Large companies have many assets that are supposed to offer them a major competitive advantage: established products, loyal customers, solid infrastructures, substantial financial resources, not to mention services dedicated to marketing and operation.

However, these juggernauts face rigid internal processes, slow decisions, and siloed organizations.

However, in a context where the economic environment is changing rapidly, it is becoming essential for these large groups to regularly reinvent their strategy.

To remain competitive, they must now be agile and promote innovation, but how do you instill this dynamic into organizations that are often perceived as cumbersome and immobile?

More and more leaders are looking to develop an entrepreneurial mindset. or a “start-up culture” in order to stimulate innovation and to increase the responsiveness of their teams.

What is an entrepreneurial mindset?

The term “entrepreneurial mindset” may seem like a vague concept, but it actually refers to specific qualities that are essential for innovating, managing projects, and taking initiatives.

This state of mind is characterized by a desire to break out of established frameworks, an ability to take measured risks and a constant desire to create value.

It is an approach that encourages the exploration of new opportunities, the adoption of new technologies, and the questioning of traditional business models.

Developing this state of mind also involves valuing the diversity of profiles, encouraging multidisciplinary approaches and encouraging the taking of bold initiatives. It's about accepting uncertainty and being ready to experiment, while integrating failure as a natural step in the innovation process.

To understand this concept by example, know that VISCONTI PARTNERS podcasts like to give a voice to many managers who tell their stories inspiring adventures where the entrepreneurial mindset is honored.

This is particularly the case with the story of Arnaud Gahery, director and founder of the SME DINACTIS, who after more than 20 years of success decided to make his SME a subsidiary of VINCI ENERGIES.

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Why develop an entrepreneurial spirit in a company, what concrete benefits can be expected from it?

Promoting an entrepreneurial spirit in a large company has many advantages. This improves organizational agility, accelerates decision-making, and enables new ideas to be adopted more quickly.

Employees with an entrepreneurial mindset are often more likely to identify opportunities, test new approaches, and challenge existing methods.

By cultivating this mindset, businesses can also encourage the creation of pilot projects or new subsidiaries. These internal initiatives allow employees to explore innovative ideas while benefiting from corporate support and resources.

This approach meets a double ambition: to satisfy the entrepreneurial aspirations of employees while strengthening the organization's capacity for innovation.

The connection between innovation and entrepreneurship is essential to ensure the sustainability of a business. Organizations that foster an environment conducive to creativity are better equipped to respond to market changes, solve complex problems, and offer differentiating solutions.

By adopting practices that stimulate innovation, they can position themselves more competitively in the long term.

How to develop an entrepreneurial spirit within a large group?

Transforming the culture of a large company does not happen overnight. However, several levers can stimulate the entrepreneurial spirit and support innovation within teams.

1. Recruiting and training entrepreneurial profiles

Attracting talent with an entrepreneurial mindset is a decisive first step. These profiles provide a pragmatic and daring approach, conducive to innovation.

At the same time, training existing employees in initiative and measured risk-taking makes it possible to gradually spread this state of mind at all levels of the organization.

2. Inspire your teams through exchanges with entrepreneurs

To encourage the entrepreneurial mindset within a large company, there is nothing better than offering inspiring models. Inviting entrepreneurs to share their journey, their successes and their failures allows employees to benefit from their experiences.

Entrepreneurs, in fact, in order to develop their mindset, often seek advice and inspiration from people with more experience.

This is the approach adopted by Sébastien Forest, CEO and founder of AlloResto, who wanted to “develop the entrepreneurial spirit of (his) employees [...] in particular to create our processes of tomorrow”.

3. Encouraging resilience and embracing failure

In addition, it is also important to develop resilience in your staff. Indeed, not all ideas succeed, and failure is an integral part of the life of an entrepreneur, and is therefore inherent in the entrepreneurial spirit.

Accepting mistakes is essential in order to dare to innovate. Resilience, this ability to overcome difficulties, therefore distinguishes those who have an entrepreneurial spirit from others. For entrepreneurs, failure is not a barrier, but a key part of the success process.

4. Fostering diversity and collaboration

A source of innovation, the diversity of profiles within teams is another key element of entrepreneurial energy. It is therefore important for human resources managers to recruit and bring together employees with diverse profiles, skills and experiences in order to stimulate creativity.

Indeed, encouraging cultural diversity and interdisciplinary collaboration helps to break organizational silos, which encourages the emergence of original ideas.

5. Provide resources and time for innovation

Among other ways to explore: investing in tools and spaces dedicated to experimentation is essential to support the entrepreneurial spirit.

Thus, the creation of innovation laboratories, as well as the organization of regular brainstorming sessions, allow teams to realize their ideas by setting up pilot projects.

But while the allocation of resources is essential, another element is just as vital to enable an entrepreneur to mature his innovations: time. Indeed, to be creative, everyone needs “available brain time.”

So, like Google and its famous “20% free time” granted to its employees to stimulate initiative and commitment, it may be wise to allow its employees to devote a percentage of their working time to participating in an innovative or creative project.

