Last week I spoke at Innovex 2016. I used the slide below to highlight the path that an EMC intrapreneur often takes to bring ideas to market.
I’ve been writing about these habits for many years, and during my talk I described the tight integration that this process plays with the company’s overall growth. In particular, the first four steps in the process (Productivity, Initiative, Collaboration, 3 Box) result in a unique corporate form of innovation that facilitates the generation of rich intellectual property.
Last year EMC received data backing up the claim that EMC’s internal innovation process is unique in the industry. In November of 2015 the IEEE released their “Patent Power Scorecard”, an “annual roundup of who has the most valuable patent portfolios”.
For Computer Software, Computer Systems and Computer Peripherals & Storage categories combined, EMC is ranked #1 in “Pipeline Power”. The chart below highlights these top marks.
For a more detailed discussion on Pipeline Power and the approach taken by EMC technologists and EMC’s Legal Department, I recommend reading Krish Gupta’s blog on the topic.
Over the years we’ve been fairly open about the “secret sauce” that is used internally to stimulate the generation and delivery of great ideas. In addition to educating the EMC workforce on the habits of intrapreneurship, there are a set of corporate programs that support and encourage aspiring intrapreneurs:
- A continual (year after year) focus on harvesting ideas from EMC employees: 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, etc.
- Relationships with university researchers
- Automated idea improvement tools for idea collaboration
- Innovation mentoring programs targeted at aspiring intrapreneurs
- Working with startup ecosystems/accelerators like MassChallenge and Ingria.
- Using innovation analytics to find high-potential global innovators
- Strong focus on global innovation reach.
The list above a subset of all of the activities used internally to harvest ideas. The list also gives a great indication about the creative environment that EMC technologists have access to. The “care and feeding” of ideas that grow up in this culture have been recognized as “Pipeline Power” by IEEE.
Steve
EMC Fellow
