Chitra Anand - The Greenhouse Approach: Cultivating Intrapreneurship in Companies and Organizations

An insightful guide on the underlying roots of innovation thinking and development. The Greenhouse Approach reveals whats core and critical to your innovation effectiveness through an intrapreneurial mindset.

Michele Romanow, serial entrepreneur, co-founder of Clearbanc and SnapSaves, Dragon on CBCs Dragons Den

The Greenhouse Approach goes beyond theories of what innovation should look like within organizations. This book questions core ideas that inhibit people and organizations in realizing what innovation can and should be ideas like the dangers of consensus thinking and applying first principles thinking to how we approach our innovation efforts. An introspective read that is an excellent guide for organizations.

John Ruffolo, chief executive officer, OMERS Ventures

Chitra Anand addresses the biggest challenge to creativity and innovation: the internal resistance to change and the stubborn or fearful reluctance to consider a new idea or a new process or an entirely new way of doing business. This book should be required reading for all corporate managers.

Dr. Paula Zobisch, associate professor and program chair, Bachelor of Arts in Entrepreneurship, Forbes School of Business & Technology

TheGreenhouse Approach takes an enticing look at the concept and importance of intrapreneurship within organizations. Allowing that dynamic to evolve is a critical contribution of value to the enterprise, and essential to growth and sustainability in todays rapidly changing environment.

Dr. Ray Powers, associate dean and chair of the board of advisors, Forbes School of Business & Technology; director, Knowledge Innovation Center

Copyright Chitra Anand, 2019

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purpose of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.

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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Anand, Chitra, author
The greenhouse approach: cultivating intrapreneurship in companies and organizations / Chitra Anand.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-4597-4285-7 (softcover).--ISBN 978-1-4597-4286-4 (PDF).-
ISBN 978-1-4597-4287-1 (EPUB)

1. Creative ability in business--Management. 2. Entrepreneurship.
I. Title.

1 2 3 4 5 23 22 21 20 19

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $153 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country, and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Ontario, through the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit and Ontario Creates, and the Government of Canada.

Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien. Lan dernier, le Conseil a investi 153 millions de dollars pour mettre de lart dans la vie des Canadiennes et des Canadiens de tout le pays.

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J. Kirk Howard, President

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For all the dreamers and doers.

For my children, who constantly remind me that to be curious is a natural and wondrous state.

For my husband, who has challenged my mindset daily to evolve my thinking.

For my parents, who taught me that anything can be achieved through hard work.

Strength does not come from physical capacity it comes from indomitable will.

Mahatma Gandhi

ITS EVERYWHERE. You cant take a breath without being affected by it.

Innovation.

It quite literally is the air we breathe, and not just in business. Ours is a blink and youll miss it nanosecond global culture. In the time it takes you to read this brief introduction, some aspect of your life will have been changed by innovation.

Move fast and break things, writes Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Unless you are breaking some stuff you are not moving fast enough.

But here is the bizarre reality: Many businesses stifle innovation. Its true. Innovation sounds great when it comes from the likes of a Zuckerber or Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook, but for a surprisingly large number of companies the status quo is mostly what happens. An aversion to change business culture is not the product of a lack of the resources necessary to accomplish rejuvenation; in fact, small start-ups are often more successful innovators than mega-corporations. The inability the unwillingness to adapt and to change is the consequence of business culture inertia, of a corporate mindset that focuses disproportionately on established organizational structures and processes. Large companies have the resources to effect change, but many of them lack the corporate culture to make meaningful changes.

The question for any business leader or manager in todays global business setting is: Why? The argument that runs throughout The Greenhouse Approach is that a company that refuses to come to grips with the why question one that cannot adapt to a more flexible approach faces extinction. Its called a mindset for a reason, right? We run into it every single day: wall after wall after wall; layer upon layer upon layer. Does that sound like what companies such as Google or Apple are doing? Well, if these companies are doing it differently, why arent you and your company? Once that question is answered it becomes possible to make the alterations necessary to change the corporate mindset, the companys structure and procedures, to unleash the power of innovation.

In our nanosecond culture, consumers and businesses expect more, faster. New technologies and products are hitting the market around the clock, and that means virtually everything you are invested in is essentially obsolete the minute it becomes operational. Think about that for a minute. Likewise, fashions and styles come and go at an ever-accelerating rate. It is hardly a surprise that companies are struggling to maintain relevance in a marketplace that seems to be shifting continually under its feet especially businesses that cater to consumer