Note: In response to the COVID-19 crisis, all standard MRAA educational courses found at MRAATraining.com will be available free of charge to any dealer who wants to use the content from now through May 31st. Between now and then, we will be posting regularly to highlight courses that may be useful during this time.

Innovation is always important, but during times like these it becomes absolutely essential.

At Dealer Week in December, Samantha Cunningham Zawilinski presented a course titled “Intrapreneurship: Developing Early Adopters & Harnessing Innovation in Your Company.” The point of the session was to create a culture that empowers innovative thinkers to apply their smarts to making your business stronger.

Right now, business as usual isn’t possible, whether we like it or not. But that hasn’t stopped some retailers from getting creative. We saw one dealership – Norris Lake Boat Center – offering a “Canceled Vacation Sale.” The deal is, anyone who brings a receipt from a canceled vacation can get that amount off any new boat. I doubt you’ve seen that offer before, and I’m sure two weeks ago they had never considered having a sale like that. But they’re adapting to these strange times.

In her presentation, Samantha lists a number of ways that cultivating intrapreneurs (i.e. people who bring an entrepreneurial spirit to your internal operations) can benefit you in the long term.

If you’ve got some employees who might benefit from that kind of attitude, or you want to instill that type of culture in your business, I’d encourage you to watch the course while it’s available free to the industry.

Just log in or create an account here on MRAA.com. Instructions for adding staff to your account are here. Instructions for creating a free non-member account to access MRAATraining.com are here (creating) and here (accessing).