1Mby1M Incubator-in-a-Box Best Practices for Intrapreneurship

Based on our experience with the Incubator-in-a-Box, we recommend the following four-step process:

1. Orientation:

We have seen that programs that have a specific focus on immersing the intrapreneurs from their companies in the Free Public Roundtables tend to have a higher rate of success.

With that in mind, we recommend that after you launch your program, you provide a six-week window when intrapreneurs are invited by email to attend the roundtables.

We also recommend that you take roundtable attendance into account in judging the applications.

2. Application:

It is important that intrapreneurs APPLY to be part of the program. Through the six week immersion, we hope that intrapreneurs have learnt what the program is all about, and whether they are willing to put in the time and effort necessary to work within its framework.

1Mby1M has worked well for those intrapreneurs who have the capacity for online learning and rigorous study.

It is like a gym membership. We have machines, but intrapreneurs have to work out to get in shape. They better make the commitment to doing the work outs, or they will waste the scholarships you will give them. The program involves a lot of self-learning and personal discipline.

In the application, we want the intrapreneurs to answer some questions, as follows, to get a feel for whether they’re a good match for the program:

1. Why do you want to learn to be an entrepreneur? What is your understanding of the 1Mby1M program? What do you expect to get out of it?
2. How many roundtables have you attended? What have you experienced during those that compels you to apply for this scholarship?
3. Do you have experience with online learning? Discuss something you have learnt on your own by using an online learning platform. What do you find is good and bad about online learning? Can you handle a largely self-motivated program where you have to do 80-100 hours of online learning on your own?
4. Have you ever tried to present a new idea to the corporate management at your company or at another employer? Please describe your experience. What worked? What failed? Why?
5. Do you know how to sell a new idea to your senior management? Have you ever been successful at this?
6. Do you know how to sell a new idea to an investor? Have you ever been successful at this?
7. What is your long-term aspiration at your employer? What is your long-term ambition in the next 10 years? How do you feel this program will help you achieve these goals?

We want to know what expectations they come with, and what commitment they can make to put in the work required to be successful.

[Related: Intrapreneurship Best Practices]

3. Scholarships:

We recommend that you provide a set of scholarships to the Premium Program ($1000 per year per intrapreneur team). [Read What To Expect From The Premium Program.]

For those that will NOT win scholarships to the Premium Program, you could point them to the Basic (curriculum-only) Program and advise them to reapply for Premium after some studying. They can pay for their own Basic membership. It costs only $99/month. They can also pay for their own Premium Program membership ($1000/year), which you could point them to as well.

Through the Premium, besides the online curriculum, they also have access to the private roundtables for project-specific mentoring.

4. Incentive – Funding and Recognition:

If you provide some funding incentive to a subset of projects that demonstrate strong progress within 1Mby1M Premium, it will motivate them to work harder. Other kinds of recognition and career advancement opportunities also serve to motivate the participants.

Frequency:

We recommend that you run a 1Mby1M challenge twice a year.