Intrapreneurship,” a concept as defined by renowned management thinker Peter Drucker is “the act of initiating new ventures or creating value within an already established organization”.
Why do we need Intrapreneurs?
· Innovation – Sustainable & significant innovation is only possible when committed people bring in newer ideas and challenge the status quo in company and break all barriers of legacy, resistance to change and have grit to see through the ideas to conclusive outcomes
· Growth – Almost every company is being or will soon be disrupted and large companies are not able to fuel their growth through acquisition only and therefore require genuine internal disruptions and innovations for profitable growth.
· Leadership Development – For company growth in long run you need to develop leaders who are risk takers and who can challenge the status quo and are admired for their vision and “can do” attitude – Intrapreneurs if groomed well and are given the due recognition and resources can be the leadership assets of the company
· Employee Engagement – Whether the emotional attachment – “My ideas are valued” or sense of achievement – “I built this from scratch” Intrapreneurship can satisfy various needs of the employees from being recognised to rewarded to being professionally satisfied.
· Managing Change – It is impossible to resist change in dynamic structured organizations whose external environment is constantly changing. The purpose of intrapreneurship is to create a dynamic, flexible and competitive organizational structure and culture that can cope with high market dynamism and competitiveness.
What makes one an Intraprenure
Drucker says, “Intrapreneurship is something that can be taught and learned.” Therefore, to be an intrapreneur is a deliberate choice. It is a state of mind, a shift in thinking. It comes with a growth mindset where failure is an opportunity to grow & not limit of one’s abilities.
The attributes of an Intrapreneur are:
· Big Picture Thinking
· Inquisitiveness & Curiosity
· Smelling the Opportunity & Seizing it
· Managing Ambiguity
· Analysing Data
· Customer Centricity
· Risk Taking ability
· Bias to Action
· Resourcefulness
· Spirit to Win
· Readiness to Fail & Own
· Effective Communication
What keeps them motivated?
Intrapreneurs have an inherent trait and self-motivation to challenge the status quo whether it is product, process or business model. They have the tendency to break the rules but working within the system to see thru their ideas fructify.
They are like entrepreneurs except it’s not their money.
This does not make it any less risky because they have lesser resources & they compete for resources within the organization, lower decision making authority (viz an entrepreneur), are bound by set hierarchy, have to deliver expected outcomes of their day jobs (to keep credibility & their job 😊), this compounded by corporate politics , bureaucracy with too many ‘nay-sayers’ and worst of all ‘paralysis by analysis’ syndrome in the company can make it even more frustrating for them.
Their motivation comes from:
· Their passion to make a difference: As Steve Jobs put it – Intrapreneurs want to “put a dent in the universe.”
· Personal Satisfaction to be able to “touch every aspect of the business” & “get things done”: Pinchot described intrapreneurs as “dreamers who do”.
· Creativity & Legacy: It’s about creating stuff… and what comes out is more than you put in (exponential return) & you can look back and see the legacy you built.
Many entrepreneurs start out while working for someone else. Being an intrapreneur gives you the benefit of resources and connections & ability to experiment , gain knowledge while you will still be able to take care of your mortgage, family obligations and household expenses at the same time making meaningful contribution to the company and also developing your professional competence.
Are you ready to be an Intraprenure? Ask yourself these questions
· Are you always coming up with new business or growth ideas?
· Do you try to learn new things at work?
· Do you hate Status Quo?
· Get easily bored in your routine job?
· Are you labelled as rebel by the managers as you resist authority?
· Do you often take on more tasks than your role formally requires?
· Are you ready to risk your job/promotion to pursue the ideas?
If the answer to above questions is usually YES, then you can train yourselves to be an Intrapreneur.
· Dream – Think Big Idea/Vision that you would like to pursue that will help your company challenge the status quo and create avenues of growth or reduction of cost or do more with less
· Discover – Do the research on the customers, beneficiaries, potential early adopters -their pains, challenges, goals, values and any collect insights that your idea will help to minimize or eliminate their pain or achieve their goals.
· Define – Value proposition, identify the resources required, evaluate risks, costs, ROI and success metrics
· Develop – Secure internal sponsors and organization resources, create a solution, build channel of distribution/consumption, take feedback & validate core value proposition
· Drive –Launch and systematically dial on growth engine & communicate broadly
Some Good assisting material to help in your journey towards Intrapreneurship
In conclusion, it’s not enough to think like an intrapreneur, you must act like one. It’s not about the Idea, it’s about passion to relentlessly follow it up till you succeed OR fail.
Click to access Intrapreneurship_Whitepaper_English.pdf