Are you noticing the creativity that is being unleashed right now as people and teams and businesses are doing things differently and rising to the challenge of creating a new normal?
I’m pretty confident that everyone reading this newsletter has experienced some form of disruption to their world. Admittedly some more than others.
I love hearing stories about how people and businesses are reimagining, redesigning and repurposing their core competencies, resources and offerings in a Covid-19 world. Humans are smart. Very smart. Natural problem-solvers. Especially when our livelihood depends on it.
Here are a few of my favourites. Would love to hear yours.
STAGEKINGS. Business normally building stages for large events. When the live event industry collapsed – they’ve switched to providing standing desks to support working from home. And their ‘IsoKing desk’ design is beautiful and really easy to construct. They’ve sold thousands of items across their various products in a month!
BOOZI. A Sydney based events business specialising in festival bar management, licencing and pop-up bars is using their liquor license to sell and deliver alcohol to people at home. They can have a cold one (of your choice) on your doorstep within the hour (provided you live in Sydney).
DISTILLERIES. Lots of distilleries across Australia are now producing hand sanitiser. Cape Byron Distillery in Byron Bay. Grandad Jack’s on the Gold Coast. Hartshorn in Tasmania. And lots of others have repurposed their equipment to produce an essential product in the current environment. The pivot has enabled them to stay open and keep their staff employed.
Bakeries are offering on-line bread making classes; offline art workshops now offer online art courses; beauty advisors in luxury stores have become on-line ‘influencers’ to drive product sales.
In my newsletter a few weeks ago I shared my own experience of pivoting the Australian Intrapreneurs Summit on the 19th of March from a live event at the Brisbane Convention Centre to a virtual event. You can read about it here if you missed it.
The world went on-line in the blink of an eye, in response to lockdowns and physical distancing. It prompted my team and I to bring forward the launch date for a new initiative that was in the pipeline. The GLOBAL INTRAPRENEURS INSTITUTE – an on-line community hub for learning, networking and hearing from global industry leaders; a place to upskill and be recognised professionally as an intrapreneur.
We decided to go out in early stage Beta mode rather than wait a couple more months. And I am so glad we did!
We already have a vibrant, growing community of super savvy intrapreneurs from around the world.
And we had our first live Members Masterclass this week with Dr. Tara Ruttley, Associate Chief Scientist of NASA who drew the curtain back on the amazing things that NASA’s intrapreneurs are doing. Absolutely riveting stuff. One of our GII Foundation members Paul Hodgson posted the following comment on LinkedIn.
“This morning’s GII Members’ Masterclass with the amazing Dr. Tara Ruttley generated more value for me than the total cost of annual GII membership! Many thanks!”
Our Foundation Members are helping us to shape the future of the institute. And they are proudly displaying their digital badge on their LinkedIn profile. Identifying as an intrapreneur right now is a very smart move because Intrapreneurship has been identified as the number one workplace skill for 2020. (According to global recruitment firm Michael Page).
Join us. Just visit www.GlobalIntrapreneursInstitute.com.
