An intrapreneur is an employee working within a large company and excels as an entrepreneur. He takes full hands-on responsibility for creating innovations within a business. He enjoys the internal freedom to boost returns. He derives innovation from within a business. He expresses entrepreneurial spirit and corporate stability. His job security is intact. He faces a lower personal downside. He uses the organisation’s resources to develop
- New products,
- Services,
- Processes
He turns the ideas into profitable products. His internal innovation is excellent. It can reshape industries. It is through risk-taking and innovation. These profitable products boost revenue and retention. He uses
- Company-provided resources,
- Funding,
- And support.
Hence the intrapreneur is free from the personal financial risk. The company will bear the risk. The intrapreneur can enjoy the rewards like
- Promotions,
- Bonuses,
- And recognition.
He has the freedom and autonomy he needs. He is an intuitive, and visionary. And also he is a proactive individual. He often breaks traditional rules to achieve corporate growth and change. He explores
- Policies,
- Technologies,
- Applications
He develops the skills needed to recognize and solve important problems. He develops a new idea within the framework of an existing company. He is capable enough
- To identify opportunities,
- To take initiatives,
- To bring new ideas to fruition.
These will help improve the performance of an existing company. He has to focus on his skill to recognize and solve important problems. They propose strategies to stay competitive.
Types of Intrapreneurs
Intrapreneur culture originated in the late 1970s. The major types of intrapreneurs are
1. The Creators
They are helpful to create innovative products/services with new ideas.
2. The Opportunists
They identify and spot market gaps. (e.g., Amazon’s Alexa team).
3. The Advocate
They are champions of causes (e.g., sustainability initiatives).
4. The Problem Solver
They address the internal inefficiencies (e.g., process automation).
The Best Actionable Steps for Intrapreneurs
- They have to seek ways for improvement in a regular manner. It will help them to solve problems. And create new values. Innovative Mind-set is important.
- They have to do deliberate practice and continue their learning,
- They have to enhance their ability to innovate, and take risks.
- They have to understand the steps of innovation in a proper manner.
- They have to develop the capability to take direct responsibility. And they have to act with significant independence. They have to be very active & independent.
- They have to be conservative and be economic in leveraging company assets. It prevents the company from seeking external support. Being resourceful is great.
- They have to use the existing company resources. And they have to aim for internal rewards (promotion, growth).
- They have to manage the change required. It is useful for successful implementation of an idea.
- They have to learn the art of developing a business plan and perform a financial analysis.
- They have to maintain a lower personal risk.
Parameters used for Measuring Success of Intrapreneur
Success of Intrapreneur is
- Based on the Number of ideas generated/implemented.
- Based on the Revenue received from intrapreneurial projects.
- Based on the Employee satisfaction surveys.
- Based on the Start-up mind set for opportunity detection
- Based on the Strategic vision and negotiation prowess
- Based on the Resilience to failure and team motivation
- Based on the Power of customer-centric problem-solving.
The Advantages of Fostering Intrapreneurship Culture in Corporate Sectors
Great Talent Retention
The best level of talent retention will happen. It is great. It encourages high-potential employees. It nurtures them by offering entrepreneurial roles.
Best Level of Employee Interaction
The level of employee engagement is great. It empowers the staff . And also reduces turnover. It results in the best motivation. It boosts morale, and productivity.
Developing best Adaptability
It helps organizations to respond to market changes in a fast manner.
Supports In-Depth Expansion
It supports the best level of in-depth expansion.
Maintaining Cost-Effective R&D
It maintains the best level of leverage. And it retains excellent cost-effective R&D.
Boosting Innovation
It encourages new ideas and new drives. And keep the companies competitive. It boosts morale, and productivity.
Retaining Best Level of Market Expansion
It boosts the best level of Market expansion. This kind of expansion targets new segments. The level of customer satisfaction is great. And it improves through need-based solutions.
Enabling Agile Competition
It enables agile competition. And new products are great. It helps to identify market gaps for best agile competition.
Excellent Possibilities of Innovation Gain
The possibilities of innovation gain for firms is great. And without external startup risks are excellent. It fosters the best level of growth and profitability.
Best Examples of Intrapreneurship in Corporate Sector
- Infosys and SAP Labs India encouraged intrapreneurship. It is via autonomy-driven cultures.
- Wipro’s shift from vegetables to software giant is excellent.
- ITC’s employee ownership model is an excellent model. It is an example for scalable rural innovation.
- Gifford Pinchot III and Elizabeth Pinchot describe their employees as “dreamers who do”. And pursued their ideas inside the firms.
- 3M implemented a 15% of work time rule. It allows the employees to dedicate their 15% of work time to personal projects. They don’t need to get prior approval. It fosters breakthroughs.
- The 20% Time Policy of Google is an excellent policy. It permits engineers to spend 20% of their time on self-directed projects. The engineers can align self-directed projects with company goals like
- Sparking Gmail
- AdSense,
- Google News.,
- Nestlé uses Nestlé Needs Explorer. Here the employees use a global platform to submit their ideas. The best Nespresso expansions happened.
- Art Fry implemented Post-it Notes.
- Tata Group – The internal innovation for affordable cars is excellent. It resulted in the introduction of Tata Nano.
The Key Similarities Between An Intrapreneur and Entrepreneur
They are
- Innovative people,
- Creative people,
- They are Capable of identifying opportunities.
They need
- Passion,
- Vision,
- They have the best problem-solving skills.
The Key Differences Between An Intrapreneur and Entrepreneur
Intrapreneur
- Works within an existing structure,
- Uses company resources,
- Aims for internal rewards (promotion, growth),
- Be able to manage the change required. It helps for best to successfully implement an idea.
- Faces lower personal risk.
Entrepreneur
- Uses his own capital, time, and resources,
- Creates his own structure,
- Launches a new venture from scratch, and seeks external resources,
- Encompasses broader organizational actions by focusing on individual initiatives,
- Operates in an independent manner, making all final decisions,
- Shoulders full financial and career exposure,
- Bears significant financial risk.
- Aims for external profit,
- Faces financial and personal risks. Here the level of financial and personal risks are great.
- Aims to build a leading market position.
- Aims to achieve high profit/wealth.
Conclusion
- Intrapreneur culture is the best way to harness entrepreneurial energy. (Within large corporations.)
- It allows the employees to spend some of their time at work away from their assigned projects.
- Intrapreneur helps an existing company to improve its performance. Intrapreneurship is essential for a powerful growth of a firm.
