The driving forces for ReX Initiatives | Road to ReX - part 3

13 October 2025

Thomas Vandenhaute

Boost your organisation’s capacity for change

Every organisation wants to innovate, but not every organisation can do so with equal ease. ReX initiatives require people with drive, space to experiment and a method for adjusting course. With a few appropriate steps, you can increase your chances of success. Always start from what works: this provides energy and focus.

Every social enterprise has its own strengths and context. This framework helps you take the most relevant steps for your situation. We have bundled all insights into one publication.
Download the full publication here

Learn for your intrapreneurs and what drives them

Who takes initiatives and keeps things moving in your organisation? Look beyond job titles. Informal roles are often just as important as official job descriptions.

Identify motivations: why do people move things forward? Who turns ideas into reality, and who unintentionally slows down progress? Discovering these things will help you build effective ReX teams.

Identify the physical infrastructure

Do you have space, machinery or tools that are temporarily available for you to use flexibly? Some spare time on workstations or mobile setups are examples. Even a small test rig for a customer can teach you a lot. When such space is properly used, innovation literally takes place.

Link ReX to existing consultation arrangements

Nobody wants extra meetings. Use what is already there: quality, sales or project meetings. By linking ReX follow-up to these, you get:

A robust monitoring method that won’t fizzle out
Broader support, because many colleagues are involved

This maintains momentum and stops ideas from disappearing off the radar.

Determine your innovation direction: three approaches

After considering these things, you know your strengths. Choose from or combine the following options:

Harnessing internal innovation potential: intrapreneurs, time and resources, with clear follow-up
Connecting with external initiatives: participating in a start-up, spin-off or subsidised project
Piggybacking on innovations from third parties: copying and implementing what works, with limited space and resources

Choose what’s right for your situation and scale.

Turn the chosen direction into suitable actions

Use a simple template to select actions: internal or external, proactive or reactive. Get employees to contribute ideas and input. Keep one goal in mind: actions must be consistent with the way your organisation initiates and sustains new initiatives.

Reading tip: successful circular leadership

How does behaviour influence circular progress? In this article, we look at ground-breaking organisations and demonstrate that good leadership isn’t about a single natural leader, but about shared responsibility, openness, trust and embracing ambivalence.

Discover the insights

Summary of the driving forces for ReX initiatives

ReX initiatives succeed when you focus on intrapreneurs, physical space and a gentle yet steady pace of follow-up. Then choose a direction: make things happen internally, connect externally or piggyback on innovations from third parties. Convert that choice into actions that fit with your organisation. You will then be able to gradually build circular strategies with impact.

A look ahead at the series

Now that the driving forces have been identified, you can mobilise the right people to ensure that ReX projects make progress. The next step is to identify the strengths your organisation already possesses. In the following article, we will show you how to systematically identify these strengths and convert them into concrete opportunities for ReX initiatives.

Discover the other articles in the ReX series: