This case study examines the founding, survival, and eventual market leadership of Bosch Sensortec GmbH. Established in 2005 as a deliberately separate legal entity within the Robert Bosch Group, Bosch Sensortec is a company that produces consumer MEMS for everyday products. The case spans two decades of corporate venturing under tension. Starting with Nokia’s product request in 2003, it concludes with Sensortec generating annual revenue of $1 billion, just ahead of its 20th anniversary in 2025. The case study documents how a small founding team, operating on the outskirts of one of the world’s largest industrial corporations, navigated profound differences in market logic, development speed, cost structure, and corporate culture to establish a global leadership position in the consumer MEMS sensor market. The case also traces the broader organizational changes Sensortec brought about within the Bosch Group, including the establishment of internal incubators, venture capital, and open innovation platforms that drew directly on Sensortec’s experience.

• Identify the drivers and strategic rationale for initiating an intrapreneurial venture within a large corporation.
• Understand the inherent tensions and cultural clashes between an established parent company and a nascent intrapreneurial unit.
• Analyze how intrapreneurial projects can add strategic value to the parent company beyond financial returns.