Companies need two kinds of people to make innovation initiatives successful. They need innovation leaders who focus on building the internal platform required to develop organizational innovation capabilities. This is work on the strategic and tactical level.

Innovation leaders are often also involved as coaches and facilitators for the second group required for innovation, the intrapreneurs who turn ideas and research into new products and services. Intrapreneurs are much more operational minded, and they are rare within most companies. Usually, about 10% of white-collar employees have an intrapreneurial mindset and skills that enable them to contribute in one or more phases of a process in which the goal is higher than incremental innovation. With some efforts, you can train another 20-30% within your company.

How can you identify the intrapreneurs? Here are some ideas:

•  First, always remember that you’re looking for people who can make things happen rather than people who have lots of ideas. Most organizations have tons of ideas, but lack people who can turn those ideas into reality.

•  Ask candidates how they have created results as an individual. Most people will tend to hide behind a team effort. Ask for cases where they used passion and drive to make things happen. Inquire about how they overcame organizational, technical, or market obstacles. Ask how they make decisions even when they feel they do not have enough information.

•  Ask questions in a direct or even provocative way. Watch for behavioral responses in answers. If someone becomes defensive and combative, they may lack the optimistic attitude and openness required to drive innovation. Look for people who reply in a constructive way that persuades you they can successfully deal with obstacles.

•  Watch for a strong customer focus. This is especially important for intrapreneurs as they need to have a business mind that thinks about jobs to get done for customers. Check if the potential intrapreneur gets into customer focus by himself or needs to be prompted. It is not enough for an intrapreneur to say he focuses on customers; he must convince you he has this mindset. Some people try to fake this. If you get this sense, keep asking questions until you can decide whether the person is bluffing.

•  The design and innovation consultancy IDEO uses the term “T-shaped people,” which can be used to identify intrapreneurs as well as great people to work with. This implies you should look for people who have a principal skill that describes the vertical leg of the T – they may be mechanical engineers, industrial designers or have a deep knowledge on go-to-market strategies. But they should also have some depth in other skills that are needed to be successful. They should be able to explore insights from many different perspectives and recognize patterns of behavior that point to jobs that need to get done. You can look out for this by having potential intrapreneurs describe their own T-shape.