Gifford Pinchot invented the word, not the concept Intrapreneurship, closely related to corporate entrepreneurship, it refers to the creation of new products within the large organization using existing employees. "An intrapreneur is 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."
Scratch a major innovation in history and you'll find classic examples of intrapreneurs often with no more than a kernel of an idea brought about innovative products. They were successful because they were able to convince his or her company to chart a new course.
IBSCDC has developed many
case studies on entrepreneurship, some of which are
best selling case studies. Within the broad area of entrepreneurship category, intrapreneurship case studies provide an insightful understanding of what it takes to breed entrepreneurship within the established organisation.
Spencer Silver and Art Fry of 3M instrumental in inventing and designing post-its which quickly became an office-supply and household standard, Ken Kutaragi of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. who helped Sony develop its own gaming system which became the PlayStation and Patrick Naughton, James Gosling, Bill Joy of Sun Microsystems who developed the programming language Java, are exemplary examples of intrapreneurship, to name a few.
Everyone wins when an organization recognizes the value of intrapreneurship and gives their innovators opportunities to create products and businesses. But what happens when organizations do not support intrapreneuring? Many capable innovators, dubbed "dreamers who do" or "visionaries who act", leave the company to become entrepreneurs but unfortunately for the organisation, they don't leave their experience behind. They simply are unable to exist in an environment that suppresses them and fails to be futuristic in assessing the benefits of having visionaries.
Even academics can boast of intrapreneurship which can be seen in few universities in teaching and learning, research, knowledge transfer and third stream activities, offering opportunities that encompass a diversity of procedures, customers, suppliers, products and services.
In any organisation, for intrapreneurism to succeed, the senior management "must ensure to establish an environment that provides liberty, nurtures, rewards and celebrates innovation at every level of the company." Keeping this spirit alive within the company and rewarding the free thinkers and innovators suitably, will help organizations in building up and improving their competitive advantage spectacularly far into the future. In the present day scenario, job creation has become a hot topic in the oldest of the industrialised countries, where production is increasingly moving to the newly industrialised countries. Contrary to the popular assumption that new jobs should mainly be created in Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs), some experts are of the opinion that there is a potential for job creation in both large and small companies though little is said about the kind of industrial structure, best suited to achieve this.
A lot of research has been done within the field of entrepreneurship. The focus has been mainly on the entrepreneur's characteristics and the process of starting up a new independent company although it is also essential to improve and encourage innovation in large companies. However, the big question that still remains, whether corporate entrepreneurship is the solution, or is it just another passing fad?
To be more intrapreneurial, companies need to take the whole organisation into account as corporate entrepreneurship is much more than corporate venturing. An interesting case study in www.ibscdc.org on
Thor Industries (the world's biggest recreational vehicle manufacturer), delves on the very same issues of intrapreneurship, which later became the market leader by acquiring companies and allowed them to operate independently and giving them autonomy to compete with each other. The managers of the acquired companies operate like entrepreneurs and are rewarded with a percentage of the division's pre-tax profits with no higher limit set as to what they can be paid. This case discusses how the company managed the constituent units, offering them autonomy, encouraging competition and how it became a market leader.
Therefore, a good starting point as regards to enable intrapreneurship is a sound and strong corporate structure. Human resources with their creativity, innovation and their invaluable knowledge bank provided with a receptive environment can alter an organization's status quo.
few of the Entrepreneurship case studies developed by IBSCDC are:
1.Arthur D. Levinson
2.Peter Georgiopoulos
3.Philip F. Anschutz: Entrepreneur with a 'Contrarian Strategy'
4.Bill Drayton's 'Ashoka': The Social Entrepreneur's 'Social Enterprise'
5.StreetShine, UK's Social Enterprise: Making the Business to make a Difference
