Acting like an entrepreneur within a larger organization. The term is derived from a combination of "intra" or internal, and "entrepreneurship." Intraprenuers are usually highly self-motivated, proactive and action-oriented people who are comfortable with taking the initiative, even within the boundaries of an organization, in pursuit of an innovative product or service.
An increasing number of U.S. companies now encourage intrapreneurship, especially in certain sectors such as technology and biotechnology.
5 Must-Have Skills for Intrapreneurs
1. Know and understand your internal environment. Everyone knows that understanding the economy’s driving forces is essential in creating a successful business but what is equally important for an intrapreneur is to have a sound knowledge of the internal environment. Bottom line is that, as intrapreneur, you need to figure out stuff like: employees’ status, corporate culture, management structure, employees’ behavior; in order to run successful endeavors.
2. Networking, networking, networking. Both entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs must master this skill, the only difference being that in the intraprenur’s environment ‘office politics’ play a bigger part. Bottom-line, in the corporate environment, you can’t get somewhere without a powerful support network.
3. Data before rhetoric. Decisions need to be taken by both entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs: kill a project, ask for another $1M, hire talent, stop collaborations, etc. The best way to do it in an ‘office politics’ heavy environment, is to go the lean entrepreneur’s way: data before rhetoric – every decision should be based on concrete and transparent data.
4. Validate before full execution. A successful intrapreneur runs successful projects – it’s as simple as that. From the lean start-up method, an intrapreneur should learn how to test and validate assumptions before diving into execution.
5. Foster a learning culture. This one might