One of the great things about intrapreneurship is that many of the resources necessary to support a new venture are already available. In this segment, we’ll see Michael, Jill, Ross and Nathalie discussing what the intrapreneurs need, and what the family business can do to provide it.

Michael

Alright Jill, why don’t you get us started?

Jill

Ok, sure. Well, Ross and I wanted to check in with you both about where we are before the board meeting tomorrow. To be honest, we need a sounding board.

Ross

You’ve both seen the business plan we created, charting out our key milestones for the next months.

Jill

And there’s good news. We’re very happy to say that our budget plan is complete. It turns out that our original projections were very unrealistic. But thanks to Frank, the accountant, he sat down with us after work one day and challenged our sales forecasts, which really put things in perspective.

Michael

Really, Frank stayed after work to discuss this with you?

Jill

Yeah, I know, I was a little surprised but he seemed pretty jazzed about it.

Nathalie

I told you Michael, people are excited about this project! Nothing gives more energy to people than a new challenge.

Ross

Now, the not-so-good news: we haven’t been able to complete our market research. With only two of us, and everything else to be done, it’s taking us longer than planned so we’re sorry about that.

Nathalie

Don’t be sorry. Listen, Michael, you have business students interning here, don’t you?

Michael

Yes, three right now. Another one coming next month.

Nathalie

Why don’t you have them help with the research? The thing is, you two don’t need to do everything yourselves – a lot of the support you need is available right here.

Michael

That’s an important point Nat. In fact, you’ve got me thinking now. If these two need help, and everyone here is so eager to be involved, we could set up a project team of people from different departments. They can take an afternoon a week to work on this.

Ross

That would be awesome, really.

Jill

That would be great.

Ross

In fact, there are a few other people who’ve already showed interest in what we’re doing.

Michael

Fantastic – we’ll get it set up. Now, let’s start looking at what you will present to the board.

Director

Ok you two. So tomorrow, the big board meeting – how are you both feeling?

Jill

Good! Well, not good – mildly terrified, but confident about what we have to say.

Ross

I don’t know what she’s so terrified about – it’s her family, it’s not as if they’re going to start heckling. In any case, we have a really solid presentation that lays out all of our objectives, our check points, and proposed market plan-

Jill

Which is NOT a re-branding or anything. Everything we are creating falls under the umbrella of the family business.

Ross

Right, which we will make clear tomorrow. What I’m saying is that we’ve done our due diligence here. And I’ve seen through our work that we’re getting much stronger as a team.