Top 10 Intrapreneurship projects everyone should know!

In a recent Medium article, I talked about intrapreneurship's evolution and continuous climb.

One question stayed unanswered: Does intrapreneurship work, and what is the outcome of intrapreneurship?

In intrapreneurship, few projects and stories are shared publicly. Companies still are very secretive about their innovation projects.

Not saying this is good, but most likely, it won't change that fast. Nevertheless, some great projects started as intrapreneurship projects, and I believe everyone should know about them!

1. Macintosh (Apple)

Macintosh resulted from a small team of engineers that Steve Jobs permitted to play "without adult supervision". Unfortunately, the clash between the new product and existing Apple mainstream products led to the layoff of Steve. A mistake that has been reverted later in Apple's history.

2. Gmail (Google)

Google has long been famous for giving its employees 20% of their work time for creative projects. Paul Buchheit (Google's employee #23) took that chance to create the basics of what today is known as Gmail.

What a great success case for a company that has made intrapreneurship part of its DNA!

3. AWS (Amazon)

Who would have thought that one day an online bookstore would make millions with cloud hosting? Noone, also not Andy Jessy, an Amazon employee that has been involved from the idea to its incredible climb.

Andy Jassy became the new CEO of Amazon in 2021. #DreamItDoIt!

4. PlayStation (Sony)

In the late 1980s, Sony junior staff member Ken Kutaragi developed a chip to tune his daughter's Nintendo. The result was a better gaming experience. Thrilled by the idea of bringing this to market, he approached his bosses, but as often in intrapreneurship, the first response was a clear 'No'.

Unsatisfied, he reached out to Sony's CEO, Norio Ohga. #Nevergiveup!

5. Nespresso (Nestlé)

In 1975, Eric Favre, a newly employed engineer, assembled a capsula-based coffee machine and started a true revolution in the coffee industry. But, as in most cases, his initial ideas didn't only get support, but many inside Nestlé doubted the idea and saw it as a threat and danger to the existing coffee business.

The idea finally took off, and Nespresso became an iconic brand. Nespresso? What else?!

6. Post-it (3M)

Spencer Silver, a 3M scientist, invented a sticky but not solid adhesive, an invention that was lying around unused for many years. Until, one day, Art Frey, another 3M employee, needed a bookmark that doesn't damage the pages it was glued on.

Together, they developed the brand new sticky notes into what today is known as Post-its.

7. happy meal (Mc Donalds)

1977, Dick Brams, a regional manager at Mc Donalds, wanted to test a new meal just for kids. This was the birth moment for the ionic happy meal, a success story that continues until today.

8. Mastercard (Bank of California)

In 1966. Michael Philipps, a market research manager at the Bank of California, had the idea of what later resulted in Mastercard. As he was afraid of proposing a raw idea, he validated it. He only pitched it to the CEO once he had secured the interest of over 200 customers, partners, and other banks, ready to join the initiative. #NoBlaJustDo!

9. Java (Sun Microsystems)

Patrick Naughton, then a 25 years old programmer, told Scott McNealy, the CEO of Sun, that he wanted to quit. Scott then asked him for his reasons and formed a team around Patrick, breaking into the consumer market. Team member James Gosling created an object-based programming language for a specific customer project that didn't materialize. Little after, Bill Joy, a Sun co-founder, realized the potential of the programming language, and the technology started to take off.

Today more than 3 billion mobile phones run on Java.

10. Like-Button (Facebook)

As a final example, did you know that the famous Like-Button on Facebook was developed as part of a company's internal hack-a-thon?

Well, I think these examples nicely show that you should never underestimate the innovative power of your employees! Innovation can come from all directions. #BottomUpInnovation #Intrapreneurship