Post published by the Volonteer and Odyssem agencies. Amandiine Barthelemy, from Odyssem, will be a speaker at the Intrapreneurship 2012 conference

What is the link between a non-for-profit garage from GrDF, Adecco Insertion and Natixis’ social investment fund?

These are projects led by social intrapreneurs.

« Make the change from where you are » 

This is what some visionary individuals who leverage the capabilities of their organization to create social value have proved us possible.

They are managers, human resources directors, employees or project directors. They are all driven by a willingness to meet environmental and social challenges while claiming that the organization to which they belong is a wonderful pool of skills, creativity and potential.

They have thus decided to meet social and environmental needs from the inside of their companies by both having recourse to its resources and bringing back value to their organizations.

Social intrapreneurship, encouraged by committed and visionary employees, suggests promising avenues for corporate social involvement in order to reach a strong and ambitious social impact.

These innovative initiatives, meeting social needs from the inside of the traditional firm are still few in number and too often unknown. Yet companies can be a powerful leverage for social impact and highly benefit from these projects.

The first French-written publication on social intrapreneurship

Who are these “corporate change-makers”, these drivers of change who work from the inside of their company, and why do they take action?

What is the nature of these social intrapreneurship projects and how are they different from common corporate social responsibility, Base of the Pyramid (BOP) strategies or philanthropy?

How can companies favour the appearance of such projects and their success and what return on their commitment should they expect?

On November 2012, the agencies Volonteer and Odyssem issued the first publication in French on this emerging matter: Social intrapreneurship : the new frontier of social innovation in the company (Ed. Odyssem-Volonteer, November 2012, 5€).

This book aims at giving essential landmarks on social intrapreneurship and at analysing the main key factors of success of those projects.

On November 21^st 2012, ESSEC Alumni, INSEAD Alumni and BCG organized a conference at Le Monde where inspiring social intrapreneurs shared their experience with more than 150 people, showing the rising interest for the topic among employees of traditional firms, but also students, researchers and actors of social innovation.

The power to transform society

Social intrapreneurship is the new frontier for social innovation in traditional companies. Social intrapreneurs adopt a genuine entrepreneurial approach at the corner of the creation of social value and viable economic models and design innovative answers to social needs. We are convinced that tomorrow’s economy will be one where public actors, firms and citizens work hand in hand for the construction of a society thought and filled with life by all. Social intrapreneurship is a tangible sign of this on-going process and thus contributes to designing the shape of the company of the future.