Innovation does not only happen in start-ups or in R&D or incubation labs. It happens when ordinary employees are given the space and the tools in an environment that is conducive to act on ideas that make a difference.
This is the essence of intrapreneurship. Empowering people inside the organisation to think and behave like entrepreneurs and innovators. Intrapreneurship is a behaviour and a mindset adopted by employees within the organisation. It is the way employees drive innovation from within It’s about individuals taking ownership, spotting opportunities, experimenting, and pushing ideas forward as if they were entrepreneurs, within the strategic boundaries of the organisation.
In South Africa, where many organisations face constraints on budgets, skills and resources, the case for intrapreneurship is particularly strong. The people who best understand the challenges and opportunities are often already on the inside. When their insights are recognised and supported, innovation becomes more grounded and strategically relevant.
True innovation capability is more than telling employees to behave like entrepreneurs. It also more than quarterly or annual innovation challenges or a hackathons. It is a deliberate effort to cultivate a system where employees can identify opportunities, experiment and take calculated risks without fear of failure. Leading companies are formalising this through small seed funds or cross-functional innovation teams, that bring new ideas to life. Innovation becomes powerful when it embeds effort with a structured innovation management system. This reduces uncertainty so that innovation becomes a skill that builds repeatable capability. The aim is for innovation to become consistently value-creating.
Building a truly future-fit organisation requires more than inspiration or sporadic bursts of creativity. It demands a disciplined approach to managing innovation as a system. This means equipped leaders that understands how to create the mechanisms, governance, culture, and shared language that enable people to spot opportunities and shape ideas. Most importantly, it turns insight into meaningful results. When innovation is guided by clear intent and supported by evidence, it becomes predictable rather than accidental, measurable rather than vague and scalable rather than dependent on individuals. This builds the foundation for organisations to move beyond ad-hoc innovation activity and towards an integrated capability that reduces uncertainty and accelerates value. It is innovation capability grounded in strategically relevant action that will shape Africa’s innovation future.
Large global brands have made this part of their DNA. Google’s ‘20 % time’ famously encouraged staff to pursue personal projects that benefitted the business. Another strong example comes from Adobe, whose “Kickbox” programme empowers employees with a small budget, a step-by-step toolkit, and full autonomy to prototype new ideas. Thousands of Kickboxes have been distributed globally, leading to new products, internal process improvements, and customer-facing innovations. What makes this model so effective is not just the funding, it is the trust, structure, and clear innovation pathway that equip employees to experiment confidently. It shows how deliberate innovation action, backed by leadership and supported by a system, can unlock meaningful and repeatable innovation across an organisation and was so successful that Adobe’s Kickbox programme has been replicated all over the world.
The mechanics matter. Innovators need visible leadership support, time to focus on new ideas and clear pathways for scaling what works. Without this, enthusiasm fades and innovation becomes another short-lived campaign. Effective intrapreneurship frameworks often include a small internal fund, mentoring or partnership with external innovators and a process to transition successful ideas into core business operations.
It is also important to remember that effective innovation is about collaboration, not individual heroics. It is about building systems that enable collective creativity. When people across departments see that their input can shape the future of the organisation, engagement and ownership grow naturally. Over time, this builds a culture that values experimentation and continuous improvement.
There are challenges. Bureaucracy, short-term performance targets and rigid hierarchies can all hold back innovation energy. Yet, with thoughtful design and leadership commitment, these barriers can be eased. Some South African organisations are beginning to link innovation to strategic objectives such as digital inclusion, sustainability and social impact, showing that internal innovation can serve both commercial and societal goals.
At Innocentrix, we believe the next wave of innovation will come from within. Building internal capacity for innovation is one of the most powerful ways to future-proof an organisation. When people are trusted to explore, test and learn, they do more than create new products or services – they build resilience and adaptability into the system itself. That is what makes organisational innovation not just a trend, but a strategic imperative.
Sources
https://brandsouthafrica.com/103921/innovations/fnb-011112/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/googles-20-percent-time-in-action.html