Intrapreneurship
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Intrapreneurship is the act of behaving like an entrepreneur, except within a larger organization.
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[edit] Definition
In 1992, The American Heritage Dictionary acknowledged the popular use of a new word, intrapreneur, to mean "A person within a large corporation who takes direct responsibility for turning an idea into a profitable finished product through assertive risk-taking and innovation". Intrapreneurship is now known as the practice of a corporate management style that integrates risk-taking and innovation approaches, as well as the reward and motivational techniques, that are more traditionally thought of as being the province of entrepreneurship.
[edit] History
The first written use of the terms intrapreneur, intrapreneuring, and intrapreneurship date from a paper[1] written in 1978 by Gifford & Elizabeth Pinchot. Later the term was credited to Gifford Pinchot III by Norman Macrae in the April 17, 1982 issue of The Economist[2]. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language included the term 'intrapreneur' in its 3rd 1992 Edition, and also credited[3] Gifford Pinchot III as the originator of the concept. The term was popularized in a 1985 business best-selling book by Gifford Pinchot III, "Intrapreneuring: Why You Don't Have to Leave the Corporation to Become an Entrepreneur". Its first use in a major popular publication was a quote by Steve Jobs, Apple Computer’s Chairman, in an interview in the September 1985 Newsweek article[4], where he shared: "The Macintosh team was what is commonly known as intrapreneurship -- only a few years before the term was coined -- a group of people going, in essence, back to the garage, but in a large company."
[edit] Employee Intrapreneur
"Intrapreneurship refers to employee initiatives in organizations to undertake something new, without being asked to do so". [5] This Intrapreneur focuses on innovation and creativity and who transforms a dream or an idea into a profitable venture, by operating within the organizational environment. Thus, Intrapreneurs are Inside entrepreneurs who follow the goal of the organization. Intrapreneurship is an example of motivation through job design.
Employees, perhaps engaged in a special project within a larger firm are supposed to behave as entrepreneurs, even though they have the resources, capabilities and security of the larger firm to draw upon. Capturing a little of the dynamic nature of entrepreneurial management (trying things until successful, learning from failures, attempting to conserve resources, etc.) adds to the potential of an otherwise static organizations without exposing those employees to the risks or accountability normally associated with entrepreneurial failure.
[edit] Examples
Many companies are famous for trying to setup internal organizations that promote innovation within their ranks. One of the most well known 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. Because the project was to eventually become a part of the war effort, the project was internally protected and secretive. Kelly Johnson, later famous for Kelly's 14 rules of intrapreneurship[6], was the director of this group.
Another example could be 3M, in which they encourage many projects within the company. They give certain freedom to employees to create their own projects and they even give them funds to use for these projects. Besides 3M, Intel also has a tradition of implementing intrapreneurship[7]
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Pinchot, Gifford & Pinchot, Elizabeth (Fall 1978) Intra-Corporate Entreprenuership Tarrytown School for Entrepreneurs
- ^ Mccrae, Norman (April 17, 1982) Intrapreneurial Now, The Economist
- ^ 1992 Intrapreneur The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. 3rd ed. Boston: Houghton
- ^ ? (September 30, 1985) [Jobs talks about his Rise and Fall] Newsweek Magazine
- ^ Intrapreneurship Conceptualizing entrepreneurial employee behaviour. http://www.entrepreneurship-sme.eu/pdf-ez/H200802.pdf
- ^ http://www.lockheedmartin.com/aeronautics/skunkworks/14rules.html
- ^ ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION POLICY http://www.fep.up.pt/conferencias/EAEPE2007/Papers%20and%20abstracts_CD/Stam.pdf
