Join us as we explore the world of intrapreneurship, where innovation thrives within the established boundaries of existing companies. Listen in as we share stories and insights about employees embodying the entrepreneurial spirit to drive change and take risks, all without stepping outside their company's walls. Steve recounts his experience at one of the companies where he was able be an intrapreneur at. A project He highlighted the delicate act of balancing innovation with the realities of product lifecycle and how intrapreneurship can be a lifeline for skilled tradespeople, offering a platform to innovate while mitigating the risk of small business failure.

Discover how entrepreneurs can strike the perfect balance between strategic planning and operational tasks to unlock the true potential of their ventures. Brad walks through how to emphasize the importance of setting clear decision-making filters and nurturing an entrepreneurial culture within teams. 

Also, we encourage our listeners to connect with Steve for bespoke advice on creating entrepreneurship opportunities in their own organizations. 

Highlights

-Brad and Steve talk through how if companies allowed their employees to take more risks, it would create a better retention cycle and would possibly prevent some of them from starting their own businesses. 

-Are consumers aware of the life cycle of products? This can create better expectations when working with different companies and people in the trades. 

-Owners should embrace the ideas of their teams. Support the team members who are looking to improve processes and operations. These are prime candidates for intrapreneurship.

-Make sure you're celebrating your employees. This can be done through many different options.

Connect with us: 

Steve Doyle:

Website

LinkedIn

Email

Brad Herda:

Website

LinkedIn

Email

00:00 - Speaker 1

Welcome to blue collar BS, a podcast that bust the popular myth that we can't find good people, highlighting how the different generations of today the boomers, gen X, millennials and Gen Z are redefining work so that the industrial revolution that started in the US stays in the US.

00:20 - Speaker 2

Everyone, welcome back to blue collar BS with Brad and Steve. I am Brad and I have my co-host, steve, here bright and early this Friday morning for our recording, as we are in the holiday shutdown week. Thank you, steve, for taking some time out so we can get some things recorded and continue bringing this Spectacular content across the globe.

00:41 - Speaker 3

As we're discussing pre-show right, no problem, no problem at all right pre-show.

00:47 - Speaker 2

We are Looking at our stats and things we have covered. We've been listened to in 25% of the countries across the world, which is pretty spectacular, pretty impressive. Start thinking about how we started this show and our reluctance to do it right and all the reason why. All the reasons why. Oh, all the oh this and that and what about this, how about?

01:11

that phone and I don't have no how to produce it and we can't do this. And how right we gave up all the freaking excuses in the world as to why, which kind of leads us into today's topic. Yeah, breaking down some of those barriers, both individually and professionally, along the way. So today's topic, sir, is intrapreneurship Intrapreneurship.

01:35 - Speaker 3

Yeah so think about it like this so we, we spend a lot of time talking to entrepreneurs, so they are people that have identified problems and are out in the world solving those problems with their own Processes, their products, their services, things like that. But when we talk intrapreneurship, these are actually employees within an established business that are acting as entrepreneurs. So when we think, when we dive a little deeper, these are the people that they innovate, they Drive initiatives and they take risks, but they are all within the confines of a Standard organization, or the four walls of a business, if you will.

02:20 - Speaker 2

Yes, and the reason for this topic is, as today's episode, that were that released here episode I think it's 80. We were talking about Gen X and a gentleman linked in commented saying, hey, I can't wait to listen to this episode Because he'd worked for large organizations and Jen Gen X was taught to go get a job, go do your thing, go retire. And if you want to do the consulting thing at the end of life Because he didn't want to work anymore you want a different lifestyle, then great, go go be an entrepreneur, mm-hmm. And he said, well, hopefully you guys talk about intrapreneurship and like, yeah, we don't talk about it, but yet we both live that life.

02:58

Mm-hmm inside large organizations to do that and he's talking about skilled trades in his comment back to me about how, if some of these larger organizations these larger maybe union organizations and or privately held organizations that are going to allow individuals to take risks do things, maybe wouldn't have so many people going off on their own and watching a lot of small businesses come out and fail in five years because they they know how to do the thing but they aren't necessarily risk takers or salespeople to keep their business to thrive and and like oh, this could be a very interesting topic. So tell me about your, your Skunk Works entrepreneurship program that you were working on when you were at the large truck parts manufacturing organization.

