Intrapreneurship Academy at The Cable Center, in partnership with C2HR, gathered insights of connectivity industry HR professionals to understand the dynamics of investing in people and the process of innovation in today's business climate.

Leader Preparedness and ResilienceI

In today’s operating environment, people leaders are concerned by a lack of skills required to address and navigate change. Building internal innovation in periods of uncertainty requires leaders to hone agility, resiliency, creative problem solving, collaboration, and responsiveness. While 58% of people leaders note the way their organization operates has changed significantly, only 24% of HR professionals believe their leaders are prepared with the necessary skills to respond. Innovation from Inside

While corporations increasingly prioritize internal innovation as a vehicle for future business growth, people leaders acknowledge their organizations lack system tools that build in-house expertise and capabilities to lead innovation. This shift to advancing innovation from inside requires intrapreneurial leadership and process. In addition to spurring internal innovation, training opportunities are a key strategy for talent retention with a focus on programs that have real-world applications and deliver measurable impact.

• 70% of people leaders say driving innovation from within is important for growth goals.
• Yet, only 23% believe they have a developed process of innovation.

Traditionally, organizations have invested in acquisition capabilities or business development efforts. Equal investment in employee innovation capabilities pays off in multiple ways: It stimulates regular innovative behaviors that become entrenched in culture, retains high performers, and creates intuitive innovation. People Development, HR, and Learning & Development leaders are now in a prime position to stimulate growth and capture talent in the process. To effectively seize internal innovation opportunities, people leaders must harness the intrapreneurial talents in their teams and equip them with the tools, capabilities, processes, and mindsets to successfully advance corporate innovation. An investment in internal entrepreneurship processes and capabilities yields an equally powerful result to the pursuit of external sources of innovation, such as acquisition and strategic partnerships. Developing Leaders for Impact

Intrapreneurial leaders are defined by their ability to adapt to change, take risks, elevate ideas to executives, identify and solve problems, practice financial literacy, teach collaboration, build consensus, and navigate the changing workplace. Among them, workplace navigation and collaboration are the most desired soft skills for leadership development.