Question

Intrapreneurship is a concept brought to light in recent years. In the text Unleashing Your Entrepreneurial Potential, the author states, “The recent editions of the American Heritage Dictionary define an intrapreneur as ‘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” (Nandan, 2018). The key to an intrapreneurial opportunity is that it takes place within an already established company, seeking to expand by using their internal resources. The intrapreneur assumes the responsibility of a strategic initiative set forth by the parent company, yet has access to all of the parent company’s resources. Thus, the intrapreneur mitigates their risk they would assume if they started this same venture as an entrepreneurial opportunity. The entrepreneur operates on their own outside of a major company and assumes all the risks and upside, while the intrapreneur operates on their own inside of a major company assuming no personal risks and no future direct economic benefits.

A good example of a specific intrapreneurial opportunity would be a company who would like to expand into China, but has no means of currently doing so. Instead, the parent company may spin up a new division within their company to look into breaking into the Chinese market. This division could use all the resources from the parent company to make this a reality, but at the end of the day, if successful the parent company owns the opportunity. As you can see from the above example, the department is assuming no risk in their endeavor but also no economic gains if very successful.

For Chegg: Please provide feedback to the above post and ask question if needed. The student was advised to Discuss the nature of intrapreneurship within the setting of an existing organization and a potential specific opportunity.

*Please list references/citation of used*

Answer 1

Nature of Intrepreneurship:

In the late 20^th century, business leaders recognized that encouraging their employees to work on their proposals reaped better ideas to provide products and services, thereby cutting competition and establishing market in the business.

Intrapreneurs were first defined by Gifford Pinchot (1984) as “dreamers who do. Those who take hands-on responsibility for creating innovation of any kind, within a business.” Having described an intrapreneur, they are innovators who are not specific to a certain area of expertise or function. It is rather a bigger picture that is visualized by an individual employee who works towards better performance and market value of the organization. They take initiative on their own to improve the business of the company. They work to take the organization further in services, products, developments, technological advancements thereby building on efficiency, stronger market position and capabilities.

The organization in turn should stop treating them as usual employees, should not micro-manage, should let them free, avoid tracking progress on a monotonous routine, allow them to take their own decisions and risk which shows the trust the organization places on them, and above everything hierarchy should be removed as this hampers the thinking of individuals and does not make them feel ownership towards their innovation and thinking process.

The G mail Story:

Today, one of the most popular email id is 'G mail'. Paul Buchheit started to work on the project in 2001 and G mail became the first email with 1GB storage (storage of all emails) as well as a search feature. Other intrepreneurial projects from Google include Google News.

The innovation which happened within Google was successful because it uniquely and creatively worked from the scratch, without organization interference or restrictions. The company allowed an individual with a great technical idea to not face any hurdles in their progress by allowing a hierarchy instead, the Google intrapreneur was given the authority to take his idea to his fellow engineers.

This program allows good ideas to spread fast, encourages collaboration, and fosters constructive input. This unique product creation method minimizes technical, product positioning, and marketing mistakes.

The ‘Google Innovation Time Off intrapreneurship program’ provides a chance to a Google employee to prepare and submit a project proposal, along with a timeline and details on the resources they would require from the company. This way Google can monitor the intrepreneurial project.

Google provides 20% free time to their employees in order for them to come up with ideas and proposals for intrepreneurial projects.

Potential Specific Opportunity:

• Organizations are realising the fact that intrapreneurship improves the performance of the company and enables satisfaction of investors and other stakeholders.
• It improves the potential and efficiency of the organization
• Intrapreneurship enables organizations to recognize talent and skilled employees who would take that extra step for the profit of the organization
• It provides a competitive opportunity for the organization and keeps it a step ahead of its market competitors.
• Using in-house talent also brings in better reputation of the organization and more satisfied employees who feel that they can be the owner for their work, enabling better and clear company culture and establishing loyalty from employees and other stakeholders.

References:

• Please look into Google website for more information.
• ‘Five Insights into Intrapreneurship’ by Deloitte Digital