ABSTRACT
The Brazilian cosmetics company Natura gives a good impression of how even companies regarded as sustainability champions can react to social intrapreneurs. Social intrapreneurs clearly have entrepreneurial and marketing skills. They know what people want and how to address their demands profitably. At the same time, these skills help them to generate the trust necessary to embark on new ideas with the support of senior executives. To understand the business case for encouraging and empowering social intrapreneurs, companies need to grasp the ways in which social intrapreneurs can contribute to value creation. It is called 'STIR': Sustainability, Talent, Innovation and Reputation. Corporate innovations can be predominantly for business benefit, for societal benefit or—best of all—for both. Successful companies will want to encourage social intrapreneurship as part of a wider drive to engage all employees on sustainability, and as part of wider efforts to encourage more innovation from within and from outside.