6. Collaborate with external partners

Working with start-ups, universities or research institutes can bring new perspectives and enrich innovation approaches. These collaborations make it possible to explore emerging technologies, identify trends and accelerate the development of new solutions.

7. Valuing and rewarding innovative initiatives

Publicly recognizing entrepreneurial contributions is essential to encourage initiative taking. This can take the form of rewards, bonuses, or simply highlights at corporate meetings.

Celebrating successes, but also learning from failures, strengthens team engagement and maintains a culture of innovation.

8. Rethinking governance, preferring decentralization

To grant maximum creative freedom to your employees, the ideal is to opt for governance without bureaucracy by developing, for example, co-association or cooperative systems.

In addition, it is important to give local teams as much room for initiative as possible, because the quality of leadership consists in recognizing the limits of his usefulness as a manager.

In order to develop this rather atypical entrepreneurial state of mind in his employees, a company manager and his managers may need support to help them move the lines, to put an end to immobility.

Indeed, to align the group's strategy with the expectations of its talents in order to better retain them, it may be necessary to learn to change its vision of the company, to change its governance model.

This is in particular what Éric Mignot, former manager of large groups, explains to us, who finally did the choice of entrepreneurial values by becoming the founder of + SIMPLE, in one of the many VISCONTI PARTNERS podcasts.

Examples of large businesses adopting an entrepreneurial spirit

Some large companies have already made the choice to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit within their teams.

Thus, in 2015, AlloResto, under the impetus of its founder Sébastien Forest, established a culture of innovation and entrepreneurial spirit by regularly inviting business creators to share their experience with employees.

This type of initiative makes it possible to create an environment where audacity and creativity are valued.

Likewise, AXA — one of the world's largest insurers — adopted a similar approach under the leadership of Benoît Claveranne.

Through the “AXA International & New Markets” structure, the company brought together around thirty markets in emerging areas and encouraged its teams to demonstrate an entrepreneurial spirit in order to gain agility and creativity.

This entrepreneurial approach makes it possible to meet the specific challenges of developing markets while remaining competitive.

In addition, pioneer technology companies such as Google or Salesforce have also understood the importance of an entrepreneurial spirit.

They thus offer their employees spaces to experiment with new ideas and support them in the development of innovative projects. This philosophy not only reinforces innovation, but also improves employee engagement and satisfaction.

In this world of tech, other companies are also adopting similar strategies, such as Theodo, which encourages the creation of new startups internally in order to create an entrepreneurial ecosystem and create momentum in the development of digital technologies.

Do not hesitate to discover this testimony on the emergence of the entrepreneurial mindset collected by a VISCONTI PARTNERS coach.

How to measure the impact of the entrepreneurial spirit in an organization?

In order for the entrepreneurial approach and the creative process to be fully adopted by teams, it is essential to celebrate successes and to measure the added value of such an approach.

Indeed, when the benefits are recognized, it creates a virtuous circle: teams feel appreciated and encouraged to continue in this positive dynamic.

By highlighting the successes of their employees, companies thus strengthen their motivation, promote their commitment and, ultimately, stimulate the entrepreneurial state of mind.

Some examples of good practices to promote success

• Define innovation KPIs: to measure the impact of the entrepreneurial mindset within a large company, it is necessary to rely on concrete indicators such as the number of successful projects, new ideas experienced or even the positive feedback from end users. The use of such data makes it possible to objectively assess the progress made.
• Sharing successes publicly: It is also beneficial to communicate successes to company members and to publicly congratulate teams for their work. This collective recognition reinforces a sense of belonging and encourages continuous innovation.
• Rewarding initiatives: Another way to experiment, setting up awards for the most innovative projects or projects that have brought real value to the company is an excellent way to highlight the entrepreneurial spirit. These rewards can take different forms: bonuses, trophies, personal development opportunities...

The measurable impact of the entrepreneurial spirit on the overall health of the company

Studies show that valuing innovation and team commitment has a direct effect on the overall performance of the company.

Moreover, several indicators make it possible to quantify the contributions of an entrepreneurial mindset to an organization: financial or operational indicators, such as improving productivity or reducing costs. This is confirmed by several studies such as:

• from Harvard Business Review: According to this study, companies that value a culture of innovation and risk taking increase their chances of long-term success by 30%. These organizations, which also invest in training and team building, thus improve the engagement and, therefore, the productivity of their employees.
• from Gallup: According to this report, proactive teams are 21% more profitable than less involved teams. This significant percentage shows how the quest for recognition by employees and their desire to innovate are powerful levers for improving the financial performance of a group.

In addition, developing an entrepreneurial spirit makes it possible to greatly increase the retention rate of talent. This is especially what happened during the AlloResto adventure, since turnover within the company was only 10% at the time.

Data confirmed by a LinkedIn Learning Report survey, which highlights that 94% of employees say they are ready to stay with a company longer if the company invests in their professional development and learning opportunities.

To conclude, stimulating the development of an entrepreneurial mindset does not only increase the well-being and motivation of employees. It is a real strategic lever for promoting innovation and improving performance, including that of large companies.

Becoming a good business manager, therefore, means valuing the commitment and successes of its employees in order to contribute not only to the retention of talent, but also to the growth and sustainability of the organization.

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