Intrapreneurship at Alcatel-Lucent
Since 2006, Alcatel-Lucent, an international telecommunications equipment manufacturer based in Paris, France, has been conducting boot camps for its employees to provide business training and help them monetize their innovative ideas with a view to creating value for the company. The program has led to 32 projects of which two have been commercialized, three transferred to business units within Alcatel-Lucent and one spun off. In 2012, however, the boot camps were discontinued due to a cost reduction program aimed at making the company cash-flow positive. Now, in June 2014, after a change in top management and a desire to regain the innovative edge against its competition has revived the idea, the company’s director of Open Innovation & Intrapreneurship is facing three dilemmas: how to reconcile the big business intolerance for failure with failure-prone intrapreneurship, how to design a forward-looking component into intrapreneurship and how to change the design and architecture of the boot camp in its new edition.
Collection: Ivey Business School (Canada)
Ref: IVEY-9B14M169-E
Format: PDF
Number of pages: 14
Publication Date: Jan 13, 2015
Language: English
Review date: Jan 13, 2015
What material is included in this case:
Description
Since 2006, Alcatel-Lucent, an international telecommunications equipment manufacturer based in Paris, France, has been conducting boot camps for its employees to provide business training and help them monetize their innovative ideas with a view to creating value for the company. The program has led to 32 projects of which two have been commercialized, three transferred to business units within Alcatel-Lucent and one spun off. In 2012, however, the boot camps were discontinued due to a cost reduction program aimed at making the company cash-flow positive. Now, in June 2014, after a change in top management and a desire to regain the innovative edge against its competition has revived the idea, the company’s director of Open Innovation & Intrapreneurship is facing three dilemmas: how to reconcile the big business intolerance for failure with failure-prone intrapreneurship, how to design a forward-looking component into intrapreneurship and how to change the design and architecture of the boot camp in its new edition.
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Year: 2014
Geographic Setting: France
Industry Setting: Information, Media & Telecommunications;
Learning Objective
This case can be taught at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels in an innovation or corporate entrepreneurship elective or as part of an entrepreneurship course with a focus on intrapreneurship, innovation and corporate venturing. Its teaching objectives are the following: ·To illustrate how innovative intrapreneurship can be encouraged in the setting of a large corporation through the medium of intrapreneurial boot camps. ·To understand the internal and external pressures on corporate decision-making, the opportunities and limitations of intrapreneurial boot camps and the ways that they can be structured to achieve maximum impact for the organization.
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