Joe Biden's Intrapreneur Masterclass
President-elect Biden delivering his victory speech on the evening after he defeated Trump. Photo credit: NBC News
Joe Biden is delivering a masterclass in power transition in the face of entrenched resistance. Every intrapreneur who needs to overcome obstructionism should do what he’s doing. The psychology of power transition in any organization is messy and emotionally charged, even when it’s mission critical. Intrapreneurs need to prepare for legacy executives to try and kill you because they view your acceleration as a threat to their power. In this article I explain how to move past their resistance and create an innovation new normal.
Nothing triggers an eruption of the Corporate Executive rage volcano like a successful product launch.
At Bloomberg I saw a member of the C-Suite throw a chair into the glass wall of his conference room when he learned that a new venture we built had 5000 signups in the first month.
At PWC, I saw a senior partner stab his finger into the chest of a product owner in an LA hotel lobby during the launch party of a new product.
After 34 product launches in the Fortune 500 I’ve identified a few common traits of these eruptions:
They are always a reaction to good news rather than a reaction to bad news.
The tantrum thrower is usually male, white, and over 50.
Other executives who were quietly rooting for you either become emboldened to fight for you or they lose their courage. It either triggers essential change or it entrenches antiquated leadership.
There’s a right and a wrong way to respond. Joe Biden is currently delivering a masterclass on how to respond to intransigence that’s invaluable for every intrapreneur.
As an intrapreneur, you’re not just launching a new venture you’re entangling yourself with the messy psychology of power transition.
Power transition theory was developed by A.F.K Organski in 1958 to explain why countries go to war. Organski states that weaker countries are more likely to be dissatisfied with the global status quo. Countries go to war when a dissatisfied state accumulates enough power to challenge a more dominant country. For example, China’s recent aggression toward Hong Kong can be seen as a response to a weakened, once-dominant United States, who in previous years would have pressured China to knock it off. I first encountered power transition theory twenty years ago when I studied international relations in college and it stuck with me.
I think power transition theory explains why powerful executives throw chairs when emerging intrapreneurs launch high-growth ventures. In a huge company people often keep score based on their status in the hierarchy. People define themselves as a managing director or a VP rather than as someone who built a 20X new venture in 12 months. Their status often supersedes, or is disconnected from, their performance. Dominant executives are often driven to suppress ‘threats’ from emerging intrapreneur leaders even when (especially when) the intrapreneur’s results are mission critical. Badly managed corporate power transitions are the biggest driver of innovation death in the enterprise, in my experience.
If you’re facing an executive in a company that kills great innovation because of poorly managed power transition then pay attention to Joe Biden right now - even if you didn’t vote for him. Joe Biden is currently conducting a masterclass clinic on power transition in the face of intransigence. Here are the things he’s doing right.
Focus On Why You’re Doing This - Biden consistently focuses on the outcomes that America needs that led people to elect him: unify the country, defeat coronavirus, and repair the economy. The reason companies need intrapreneurship to thrive is because companies that can’t deliver value are quickly displaced by new entrants who can. No company wants to end up looking like Sears or Blockbuster. Intrapreneurs need to reiterate that they’re preventing disruption and advancing mission critical change. It makes political opposition look petty and weak.
Point to the scoreboard - The vote count in swing states is increasingly irrefutable. Intrapreneurs should only push for change once they’ve produced outcomes that are irrefutable and invaluable. You can never get to the other side of an intrapreneur power transition if your only proof is a powerpoint deck with a strategy for how you might hypothetically create value. Generate breakthrough growth first - then fight for the mandate to generate more growth. Always point to the scoreboard.
Let the Old Guard in - There is a growing schism between Republican leadership who won’t acknowledge Biden’s victory and the Republicans who do. The job of an intrapreneur is to enlist skeptics as supporters once you start gaining traction. They - not you - are uniquely capable of healing and building trust with the old guard. It is the second movers who will persuade the most entrenched resistance - not the first mover.
Unlike Biden You Should Be Willing to Walk - The entrepreneur who can address an unmet need better than anyone else is the most valuable talent of our time. If you possess that talent, and have demonstrated your ability to monetize it then you shouldn’t waste it in an organization that squanders it because of political bullshit. Sometimes a company only recognizes an intrapreneur’s power once the intrapreneur is willing to leave and deploy it elsewhere.
The Bottom Line - All companies innovate. But there’s a huge difference between a company that innovates and a company that is innovation-empowered. The companies which thrive in the Disruption Economy are able to transition power to intrapreneurs in the face of opposition from legacy leadership. This is why Walmart can go head-to-head against Amazon; and Sears and JC Penney are bankrupt.
So, if you’re driving transformation in a huge company and you feel stuck, then you should study President Elect Biden.