03:52 - Speaker 3

Yeah, so we kind of we're looking at different ways to manufacture gears and we knew that the the mainstream it's, it's, it's been done this way for hundreds of years.

04:05 - Speaker 2

right, you can have them, you can mage them, you can see and see them. Now, which five axis preview, which is always interesting, but yeah, another story.

04:16 - Speaker 3

Yeah, absolutely Well, as we were looking at different ways, we knew that we couldn't just go find a manufacturer to go to make these components the way we needed to, because we were challenging kind of the status quo of how we always manufactured them. They were traditional carburizing carbon nitriding, they were induction heated in the traditional sense. So we had to come up with different ways. So we actually created a small sub team within our group to actually go evaluate and create different ways to manufacture stuff. And then so the when we put it into three phases it was, you know, phase A was the, the idea generation phase, where we had to actually come up with what are the ideas that we're going to do?

05:08 - Speaker 2

Using all these big fancy terms. No, I'm not Big organizations all this all this lean manufacturing, oh idea phase we just had to the idea phase.

05:18 - Speaker 3

What is it? So you know, anytime you plan it's, you know we can have all these great ideas, but what are the, what are the few that are seem somewhat tangible that we can actually then go into phase B with and actually create prototypes with rather quickly and quickly was something within a year that we could actually create prototypes, mock it up, refine it, redo it and keep reiterating until we can get to phase C, which is pre production. Okay, and you know, we kept it simple that way and what we had found was there were some things that we were really trying to challenge status quo. We were looking at how we could take 60% of mass out of gears for large commercial applications to reduce weight and still be able to drive power, the same level of power.

06:08 - Speaker 2

Get the power out of it and don't forget about life cycle. Unless you're in the parts business, you right.

06:14 - Speaker 3

We did have an aftermarket department and you know division, and well, let's just say we tried to stay out of there with our skunkworks programs.

06:26 - Speaker 2

Because that's always the fun part, because, yeah, I can take the weight, I can drive the power.

06:31 - Speaker 3

So it was a lot of. It was a lot of fun. We actually did create some.

06:36 - Speaker 2

But you got. You got to make sure you drive the drive the right power, drive the right OK expected life cycle. Because if you start doing that, your customers, who are accustomed to bulletproof almost all the time, yep, and all of a sudden you do something different and their perception is it fails. Maybe it fails in nine years instead of nine and a half years. Oh my God, they redesigned this and it's just a piece of shit, dude. It still lasted nine freaking years. Expected useful life is probably five. So we're already four, almost two X greater than expected life cycle, guys, so stop it.

07:18 - Speaker 3

Yeah, but you would have to have the ability to challenge that status quo, to challenge what is acceptable versus not acceptable. To challenge is four times projected life cycle too much versus two times projected life cycle? Is that okay? Is that okay from a company standpoint?

07:42 - Speaker 2

Ask your washing machine guys and your dishwasher guys right, and refrigerator all your appliance folks that were you know or hot water heaters. There's a reason hot water heaters are only last 10 years, because they're designed the last 10 years.

07:56 - Speaker 3

So, but without the having a skunkworks group in organizations like that. It really hampers innovation and creativity on how we actually try to challenge that status quo, do things differently, Otherwise we're just, we're iterating versus making leaps and bounds. So it's very interesting when we take that concept and we take it out of the corporate world and we put it into the blue color space. You know very, very simply.

08:30 - Speaker 2

The 30 man plumbing organization that might be led by a younger gen Gen X or that you claim to be like yourself right, you may have worked for an organization for five, 10 years said you know, I'm tired of it, I'm tired of the politics, I'm tired of the bullshit. And then you went out on your own and said, okay, great, I'm going to go do my own thing. Now you got your 10, 15 guys. What are some of the ways we can get that owner to foster that, that entrepreneurship that led him to go out to be acceptable for his team to go do the same same things that he did, even though he's not doing them, but somebody else is and it might not be his way?

