How To Acquire The Skillset, Mindset And Heartset To Tackle The Future
In Episode 18 of MING Labs’ podcast Lost In Transformation, we talk to Ee Ling Lim, Singapore Country Head of Innovations and Partnerships at 500 Startups, and Co-Founder of Smarter Me.
Tune into this episode for the full insights from Ee Ling on how to encourage innovation for adults and kids, and key steps to success that corporates can take on their intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship journey.
3 Main Takeaways From This Episode
01For corporates partnering with startups: identify the objective and how success will be measured. Success metrics will vary depending on your objectives. For example, a corporate looking for startups who can solve specific internal challenges can track success through the X number of Proof of Concepts (POCs) run and percentage of successful POCs. 500 Startups works with each corporate partner to understand the challenges and refine what success looks like for them. (Listen from 08:56)
02 Intrapreneurship initiatives must be supported with follow-through. Corporates looking to spark internal innovation can run design thinking workshops or hackathons to help employees be brave in coming up with new ideas. However, Ee Ling cautions against implementing these on a standalone basis without a follow-up pathway that enables employees who are excited to continue work on the idea to do so. That avenue can look like: 20% of working hours be allocated for the employee to embark on the venture, empowering employees to test and progress the idea, or give an equity stake to support their interests being aligned to further the venture. (Listen from 13:46)
03Identify worthwhile ventures by asking problem-focused and human-centered questions. Before diving into the solution, go one step before: What is the problem that you are trying to solve? Is this problem big enough that you’re not the only one facing it? These are important questions that Smarter Me poses to kids in their entrepreneurship courses. The same high standard applies to innovation for adults: If no one is actually going to buy your idea or use it, then it’s really not a worthwhile venture. (Listen from 25:56)
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Related Reading: Reinventing A Company Founded In 1886: Bosch.IO’s Story Of Transformation
