Since the COVID19 pandemic has impacted many businesses, some have had to pivot to stay in business. Putting the right team in place quickly can help you pivot your business quickly. Even General Motors has been able to pivot to making respirators and masks to help fight COVID19.
Idea People
This can be anyone in the organization, but my guess is, you know who your creative thinkers are. Get them together in a room and do some brainstorming to see what they come up with.
Don’t give them constraints when they begin the brainstorming process. Let them know that you would like as many ideas to pivot your company as they can come up with. Give them some help in the form of….
Outsiders
These can be customers, suppliers, your kids, professors with specialized knowledge outside of your business. Let this group work with the idea people brainstorming.
Kids that haven’t had the creativity drummed out of them by schooling often come up with great ideas. They probably won’t pre-judge their ideas. They are digital and social media natives. You’d be surprised how they connect the dots with something they have seen on social media and how it might apply to your company.
Outsiders with specialized knowledge can be a source of great ideas too. What if you were a mining company stuck on ideas but engaged an entomologist who is an expert on ants. That professor could add all kinds of insight into better ways to mine.
Functional Area Representatives
After your outsiders and idea people have come up with a list of ideas, get representatives from the functional areas of your business involved.
The representatives will have to supply some resources to make the new product or business happen. Make sure to select representatives that like to try new things.
Intrapreneurs
These are the dreamers with a plan. They are the employees in your company that gets stuff done. They work through or around roadblocks.
They are well connected in your company. They know who to go to for sponsorship of the best ideas. They know who from the functional areas can spare resources and will lend support.
They are successfully running their own outside businesses or run a piece of the company you are in. They are the entrepreneurs who happen to work inside your company. They can paint a vision of the pivoted business.
Sponsors
These are the upper management leaders who will need to remove or eliminate organizational roadblocks. If they support an idea it is their job to obtain financial support. They can develop a quick financial story to see if the ideas make sense.
All of these resources need to be a part of your intrapreneurial team. Putting them together with the right support will allow them to pivot your business quickly!
As always, it’s an honor to serve you and I hope this helps you and your organization get a little bit better today.
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