling us to deliver value that justifies the year-over-year investment in my platform. I am in the "passing lane." My goal is not to go arbitrarily fast. It is to incrementally move the business forward -- like passing one or two cars. Sometimes, it's to get us into open road by passing that huge truck with its blinkers on that is holding up traffic. An example of that is a project I'm working on that creates a new web capability that brings together many pieces of our new strategy. It will not disrupt our industry, but it will enable our company sieze key opportunties and reinforce our market-leading position.

So where does market disruption come from -- the Clay Christiansen kind that redefines an industry? I think it actually comes from the "breakdown lane."

In Boston, driving is permitted in the breakdown lane during rush hour. Ostensibly, this was done to accomodate the overcrowding or undersizing of our highways. Usually, the breakdown lane is for the more adventuresome. There's no value in driving there when traffic is moving well (in fact, it's dangerous, as the breakdown lane intersects in arbitrary ways with on-ramp and off-ramp traffic). But, when the regular lanes are locked down, the breakdown lane is usually moving. Often, Boston drivers see their comerades even passing in the breakdown lane.

So, how is disruptive innovation like the breakdown lane? First, its importance shows up when regular traffic is blocked -- sort of like when an industry of incumbents bogs down. This happened to the record industry, which was disrupted by the iPod and digital music. Apple zoomed through the breakdown lane while the incumbents were jammed up in trying to figure out how to respond to innovations like the web, MP3s and Napster.

Right now, I like being in the passing lane. Some of my business partners are in the slow lane. I need to help them "pass the car ahead of them" without putting the franchise at risk. Some of my business partners want to be in the passing lane and zoom ahead a few cars. They're not established enough with an existing franchise to worry about stepping on the gas. And there are even some who are ready to race ahead in the fast lane. With them, I want them to understand in what ways I can help them achieve their goals, and in what ways they need to just zoom ahead -- I'll catch up later.

But I have my eye on the passing lane, too. If traffic bogs down to the point where "passing lane" innovation is not enough, I may have to scoot over to the far right and drive like a Bostonian...