09:15 - Speaker 3

Correct, and that's the the very first part is recognizing the impact of the employees that you brought in to help you grow and build your business.

09:27

It's not going to always be your quote, unquote idea, as the owner, to come up with new ways to do things or innovative ways or different ways to do things. Your employees have a lot of great ideas because they're now the hands and feet of the company that are out, seeing everything that's needed to be seen while you, as the owner, are running your business. You're working on your business, you're not working in your business. So, as we'll get into that a little later, we'll get into that one a little later. But for those, for those that have those employees that are constantly looking at things and trying to improve how things are done, those are the employees you want to embrace more from an intrapreneurship standpoint and allow them to look at the way things are done, come up with new ideas and help foster that, but support it. Support them and their, their abilities, because what actually happens is growth in the company over over time.

10:35 - Speaker 2

And it's not, and it's not linear growth Correct, right, I mean? So you take that, that plumbing firm as an as a example, right, you may have. You may be the plumber that is still trying to be out there soldering all of your joints, because that's the way you learned it and that's the craftsmanship of it, and that's just going on. And there's no way I'm going to use these compression fittings. I don't trust them and you know the Milwaukee tool compression fitting connector for you need three of them for different sizes and allow all those things to happen.

11:05

I'm not going to invest, you know, $2,500 in equipment and then all the fittings cost more and all these things. Why not? If you're not teaching soldering anymore and how to sweat pipes and fire hazards and different materials and houses today and different things, why would you not try something different? And you see more and more organizations going to these compression type fittings in the plumbing world and all those things and packs and all that stuff. That was just like well, no, we can't do this. Well, you can if you decide to Right.

11:42 - Speaker 3

Well, let's, let's kind of jump on the plumbing side for a for a hot second. Think about when we first, you know you're, you're soldering all these pipes. Nothing's going to a centralized location, it's almost a one shot, you know, home run type deal usually. Now we go to packs, and it was traditionally a one shot deal. Now we're going to manifolds, which normally wasn't done. Somebody came up with the idea for a manifold. It could have been, you know, an entrepreneur in a business, in a plumbing shop, that said, hey look, I've got this idea where I want to. You know why can't we just come into a centralized location and then put everything out from there?

12:22 - Speaker 2

Right, why can't we do it like the electricians do it and just go from there and distribute, and we can, absolutely. Yeah, it makes life a whole lot easier and I love watching those. I like watching the manifold videos of these guys on packs. Hey, you know your plumber's OCD when, yes, here's the Christmas tree of hot and cold. It's awesome.

12:46 - Speaker 3

But you think of things like that and how they were, how they were started. Typically, they're started internally within a company and then it fosters some additional creativity and flourishes into another business, which is great, right, so it's.

13:02 - Speaker 2

It's as you take these, post these post it notes, the post it notes story. Right, I mean that story is we tried it, we tried it, we tried it. We couldn't get the glue to work, what we wanted to do but the secretary's like, oh yeah, these are great, kept taking all the scraps out and turned it into a business inside 3M Because the engineer thought it was a didn't work and it wasn't right. But they were looking at it through their own lens versus the lens of somebody else and absolutely finding that opportunity that existed.

13:30

So we kind of hit on the on business in business, which I'm not a not a big fan of that statement because it just it creates delineation and it does often create well and often creates anger and frustration and lack of self worth to many of the individuals that are that own the business. It creates a very negative connotation. So I don't like that, those statements, because their decisions along the way they are and and it gets people very frustrated. So let's talk about that on in or strategy, non tactical versus strategic out, whatever words you want to use when do you ask your clients, particularly when they're, or even maybe anybody you might be mentoring currently where do you ask them to start putting that creative hat on? How often do they do you try to get them the problem solver? Think about things differently than just go get shit done.

14:26 - Speaker 3

Almost every single session I have with them. There's, there's a component to the creative wonder, the thing with the creative wonder, or the one key issue. We both know what it is. Action at some point you've got to take a frickin action.

14:46 - Speaker 2

You actually have. You know what Execution is the greatest place for all good ideas to die Right, and but again, it's like you mentioned.

