About OrgChanger
In January 2010, I founded NxGen — Boehringer Ingelheim’s first Business Resource Group — with no formal mandate, no budget, and no precedent. By the time I left this global pharmaceutical company in December 2014, the innovation ecosystem I had built from that beginning comprised over 75 projects, a ten-times (10x) portfolio-wide return on investment, and a School for Intrapreneurs that won the eyeforpharma Most Impactful Global Initiative Award and was later adopted into Boehringer Ingelheim’s official Leadership Development Program. Individual projects returned between 6x and 400x. One $32,000 seed investment produced $15 million in cumulative savings.
The HBR/Ivey Business School case study documenting this work — “Boehringer Ingelheim: Leading Innovation” — has been taught in over 42 business schools across at least 23 countries, including Harvard Business School, INSEAD, the Kellogg School of Management, and London Business School. My book, The OrgChanger: Why Innovation Programs Fail — and What Actually Works, published by Publish Your Purpose, tells the full story behind that case: the decisions that weren’t obvious at the time, the relationships that took years to build, the failures the case study format can’t accommodate, and the human cost that sits behind every set of documented results:
• 75+ innovation projects, 10x portfolio ROI
• eyeforpharma Most Impactful Global Initiative Award 2015
• Ivey/HBR case study taught in 42+ schools, 23+ countries
This Substack is for four audiences:
For BRG and ERG leaders who are trying to turn an employee group into something that creates genuine organizational value — not just community, but business results. The NxGen story is your story, told from the inside. The five-pillar business model, the inclusive-by-design principle, the champion architecture, and the succession framework that made NxGen last beyond its founder are all here, chapter by chapter.
For intrapreneurs — people who see gaps that belong to nobody and have decided those gaps are theirs to close, often before they have a word for what they’re doing. If you recognize yourself in the compulsion to act without a mandate, the instinct to build before asking permission, and the frustration of watching good ideas disappear into organizational silence, this is written for you.
For innovation leaders who need a framework that actually works — not a town hall slogan or an imported transformation methodology, but a tested, evidence-based approach to building the pathways, sponsor structures, and cultural conditions that allow innovation to happen at scale, across industries, with documented results.
For the academic community using the Ivey/HBR case study — professors, researchers, and MBA students who want the practitioner’s account behind the documented outcomes: what the case had to leave out, what the numbers actually cost, and what the ten-step playbook looks like when applied in the field.
Why Subscribe?
Subscribe to follow the book launch, receive chapter excerpts, and join the conversation on what it actually takes to change a large organization from within. Never miss an update—every new post is sent directly to your email.
Become part of a community of people who enjoy innovating - in a formal leadership role around building innovation ecosystems, or, perhaps more informally, by starting or supporting a Business Resource Group (BRG) in a larger organization.
ERG/BRG Leaders, also join our (free) LinkedIn Group BRG ERG Leaders to connect on content that is relevant for you, ask questions, share your experience, and participate in discussions and resources.
Either way, please support this work with a subscription to keep us running and produce the innovative content you want to read!
Drive the change you want to see!
Stephan Klaschka | Author, The OrgChanger | Founder of the (free) LinkedIn Group BRG ERG Leaders | klaschka.co
