EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Goal

The goal of this project was to analyze the status quo of RHI Magnesita’s intrapreneurship program and give concrete recommendations to accelerate the development and execution of disruptive ideas generated by employees. Furthermore, another goal of the project was to develop multiple strategies to cultivate a culture of innovative thinking and intrapreneurship across the organization.

Methodology

To provide specific recommendations, both secondary and primary research were conducted. The literature research covered topics in intrapreneurship, barriers and challenges in innovation, accelerating models, and leadership and vision in innovation. Additionally, fifteen semi-structured interviews were conducted: three with RHI Magnesita employees, five with industry experts, and seven with representatives from industrial companies. The company interviews were assessed across five key categories: infrastructure, management support, workshops, MVPs in parallel, and daily business exemption.

The core of the project, a strategy based on both the interviews and literature research, was delivered in the form of an acceleration journey which was structured into five phases: activation, exploration, validation, incubation, and acceleration. Additionally, a comparison between RHI Magnesita and the benchmarked companies was conducted for each phase.

Results

From the beforementioned analysis from RHI Magnesita’s previous intrapreneurship initiatives (Innovation Challenges), four key areas for improvement were identified: the quantity of ideas, clear validation phases, time allocated for innovation, and management support.

To generate more ideas, it was proposed to implement the red KICKBOOK, a handbook developed by Adobe. This red KICKBOOK was used in two of the seven companies interviewed and has proven its benefits. It is likely to increase the number of ideas and their usefulness as it guides intrapreneurs through the journey of initial idea validation. As observed in some companies, an “idea canvas model” is used to track the generated ideas. This model was proposed for RHI Magnesita to track ideas across three dimensions: impact, time to market and various themes such as flow control, automation, and process safety.

Across all benchmarked companies, four had implemented a validation phase. This phase lasts three months in all of these companies and it is recommended to introduce a validation phase at RHI Magnesita as well. This is due to the fact that disruptive ideas are complex, and their novelty necessitates a distinct and thorough evaluation process to ensure they can be realized. By having an explicit validation phase also different business models might appear. It is recommended that employees specifically in this phase conduct interviews themselves to act as intrapreneurs, further develop their business models and validate their idea. For this phase and the incubation phase the lean startup methodology is used by 5 out of 7 companies.

From interviews with employees, it was observed that time dedicated to intrapreneurship programs was one of the main pain points. Employees were unable to devote sufficient attention to their intrapreneurship projects. This is why it is suggested exempting employees from daily business by up to 100%, depending on the business unit. This approach is used by two out of seven companies.

Additionally, it was discovered that none of the benchmarked companies have a fully structured approach for the incubation and acceleration phase. Rather four out of seven companies rely on a venture architect or an entrepreneur in residence to guide the team through these phases as these phases are very specific to every single team and project. This is something that is already used by RHI Magnesita to a certain extent. This also relates to the promoter model that consists of a technology promoter (RHI intrapreneurs in the case of RHI Magnesita), a process promoter (venture architect), and a power promoter (management from the according business unit).

In the case of RHI Magnesita, the power promoter is partly missing. It is strongly recommended to involve the management of the respective business unit in all intrapreneurship projects. By involving management as power promoters and also as approvers of the budget, there is direct accountability and motivation for the success of the project. This leads to better support and increased chances of the project’s success.

Finally, three factors have been identified to improve the intrapreneurial culture at RHI Magnesita: management support, autonomy, and continuous learning.

To summarize, a strategic recommendation was developed, featuring a structured framework designed to accelerate ideas at RHI Magnesita and to foster a culture of innovation.

Cooperation Partner

• RHI Magnesita GmbH
  Kranichberggasse 6, A-1120 Wien

Contact Person

• Juan Rosenzweig - Juan.Rosenzweig@RHIMagnesita.com

Student Team

• Bärnthaler, Martin, h12212379

• Faast, Julius, h12208630

• Grechka, Maksim, h12131481

• Ivaniv, Yelyzaveta, h12216672

• Strohbach, Anna, h12111352

Project Manager

• Mag. Benjamin Monsorno, MA

• Dr. Dorothee Horvath