14:55 - Speaker 3

Just like you said, it's a conscious decision to flip back and forth. Now we're not saying that, as a business owner, you are always working on your business and never working in your business, because, honestly, it really doesn't work that way. But the percentage of time that you spend working on your business versus in your business that's where the magic actually comes into play is understanding the ratio of what makes sense for you and your business. So, brad, I'm going to flip that with you. Your question how often are you having that conversation with your clients?

15:33 - Speaker 2

Correct and being comfortable letting go. It depends on where they're at and what problems we're looking to solve, but often it's about getting them to understand what is the larger goal and getting them to focus on the two or three things and creating that decision matrix of their own filter. Right, many entrepreneurs are ADHD or very high I or high D and they like squirrels, they like the things, they like the fidget, they like great ideas. Yeah, really Right, because they've taken the risk, they're out there and they don't like the status quo and the long play is not the strength of their visionary. So, really working to get to them, down to what matters to you and help me understand, so we can put it through that lens and that filter to understand that when somebody comes up with those ideas, and it also helps the entrepreneur within the organizations to know where those boundaries are.

16:32

You know, when I had my team back at Bucaris and building out my team from two to 12, doing all those things, our filter for how we were going to buy things was basically it went down from safety, our design and buying practices. Does it impact safety positively or negatively? Does it impact quality positively or negatively? Does it impact our delivery and does it impact price? Our fourth characteristic and fourth filter was dollars and cents. We took care of everything else ahead of the dollars, because if we do those other three things correctly, the dollars work out Instead of the other way around, like you, morons and automotive, hey, we only care about the price. Oh, and then we got these large recalls, so we got it for a really great price. Don't know what that recall cost at the end of the day, but hey, guess what? You got those three cents to make those shareholders happy for a while.

17:26

18:29

So that's the way I go about it with my, with some of the clients, to say, okay, let's figure this out, get the message, preach the message, live the message every day, because once you do that and you talk about it and people believe you, and once they start believing you, they get excited and they find opportunity and they do the things they need to do to make that happen.

18:49 - Speaker 3

Yeah, and I would say, though, the one last thing with this is to celebrate those employees that come up with these ideas. Celebrate them in different, celebrate them in different ways. Every employee may or may not be looking for Some recognition, and that recognition is different, but it's often lost on. You know, hey, this person actually did help move the business forward. So, you know, it's often underlooked or overlooked. I mean where, as business owners may not be celebrating the Entrepreneurship as much as they should right, because the new idea, the new thing, and you know, a 25 hour gas card.

19:28 - Speaker 2

It doesn't have to be huge, right? If the gentleman is, or lady, you know. If they like hunting, great, here's your Cabela's gift card. Or Bass Pro shop. Or here's a take go to a nice dinner. Or here's a Take your family. Or passes to the movie theater, whatever it, it does not be huge. But know something about them. Do not make it the pool of Sess, pool of hey. Just come and pick and choose, because there's no value to that to anybody make it genuine and authentic.

19:57 - Speaker 3

20:08 - Speaker 2

So thank you for the conversation today, sir. Yeah, and if we are looking for, if, as our listeners are out there in this trades, manufacturing etc. And you're looking for ways to Create that entrepreneurship opportunity within your organizations, do not hesitate to reach out to Steve Rye to have conversations about how to do that, because we've both done it, lived it, and when you make those things happen, it's freaking awesome. It's a great place to work at that point in time. And it's not saying it comes with own drawbacks. There are drawbacks because people sometimes get petty, but ultimately it creates a much larger gain for the organization and you can Create some better filters for long-term growth, mm-hmm. So so thank you for being here today, mr Doyle.

20:55 - Speaker 3

And you talk to you soon. All right, have a good one.

20:59 - Speaker 4

Thank you for listening to blue collar BS, brought to you by a vision for business solutions and professional business coaching. If you'd like to learn more on today's topic, just reach out to Steve Doyle or myself, brad Herda. Please like, share, rate and review this show, as feedback is the only way we can get better. Let's keep blue collar businesses strong for generations to come.