Teréga
Espace pédagogique
Intrapreneurship programme: Teréga opens up new avenues for innovation

Intrapreneurship programme: Teréga opens up new avenues for innovation

Combining the freedom to develop new ventures with the security provided by the Teréga ecosystem: that is the recipe for intrapreneurship, which offers the Group’s employees the means to create new products and services in-house, but aimed at external customers. First launched in September 2023, this programme has already given birth to innovative solutions in the field of the energy transition. Explore how the project is structured through first-hand accounts from the people running it, learn about Teréga’s input through the sponsor’s response, and finally read about the experiences of the intrapreneurs themselves.

Intrapreneurship: who’s it for? Who’s it for?

Aurelia Taupin, Research and Innovation Manager, project leader - As part of the IMPACTS 2025 corporate strategy, now GAïA 2035, Teréga’s Executive Committee has worked to create a playing field that encourages initiatives from all employees. This is how the intrapreneurship programme came about. An integral part of the TENEXI approach (from the French for “Let’s all explore innovation together”), it provides a response to two challenges: developing new businesses for Teréga, particularly in the fields of gas supplies, decarbonisation and energy frugality, and encouraging the upskilling of workers in agile project management, taking the initiative, and business and innovation tools.

Aurelia Taupin, Research and Innovation Manager

The intrapreneurship programme gives all our employees the opportunity to be actors in the company’s transformation, and to contribute to the Group’s growth.

Aurélia TaupinResearch and Innovation Manager

Magali Clerc, Life and Working Conditions Advisor, project leader - The Intrapreneurship programme is open to all Teréga employees. The sole condition is that they should be on a permanent contract and work on their idea as a team of two to four people. No less than fifteen projects were put forward for the first season in 2023-2024. That is a significant ratio compared with our workforce, and four were chosen to benefit from the full intrapreneurship programme. It includes dedicated time and a dedicated budget, HR support and a training and coaching programme led by in-house experts and external partners, specialists in the world of start-ups, such as Le Village by CA over this first season.

In less than a year, the different stages of the programme enabled us to challenge and enrich the initial ideas, analyse the legal, strategic and financial aspects of the projects, target future customers and partners, and put forward a final offer with a view to turning it into a commercial venture.

Magali Clerc, Life and Working Conditions Advisor

Being an intrapreneur within Teréga means joining in a human and professional endeavour, where intrapreneurs can develop, leave their comfort zone and, quite simply, realise their potential.

Magali ClercLife and Working Conditions Advisor

11

intrapreneurs chosen to join the scheme in Season 1

100%

of 1st session participants would recommended the programme to their colleagues.

2025

Season 2 of the Intrapreneurship programme

A lever for Teréga’s growth

Giacomo Matarazzo, Strategy & Innovation Manager and project sponsor -  At this time of rapid acceleration in technological development, it’s crucial for Teréga to find new ways of taking advantage of these changes, grasping the best opportunities and selecting the most promising directions. Offering our employees a chance to reveal and realise their ideas is a way of broadening our study of the subject, and of identifying new, as yet unexplored, avenues for our business. By revealing talents from outside the usual confines, the intrapreneurship programme has met those objectives. It has brought out proposals that make sense for the Group and which are in line with its vision, its mission, and its corporate strategy. It has also turned the focus on their suitability, assessing how easy they would be to implement considering the resources, skills and investments needed, and asking the intrapreneurs to demonstrate the existence both of a market and of development potential. Importantly, this last point includes gauging the level of interest among future customers, but also the willingness of external partners to support us in rolling out these offers. This openness to external partnerships is an important aspect, which will play a bigger part in future rounds.

Driven by the positive energy coming from the teams and the Executive Committee, this first challenge brought about a change in the way we operate and how we think about things.

Giacomo MatarazzoStrategy & Innovation Manager

The intrapreneurs’ view

The programme as seen from the inside, by two participants: Emeline Quarin, Project Leader, and Carlos Vilchez, Design Engineer.

Emeline Quarin - When I heard of the intrapreneurship programme, my idea was already set for take-off. Having had difficulty finding training courses on the issues involved in the energy transition, and having ended up organising their own training, Teréga’s teams had become quite knowledgeable and could pass on their knowledge. So my project involved creating a training centre within Teréga, aimed at our customers and all actors in the energy transition. And now it’s just about to open its doors.

Emeline Quarin, Project Leader

This programme has enabled me to develop my skills in areas I’d never had the opportunity to develop during my studies or over the course of my career.

Emeline QuarinProject Leader

Carlos Vilchez - I too already had a subject in mind, born out of repeated discussions with colleagues on the topics of carbon footprint reduction and energy optimisation. Intrapreneurship has provided an opportunity to develop this solution, drawing on the security and structure you get from a group. Our project is about storing energy, exploiting our assets to support the development of renewable sources.

Emeline Quarin -  This challenge has really opened our eyes to the difficulties that an entrepreneur faces when getting started. But we were able to give it a go without running the same risks. Intrapreneurship offers the best of both worlds in this respect, and I hope all Teréga’s employees will want to take part next season!

Carlos Vilchez - Personally, I'd even like to be able to start over again! This professional experience has been very instructive. We were able to access the methods and tools used by start-ups. Most of all, I will look back on it as a great human endeavour, as part of a team driven to turn ideas into reality.

Carlos Vilchez, Design Engineer

A big ‘thank you’ to all the teams who supported us throughout this programme.

Carlos VilchezDesign Engineer