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With Pieter Dewulf
Being an intrapreneur isn’t for everyone. Even though you’re not investing your own money — like an entrepreneur would—, you still have to give up your job to start a new venture that could result in failure. But for some reason, Pieter Dewulf keeps coming back for more.
On this episode of Intrapreneur Stories, Pieter tells us about how he took that leap of faith to disrupt the postal service industry in Belgium, creating what ended up being the peer-to-peer package delivery system Parcify.
Privatising the company triggered Bpost to become more customer-oriented and look for opportunities beyond the Belgian borders. With the emerging trend and demand for peer-to-peer services, Bpost’s intrapreneurs created Bringr as a complementary solution to the traditional parcel delivery market.
During this process, Pieter Dewulf transformed from an interpreter into a successful intrapreneur. What were the risks involved? What convinced him to take the leap? How did he find the right team? And how does one measure success in the early stages of a project, or even if it eventually fails?
“It’s not suited for everyone to live in a very unsure environment such as a startup. (…) There is a risk involved, so you need to have a leap of faith, you need to jump, and see how it goes from there. (…) It’s not your own money you’re spending, but there is still quite some involvement there from a personal point of view.“
In the Interview:
- Who is Pieter Dewulf? — 0:31
- From a government-owned company to a private organization — 1:29
- The emergence of the peer-to-peer market — 4:11
- Bringr: the solution to complement the traditional parcel delivery market — 4:59
- The process of creating a corporate venture — 8:45
- How to identify the right people for your team — 9:57
- Bpost brings Bringr and Parcify together — 13:42
- Measuring success and setting up KPIs — 15:31
- The importance of having a steerco — 18:18
- The pattern of creating a corporate startup and the transparency of the corporation — 20:04
- Key learnings and the risks of being an intrapreneur — 23:36
- Advice to all intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs — 27:33
Intrapreneur Stories are empowering examples and stories from successful intrapreneurs all over the world, sharing their insights, tips and tricks.
We add a fuel to your fire on how you can build the next business in your corporation.
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