Changing Your Company from the Inside Out

CHAPTER FIVE

Why: Making the Case

Social intrapreneurs often find themselves seeking to make a persuasive case for their innovation in a limited amount of time—the proverbial elevator pitch. Because elevators rarely have a projector for an impromptu PowerPoint presentation, the pitch must be short, engaging, relevant, and verbal. Like “A corporate Peace Corps to help create a globally integrated enterprise.” Moreover, the pitch is most effective if it is customized for the audience at hand.

In this chapter, we provide some guidance on how to frame an innovation to give it the best chance to succeed. There are three elements to making the case for social innovations in organizations. First, as discussed in some depth in chapter 4, we must understand ...