The
Inside
Innovator

Louis Gump was one of the first people to talk to me about expanding access to information by giving people news on their mobile devices. While it is commonplace now, at the time it was transformative. He brings those same types of insights in his new book, The Inside Innovator. He also demystifies the term ‘intrapreneurship’ and makes the process accessible to people who wish to excel as leaders within larger companies. Whether you are a neuroscientist like me or in a totally different discipline, this book can help you harness your natural talents.

Drawing from my own global experience in nurturing intrapreneurial talent, Louis’ book is a powerful tool for any leader seeking to drive innovation, growth, and success within their organization.

As a former colleague, I watched Louis lean into mobile products long before anyone could imagine the products or benefits. The Inside Innovator offers unique insights to empower you to create meaningful change within a company!

The Inside Innovator is full of excellent, practical advice on how to be a more effective intrapreneur, regardless of the stage of your career. Even with forty-five years in the intrapreneuring field, I still learned new ways to move ideas forward and manage setbacks. Louis Gump writes in a style that is clear, succinct, and graceful, which makes his years of experience in both intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship shine brightly to deliver lessons that are profoundly practical.

The time is right for this book. The faster things change, and the more disruptions we encounter, the more urgent it is to constantly adapt, rethink, reimagine, and rewire. Intrapreneurs are the people who make that happen. They’re always asking, ‘Is there a better way?’ Organizations need to ask themselves, ‘How good are we at creating intrapreneurs?’ Those that promote a culture of learning rather than knowing, encourage ownership at all levels, and develop leaders with the skills to nurture these inside innovators are the ones that will shape the future. Thank you, Louis Gump, for showing us a workable path forward.

In The Inside Innovator, Louis Gump uses his experience as an intrapreneur to create an incredibly relevant and insightful guide. Having worked closely with Louis and witnessed his remarkable skills in navigating the corporate landscape, I can attest to his profound understanding of intrapreneurship. His strategic thinking, coupled with his innovative spirit, has consistently driven growth and success in several large organizations. This book encapsulates his valuable wisdom and serves as an essential resource for anyone wishing to spark innovation within a corporate setting.

Sometimes we look at the newest leadership books with a jaundiced eye as we reluctantly consider someone’s new take on the same tired, old ideas. Louis Gump’s outstanding new book is different. The Inside Innovator is a well-written, insightful, and engaging guidebook on the leading-edge concept of intrapreneurship that will inform you, challenge you, and open the aperture of your thinking as you take in the valuable ideas and best practices he offers in this excellent work. This is a book you will carefully read, want to share with friends, and refer to repeatedly in the years ahead. I highly recommend it!

Building new growth initiatives inside a global media company presents a whole host of challenges, which requires skillful navigation, future focus, business acumen, integrity, and a generous dose of optimism and zeal. Louis infused a sense of possibility mixed with practicality while he led the transformation of CNN’s mobile business during the evolution of our digital platforms. Louis is an unusually self-aware leader, knowledgeable and comfortable in sharing his values, with the ability to rally a multiplicity of stakeholders around the mission. In The Inside Innovator, he draws on his experiences to provide a uniquely valuable perspective on how to really get innovation done.

Louis Gump has put his finger on, perhaps, the only hope organizations have to thrive in the future. Thanks to rapid change, cultivating innovators within established organizations will no longer be a luxury but a necessity, and this book shows you how to do just that. Employers beware: More than seven in ten teens plan to be an entrepreneur after graduation. If you hope to hire and retain them, you’d better create a place for them within your team.

It’s amazing that this book has not been written until now. The Inside Innovator is a comprehensive guide to creating new lines of business within an existing company. Drawing from his own experiences and a wide network, Gump works through the many factors that determine whether a new venture is successful. He is especially insightful in discussing when and how an intrapreneur needs to act differently than an entrepreneur in a corporate context. This is not something you read about in the business press, and thoughtful readers can learn a lot from the lessons he and his collaborators have learned through their wide-ranging experiences. Companies need successful intrapreneurs to evolve and grow and often these opportunities are the most fulfilling and rewarding part of a career. Finally, we have a book that focuses on this essential process!

Louis thoughtfully and uniquely elevates the concept of intrapreneurship to its rightful place alongside entrepreneurship as a driving force of innovation and growth in our economy. His work will bring inspiration and confidence as well as a comprehensive playbook to those working to keep established enterprises at the forefront of their industries.

Through Louis Gump’s insightful and actionable book, I am reminded of my early days pushing for innovation in seemingly rigid structures. His strategic approach to intrapreneurship provides not just validation but also an arsenal of tools for those ready to take on the challenge.

Intrapreneurship demands resilience, innovation, and a balance of risk-taking and strategic alignment. As intrapreneurs, we navigate corporate landscapes to ignite change, blending entrepreneurial spirit with the resources and scale of larger entities to forge impactful innovations. In The Inside Innovator, Louis Gump has given us a guidebook to do this in a way that creates lasting change within established organizations, while creating a magnifying effect within industries and the people who benefit from the innovation.

“In a world where we’ll have more change over the next ten years than the last hundred, The Inside Innovator: A Practical Guide to Intrapreneurship is a must-read playbook for leaders of both large and small organizations. Louis Gump has lived it and created innovative cultures that have positively disrupted several different industries.”