Intrapreneurship: Definition, Duties, and Responsibilities

To join us (or just ask us a question), fill in the form below and member of our team will get back to you. Learn all 9 steps and how you’ll use them to create a winning innovation and product development strategy for your business. Identifying potential intrapreneurs within your organization is often straightforward. Look for employees who consistently suggest new ideas, ask questions about company operations, and seek to learn from their colleagues. Intrapreneurship aims to foster autonomy and independence as employees seek the best solutions. For example, an intrapreneur might be tasked with researching and recommending a more efficient workflow for a company’s brand within a target group or implementing initiatives to improve company culture.

Introducing intrapreneurship into your company

Even a potentially groundbreaking idea can be shunned by teams if it isn’t going to be profitable right away. According to former Google executive, Marissa the term intrapreneur was coined by Mayer, employees aren’t really given the time they need to work on these projects, and would need to give up their personal time with no compensation. A lot of your work will still be about following the organization’s objectives, and you don’t have the autonomy and flexibility that entrepreneurship gives you,” he says. Intrapreneurs might be responsible for launching a new product, brand, or department, or simply using existing company resources in different and innovative ways.

Programs

A 12-month program focused on applying the tools of modern data science, optimization and machine learning to solve real-world business problems. Despite the initial skepticism from Sony—a company then primarily known for its audio-visual electronics—Kutaragi clandestinely developed his project. His determination was rewarded when he succeeded in creating a workable prototype. The inception of the PlayStation can be traced back to Ken Kutaragi, a Sony engineer with a deep passion for video games.

The intrapreneur is not to be confused with the “innerpreneur”, a person who aims at personal fulfilment more than at economic gains when creating a business. For innerpreneurs the primary motivation is the need to implement their vision of something the world needs, something that aligns with their values. Keep in mind though that there’s more to ideation than simply running a brainstorming session with your team. (Recent studies have shown that brainstorming is actually the LEAST effective way for a team to generate ideas.) You have to plan and you must have a strategy to avoid bias and select only the best ideas to take forward.

A Guide to Choosing the Best ESG Framework for your Organization

1. The intrapreneur typically has direct applicable skills and experience to bring to the job.
2. There are now five generations in the workforce, the latest being Gen Z (born after the late 1990s).
3. Many eBay retailers told Cypher they wanted a physical retail presence as well.
4. In other words, employees require opportunities to make informed choices.
5. Intrapreneurship projects aim to make established organizations perform more like startups, which are typically more agile thanks to less bureaucracy and fewer people making decisions.
6. Intrapreneurs synthesize their findings and make proposals for staying ahead of their competitors.

By working as a team, intrapreneurs can use their creativity to improve existing products and services within the company without bearing the financial risk of being entrepreneurs. They can also test theories and identify the most effective problem-solving methods. Intrapreneurship, the practice of applying entrepreneurial principles within established organizations, fosters innovation and growth. It plays a significant role in empowering employees to drive innovation from within. Intrapreneurship isn’t just a concept; it’s a catalyst for innovation, adaptability, and sustainable growth. Embracing intrapreneurship can unlock the potential for groundbreaking ideas, transforming your organization and ensuring its success in an ever-evolving business landscape.

An increasing number of job descriptions are looking for employees with entrepreneurial skills. It was then popularised by Steve Jobs in a 1985 Newsweek article in which he said the Macintosh team “was what is commonly known as intrapreneurship. A group of people going, in essence, back to the garage, but in a large company”. Get a monthly roundup of thought-provoking insights, success stories, expert interview and exclusive programs in entrepreneurship and innovation. Arthur Fry, a colleague of Silver’s at 3M, identified the practical use of this adhesive. He saw its potential for creating non-permanent bookmarks for his hymnbook, leading to the development of the Post-it Note.

What is the Difference Between Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship?

Cypher’s success became a new division of eBay, giving workers autonomy for solving problems and moving the company forward. At the time, eBay offered only e-commerce services to its clients. Despite the growth of Internet retail, the majority of consumer purchases were still made within 15 miles of a consumer’s home. Many eBay retailers told Cypher they wanted a physical retail presence as well.

“I doubt people are choosing to go into a large company thinking they’re going to be an intrapreneur. One of the most well-known examples of intrapreneurship is the “Skunk Works” group at Lockheed Martin. The group was originally named after a reference in a cartoon, and was first brought together in 1943 to build the P-80 fighter jet.

In less than a year on the job as eBay’s chief of staff of global product management, Healey Cypher realized the company was missing out on a major business opportunity. An intrapreneur can expect to be given the freedom and autonomy needed for such a project. The intrapreneur is expected to analyze and understand the trends necessary for planning the company’s future. Intrapreneurs synthesize their findings and make proposals for staying ahead of their competitors. What stood out to me about HEC was the direction and insight it offered on coding approaches. Prior to joining the program, I attempted self-learning, but I felt disoriented and lacked a starting point.HEC enabled me to grasp the basics of programming and provided support when I encountered obstacles.

An entrepreneur starts a company as a means of providing a good or service. An intrapreneur explores policies, technologies, or applications that will help improve the performance of an existing company. Inevitably, as an intrapreneur develops the skills needed to recognize and solve important problems, that intrapreneur may turn into an entrepreneur.

They’re eager to develop their own projects while simultaneously contributing to their company’s growth. Intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship are distinct yet intertwined concepts in innovation and business development. While both involve pursuing new ideas and opportunities, they mainly differ in their execution within established organizations versus standalone ventures. Intrapreneurship is a contemporary issue with pressing relevance for corporate managers. Antoncic and Hisrich[36] conclude that intrapreneurship has a positive impact on organisational growth and profitability. Organisations that build structures and embed values to support intrapreneurship are consequently more likely to have a high Intrapreneurial Orientation and are more likely to grow than organisations with a low Intrapreneurial Orientation.

Each of these disciplines will be covered in depth in a chapter of this Complete Guide to Intrapreneurship. Perhaps you were creating a new product, launching a major marketing campaign, or changing suppliers for the catering services in your office. Intrapreneurship is the act of behaving like an entrepreneur while working within a large organization. Steve Jobs described it in terms of the startups he worked with as a young man…  “a group of people going back to the garage, but in a large company.”

What is described above may seem too good to be true, but some people are willing to put the company’s interest first, in fact, they most likely already work for the company. Intrapreneurship refers to applying entrepreneurial principles and processes within a large organization to create, develop, and implement innovative ideas, products, or services. These innovative ventures can eventually become a new department or subsidiary spinoff. Utilizing and optimizing existing products while embracing innovation is a key element of lasting growth and profitability.