You might think “innovation” is a business buzzword, but change is happening whether you’re ready or not.
And it is better to be prepared than left behind, says Michelle Somes-Booher, MBA director for the Wisconsin Small Business Development Center at UW-Madison.
A great way to embrace innovation inside your organization, Somes-Booher tells CUNA Management School students in Madison, Wis., is to encourage employees to think like entrepreneurs, or “intrapreneurs.”
Intrapreneurs take risks and solve problems inside a company in the same way an entrepreneur would in the marketplace.
Somes-Booher details eight intrapreneurial skills to develop within employees, including the ability to:
Identify and assess opportunity.
Pivot and make changes in your business model.
Explore research opportunities.
Use creative problem-solving to spur constant improvement.
Leverage resources.
Manage risk.
Persevere.
Lead with confidence, influence people, and build a team.
“Every person in your organization can be a change agent,” says Somes-Booher.
Credit Union Magazine’s Fall 2023 issue examines how artificial intelligence is shaping marketing, strategies to improve cyber hygiene and overall cybersecurity, the need to employ risk management to address inflation and its impacts, new approaches to board recruiting, and NCUA’s top supervisory priorities.
