David C. Williams and the Art of Intrapreneurship

Entrepreneurs are often highlighted and celebrated, but let’s also recognize and celebrate the art of intrapreneurship. As an innovator, champion of diversity and inclusion, and mentor, David C. Williams is a prime example of intrapreneurship in its highest form. 

Williams is an Assistant Vice President of Automation for AT&T, where he has been employed for more than 20 years. While at AT&T he has authored multiple patents, developed programs that have generated several million dollars for AT&T, and even invented a decision engine driving $200 million in credit reduction annually. Most recently, he created an innovative hyper-automation solution, called Secure Link, to enable 40,000 AT&T employees who work with sensitive customer information to securely work from home during the pandemic; for which he was awarded the 2021 Rodney Atkins Legacy Award, which is the Black Engineer of the Year Award at the STEM Global Competitiveness Conference. His years of being a tech and innovation leader at AT&T have led him to receive numerous other awards over the years, including being recognized as the TEDxAT&T Innovation Winner in 2014. 

His receipt of the 2017 Champion of Diversity Award at the Black Enterprise & FedEx Summit is evidence of the value he places on being a diversity & inclusion ambassador at AT&T, showing there’s more to being a successful intrapreneur than just the skills you bring to the tasks outlined in your job description. When asked to share some of the highlights from his career, Williams not only noted his inventions and patents, but also highlighted his extensive work creating processes and programs around diversity and inclusion. For example, in 2018 and 2019 he led an effort to create a large event that brought AT&T  diversity and inclusion groups from around the world together. In 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, he worked to recreate the event digitally, generating 11.6 million twitter impressions in one week. Williams defines diversity as “recognizing the things that are unique about us all. The things that are special about us all,” and inclusion as, “not only recognizing that, but appreciating those differences, valuing those differences.” He went on to say that “diversity of thought is how we are going to get ourselves out of this pandemic and out of whatever is the next big issue that hits the planet.”

Williams also values diversity and inclusion because of its impact on children by expanding what they aspire to be when they grow up. Seeing people achieve what they aspire to do with their lives is also very important to him, with one of his two professional goals being to mentor because it’s meant so much to him (the other goal being to impact society at large). It was mentorship from others that taught him things like the shirt-jacket combination, office decorum, and other skillsets and knowledge that would eventually play a critical role in the success he’s found as an intrapreneur. He says, “There’s no better feeling than seeing someone achieve their own dreams and getting a front row seat to that. There is no greater feeling than that.”

One of the things Williams said he’s learned as a mentee is that “education plus experience does not equal advancement.” Instead, he says that networking and relationships, such as with fellow alumni, are invaluable. He also said that, “no matter what your experience or education is, the real question is, ‘Here’s the problem. Do we have a solution?’ and hopefully all of those things from your past have given you enough capabilities and functionality so that you can solve this thing.” Ultimately, he says your success comes down to how bad you want it, how prepared you are, how driven you are, and whether you’re ready to endure a journey that may be tougher and longer than you thought and filled with potholes and politics.

Using Sierra Leonean-American ballerina, Michaela DePrince, rapper Drake, and Barack Obama as examples, Williams advises, “Don’t give up. Know that whatever makes you special, whatever makes you that anomaly, whatever it was that was different about your situation that made it a little bit tougher that you overcame, there’s a transferable skill that you just need to be able to modify and shape for whatever industry you’re trying to be successful in. So please bring all of that with you. Every crisis is in search of a solution and in need of a hero. Why not you? Why not me? Why not be that hero.”