Intrapreneurship training equips employees in large companies and GCCs to act like founders inside the enterprise. It covers spotting problems worth solving, customer discovery with internal and external users, rapid low-cost experiments, pitching to internal sponsors, working with risk and governance teams, and scaling a pilot. Bodhih customises it around each client's live business challenges.
- Recommended: 2 days in person, or 5 × 3-hour live virtual sessions, plus an 8-week experiment sprint and sponsor showcase
- Level: Intermediate · In person · Live virtual · Blended
- Designed with the ADDIE model and customised to your context
- Offered by Bodhih since 2008 to 2,000+ organisations across 7 regions
Also known as: intrapreneurship program for employees, corporate intrapreneurship workshop, entrepreneurial mindset training for employees, internal innovation program training
Where and how: intrapreneurship training as an in-person workshop in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Jaipur; as a live online course; or delivered overseas in Dubai, Singapore and across the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
Last reviewed · Bodhih Training, Bengaluru
Why large organisations want founder habits in 2026
India's GCCs have moved from running processes to owning products, platforms and AI initiatives for their parent companies. Leadership teams now ask for ideas, run innovation challenges and set up internal funds. Yet many ideas stall between a promising slide and the first real customer.
The gap is rarely creativity. It is the practical craft of finding evidence, running cheap tests, telling a clear story to a sponsor and working with risk, security and finance instead of around them. Intrapreneurship training builds that craft, so employees bring back tested ideas rather than wish lists.
WEF reports that 63% of employers see skill gaps as the major barrier to business transformation by 2030.
LinkedIn's Skills on the Rise 2026 lists business development and AI business strategy among fast-growing skills.
What participants will be able to do
Find problems worth solving
Frame a customer or internal problem sharply enough that a sponsor can see its size and urgency.
Talk to real users
Run short discovery interviews that uncover behaviour and pain rather than polite opinions.
Test before you build
Design a low-cost experiment with a clear hypothesis, a success threshold and a two-week timeline.
Win a sponsor
Pitch an idea in five minutes with evidence, a specific ask and an honest view of the risks.
Work with governance
Engage risk, security, procurement and finance early so they help shape the idea rather than block it.
Scale or stop wisely
Decide whether to scale, pivot or stop a pilot using evidence, and hand over cleanly either way.
Who should attend
- High-potential employees nominated for innovation or leadership cohorts
- Product, project and process owners in GCCs and shared services
- Teams entering an internal innovation challenge or hackathon
- Managers asked to sponsor or coach employee ideas
- Functional experts in banking, manufacturing and pharma with improvement ideas
- Early-career employees in accelerated development programs
Program outline
Recommended design, customised to your context after a short needs analysis.
01The intrapreneur's mindset and realityModule 1 · 60 min+
- How intrapreneurs differ from startup founders: assets, constraints and politics
- Ownership without formal authority
- Choosing a live challenge for the program
02Finding the problemModule 2 · 90 min+
- Problem statements that name who, what and how often
- Sizing value in time, cost, revenue or risk
- Spotting problems your organisation is uniquely placed to solve
03Customer discovery inside the enterpriseModule 3 · 2 hours+
- Interview questions about past behaviour, not future wishes
- Finding users across business units and clients
- Field sprint: five interviews in 60 minutes
- Turning notes into patterns
04Rapid, low-cost experimentsModule 4 · 2 hours+
- Hypotheses you can prove wrong
- Mock-ups, pilots, manual tests and AI-assisted prototypes
- Setting a success threshold before you start
- Designing your first two-week test
05Pitching to sponsorsModule 5 · 90 min+
- A five-minute evidence-led pitch structure
- Making a specific, modest first ask
- Handling tough questions from finance and risk
- Pitch practice with a mock sponsor panel
06Approvals, scaling and stoppingModule 6 · 75 min+
- Bringing security, procurement and IT in early
- From pilot to business-as-usual: owners, budgets and metrics
- Stopping an idea well and sharing the learning
Sample training plan: 2-day hands-on design
This two-day design takes teams from a vague idea to evidence a sponsor can act on. Day one covers framing a problem worth solving, sizing its value and running five real discovery interviews inside the organisation within an hour. Day two turns insight into a cheap, testable experiment, brings risk and finance in early and ends with a five-minute pitch to a sponsor panel. Every team leaves with a two-week first test and an eight-week sprint plan.
Participants can frame, size and validate a problem with real users inside the organisation.
- 09:30–10:00Problem huntEnergiser
- 10:00–11:00Founder versus intrapreneurConcept burst
- 11:15–12:15Sharpen the problemBuild sprint
- 12:15–13:00Size the prizeGroup challenge
- 13:45–14:45Interview craftDemo & practice
- 14:45–15:30Field sprint: five in sixtyHands-on lab
- 15:45–16:45Making sense of what we heardGallery walk
- 16:45–17:30Day 1 stand-upReflection
Participants can design a cheap experiment, work with governance and pitch for a sponsor decision.
- 09:30–10:00Kill the ideaEnergiser
- 10:00–11:00Hypotheses you can prove wrongConcept burst
- 11:15–12:15Design the two-week testBuild sprint
- 12:15–13:00Governance as a partnerRole-play
- 13:45–14:45Scale, pivot or stopCase clinic
- 14:45–15:30Build the five-minute pitchBuild sprint
- 15:45–16:45Sponsor panelPresentation
- 16:45–17:30Eight-week sprint planAction planning
Every session’s activity, timings, outputs and materials, plus pre-work, a 90-day reinforcement plan and how impact is measured. Free, emailed to you instantly.
Recommended: 2 days in person (09:30–17:30 each day), or 5 × 3-hour live virtual sessions, plus an 8-week experiment sprint and sponsor showcase. A sample design: every Bodhih program is customised after a short needs analysis.
How long is intrapreneurship training?
The recommended design is two full days in person, or five live virtual sessions of three hours each, followed by an eight-week experiment sprint and a sponsor showcase. A compressed bootcamp is available for teams preparing for an internal innovation challenge.
What activities are included in intrapreneurship training?
Teams sharpen a real problem, size its value, run five discovery interviews in an hour, cluster insights on a gallery wall, design a two-week experiment, win over peers playing risk and finance, and pitch to a sponsor panel for a clear decision.
How we deliver it
Live challenges, not toy cases
Teams work on real problems agreed with sponsors before the program, so every tool produces usable evidence.
Out-of-room discovery
Participants leave the classroom or breakout to interview colleagues and customers, then return to analyse what they heard.
Sponsor involvement
Senior sponsors join the final pitch, give direct feedback and commit to next steps or a clear no.
Experiment sprint
An eight-week follow-up with fortnightly check-ins helps teams run their first tests while the energy is high.
Tailored versions
For GCCs and technology teams
Focus on product thinking, AI-enabled prototypes, working with parent-company stakeholders and navigating global governance.
For manufacturing and operations
Built around process, cost and quality ideas from the shop floor, with pilots on a single line or site.
Innovation challenge bootcamp
A compressed version that prepares teams in an internal challenge to test ideas and pitch within four weeks.
How we measure impact
Following the ADDIE model, we define success with sponsors during analysis. Participants take an AssessAll pre and post assessment on problem solving, initiative and influencing skills. We track the number of experiments run, interviews completed, sponsor decisions and ideas moved to pilot during the eight-week sprint. A showcase gives leaders a clear view of the evidence gathered, and a 30-60-90 day follow-up checks which pilots are still alive and what each participant tries next.
Pair this program with AssessAll, Bodhih’s AI assessment platform, for pre- and post-program skill measurement.
Frequently asked questions
What is intrapreneurship?
Intrapreneurship is acting like an entrepreneur inside an existing organisation: spotting an opportunity, testing it with limited resources and building support to turn it into a product, service or process improvement. Unlike founders, intrapreneurs use the company's customers, data and brand, but must also navigate its governance and politics.
How do you become an intrapreneur?
Start with a problem you see often and care about. Talk to the people affected, gather evidence and run a small, low-risk test. Then find a sponsor who owns the problem and make a modest, specific ask. Our intrapreneurship training teaches each step and supports participants through their first experiment sprint.
What skills does an intrapreneur need?
Key skills include problem framing, customer discovery, experiment design, storytelling with evidence, influencing without authority and working with risk and finance teams. Resilience matters too, because most early ideas change or stop. The program builds each skill through practice on a real challenge rather than theory.
How do companies encourage intrapreneurship?
Organisations encourage it by giving employees time and small budgets to test ideas, appointing sponsors who make fast decisions, simplifying early governance and celebrating learning from stopped ideas. Training helps employees use those structures well. We can add a short sponsor session so leaders know how to support teams.
How do you pitch a new idea to senior leaders?
Lead with the problem and the evidence you have gathered, not the solution. Show what you tested, what you learned and what you now need, usually a small next step rather than a large budget. Be honest about risks. Participants practise this five-minute pitch with a mock sponsor panel.
How is this different from innovation leadership training?
Innovation leadership training is for senior leaders creating a climate where ideas thrive. Intrapreneurship training is for the people generating and testing those ideas. Many organisations run both: leaders learn to sponsor, while employees learn to find problems, experiment and pitch with evidence.
How long is the intrapreneurship program?
Our recommended design is two days in person or five three-hour live virtual sessions, followed by an eight-week experiment sprint and a sponsor showcase. A shorter bootcamp suits internal innovation challenges. Every design is customised after a needs analysis with your leadership and innovation teams.
Can intrapreneurship training run online for teams in different locations?
Yes. The live virtual version uses breakout rooms for problem framing and pitch practice, and participants run discovery interviews with colleagues between sessions. This suits GCC teams working with stakeholders abroad. Bodhih, which has worked with 2,000+ companies since 2008, also runs in-person cohorts across India and the Middle East.